Lisa Call

I currently have 2 full priced offers for my house, both from well qualified buyers, both received about 24 hours after my house went on the market, in what is supposedly is a very depressed buyers market.

Many people are amazed I pulled this off. How can I have people bidding up the price of my house in this economic climate? Here’s how I did it (and how I plan on achieving the dream of becoming a self supporting artist).

1. Listen to the Experts

I told my real estate agent what I wanted – to sell my house quickly and for a fair price although money was not as important as this being an effortless process. I told her my house was to sell in 2 weeks or less after it went on the market. Her advice was to fix everything, stage the house and to price it low (but not too low).

I pre-inspected my house and fixed everything, basically if it seemed worn or broken I made it like new again. Then I staged the house. Although I didn’t do it her way – I fired her stager, who wanted to turn my house into something it isn’t. It didn’t fit my vision or values. So I staged it my way – I’ve never staged a house before but how hard is it to toss out half my stuff and hang a few curtains? I then priced the house at the low end of what houses similar to mine were selling.

Her advice was absolutely accurate. Experts are experts for a reason. They are good to listen to but it’s never worth sacrificing ones values to do what they say. I was able to follow my agent’s advice and still feel good about my choices.

As I’ve been working on setting up my art business I’ve been looking to the experts, like Alyson Stanfield, to find out how to go about making this dream a reality. These types of people have a lot of good advice that is worth listening to.

2. Start with Quality

My house is an amazing house. It’s in one of the best neighborhoods in Parker because it’s not a cookie cutter neighborhood. We have large lots (I’m on a cul-de-sac). Plus my house is just fabulously beautiful with a perfect floor plan. I knew all those things when I bought the house, which is partly why I bought it, so it would be easier to sell later.

I know my textile paintings are extremely high quality. I’ve spent years perfecting my technique and my artistic vision. I know what I’m selling is superior quality, which makes it much easier to sell. I truly believe in the value of my art.

3. Visualize Success

Every day I said my house would sell in 2 weeks or less. I journaled about it. I constantly told my agent this would happen. I joked about it. I thought about it. I became very very clear as to exactly what I wanted and I visualized what that might look and feel like.

I am doing the same for my art business. I’m getting very clear as to what I want and I am thinking about how that feels and what it looks like. I talk about it often and journal about it. I keep the dream alive every day.

4. Take Action

All the thinking in the world wasn’t going to get my house on the market. I held a picture in my mind of what my house would look like when it sold quickly and I took action on making my house look exactly like my vision every single day for 2 months.

It was a huge amount of work but with my Getting Things Done lists and focused concentrated effort I was able to pull it all together. I coordinated dozens of contractors giving me estimates and 7 or 8 coming and doing the work in addition to doing a lot of the work myself. It made my head spin some days but I kept the vision of my house clear in my mind and just kept on working.

I know this is exactly the type of effort I need to get my art business off the ground. It’s hard work, fortunately it’s all work I enjoy (way more than having my hardwood floors refinished) so I’m really looking forward to it. I have a clear vision in my mind what my life will be like after I quit the day job and I’m doing everything I can to make it reality.

Doing things gets things done.

Moving Sale Update

I’ve been intending to create a list of all of my available artwork so I can post what’s part of my moving sale so you don’t have to guess in case you are interested in a piece. My plan is to do this on friday. Tomorrow I am going to go find a house to buy so I have somewhere to live after I sell this one.

Structures #90, Structures #86, Structures #85
Structures #87, Structures #88, Structures #81
Structures #89, Structures #91, Structures #82

The Convergence of Two Events

One: To protect my artwork during painting and other remodeling activities I have all of it laid on a couple of tables in my basement covered in blankets. No dust or paint will get on it.

When the home repair work is done I’ll select a couple of pieces and hang them on the wall during the time the house is on the market. The rest of the artwork will be rolled up and stored until I move.

Two: One of the first major projects I plan to tackle, after I move and get settled, will be to finish the small book I started with images of my first solo show 2 years ago. I’m going to expand the book to cover the early pieces in my Structures series and add some of my writing.

To publish this book (self published) is going to require a pretty big chunk of start up money.

The Result

Thinking about all the art that needs to be moved and thinking about all of the money I will need to publish my book the obvious solution to ease both problems is to have a moving sale.

Between now and June 15th all of my work is 40% off. If there is a piece you have been wanting now might be the perfect time to buy it.

For example the work above is originally priced at $250 each. With this sale they are $150 a piece. [note: Structures #85 and #88 shown above are not currently available].

If you are interested in purchasing any of my available work please email me for availability and prices.

Structures #9    ©2002    31"x31"

Alyson made the following comment on my Blogging as Popularity Contest post last week:

… Your blog works, your blog is popular precisely because you share in an authentic way. It’s accidental marketing, if you will. And it works so much better than forced sales speak…

That might be true. Maybe my blog is a useful marketing tool even if I don’t think of it as such. Although none of my readers have yet ponied up thousands of dollars to buy my large artwork so I’m not necessarily convinced. [But please, I'm open to the idea of someone proving me wrong so don't let my opinion stop you from buying some large abstract textile art for your loved one for the holidays. How's that for marketing? har har...]

 
Alyson continued, in response to this comment of mine: "I write my blog for me – because it helps keep me focused and on task, because I learn about myself and my art by writing about it, and because I’m basically a geek and this is the socially acceptable way for geeks to communicate", by asking:

But would it keep you on task if no one was reading it? Would it be the same if you were writing the same by hand in a journal? Or does it work precisely because so many people are reading it?

First, there is no way I would do this if I had to write it out by hand. The inability to easily edit would be a problem. It is partly my new ability to embrace the revision process when writing these posts that has improved my writing over the last few years.

I do keep a personal journal that I write in about 3-5 nights a week. The focus of the journal the past year has been about gratitude and appreciating the people and world around me. I also work through personal issues, which I rarely write about in my blog, in those pages. I do believe there is value in such a journal but that is not the focus or purpose of my blog.

I think the piece that was missing in my last post is that I also blog for the community that comes with the territory. I implied that in my "I’m a geek and this is how we communicate" comment but it was probably a bit cryptic. I’ve been on the internet since 1983. In 1984 I started reading and posting to the usenet newsgroups and I’ve been involved with online communities ever since.

This form of seemingly private but really public conversations is part of my social, creative and emotional support structure. While I am still a member of 1 email mailing list the majority of my online interaction with other artists is now through blogging and private emails that ensue. I pick the conversations I want to read and those that care about what I have to say can come and read my posts. It’s a great system.

As to the keeping on task, I do think that publicly stating goals gives me a bit of extra incentive to meet those goals. Although I believe in holding myself accountable for my own goals and I don’t post them every week or even every month, yet behind the scenes I’m still working on them. I’ve never tracked it but I suspect I do about equally well with staying on track the weeks I post my goals and the weeks I don’t.

I have to admit I totally failed to meet my goals the last few weeks. I decided to toss them all out and just spend time with my kids before they left. So I did little more than attend kid events and hang out with my kids the last few weeks. We have a new favorite board game called Ticket to Ride. Both the kids and I really enjoy it and noone has to be talked into participating. Or bribed – I used to offer to pay them if they could beat me playing blokus. They won once and now they won’t play anymore, which is a bummer because I really like that game.

My kids are now in Europe (my son says he’s eaten the best indian food ever their first day in London) so I now have 3 months of kid free time to really focus. I’ll get back on track with my art and business goals in a few days but first I’m spending time with friends who I haven’t had much time for given my year, and wrapping up some holiday and personal chores.

 
Paula made the following comment on my last post about goals:

Isn’t having a goal just the same thing as wanting something?

I absolutely agree and it reminds me of the quote I posted a while back:

Discipline is remembering what you want.
- David Campbell

Having the goal is the first part. I find it important to write down what I want.

The second part is the follow through. I find it helpful to break down my goals into small steps to actually achieve them. I find I have the discipline to complete smaller sized tasks and when a goal is huge and parts are unknown I am more reluctant to start working on it. Much of what I post about here are the smaller chunks I break down my goals in to.

 
I didn’t want to have another long wordy post with no pictures so I found some artwork I’ve never posted online. This 5 year old piece was made for a specific exercise in a Nancy Crow workshop years ago.

Structures #84    ©2007    7"x23"

 
Over at Laketrees, Kim Barker has compiled a top 101 artist blog list, based on technorati rating.

A blog’s rating/ranking is calculated as follows (or was when I last saw a note about how this was done): For each in bound link source, 90 days old or less, a blog gets 1 point – total up the points and that’s the blogs "authority rating". The "technorati ranking" is where a blog falls in the big list of all blogs. These numbers go up and down daily as the inbound links age and new ones are added.

I check technorati every so often to see what the inbound links are around in case I miss an important tag (I still owe a 5 random things about me list for stacers). But I never paid much attention to how I ranked in the specific world of art blogs. According to Kim’s list my blog clocks in at #9 of the blogs she identified as being by an artist.

Did I need to know this information? Did I want to know?

 
If I drop down in the list does it mean I’ve become boring? If my rating goes up does it mean you like my new haircut? Do I write and link to others just so they write about me and link back to me? The pressure.

Should I jump on the art link cloud viral tagging started by Casey over on the colorist to get even more links even if it’s not about content and just a link farm?

Okay – I admit – I’m clearly bad at the marketing game – maybe this is what we are supposed to do.

 
Instead I’m going to try to ignore this and just write what is authentic for me to write and not worry about who might or might not link to me as a result. This is the advice I give others – don’t waste time worrying about all that linking and concentrate on content. I believe it is content that keeps people around – not marketing hype or popularity. I read blogs that I find interesting, not ones that other people find interesting. Content is king (or make that queen).

I write my blog for me – because it helps keep me focused and on task, because I learn about myself and my art by writing about it, and because I’m basically a geek and this is the socially acceptable way for geeks to communicate.

If all my inbound links disappeared tomorrow I’d still blog. If noone read what I wrote ever again, I’d still blog (although I’d probably spend less time fixing typos and poor grammar).

This blog, while I suppose a potentially great marketing tool with my popularity, will never be thought of as such by me. I know Alyson, I just don’t get it.

 
The above piece was made a few weeks back when I was making small work for the holiday art market at the arvada center. I hadn’t yet hit upon the idea to make 9 similar pieces and was playing around just having fun.

In my dreams all 9 pieces will sell opening weekend (it opens thursday) and they will call me up and ask for more work, and I’m all ready with new pieces. Maybe if I did more marketing (like sending out the flyers that feature my work to my mailing list) I’d succeed in my goal. Sometimes I am my own worst enemy.

Structures #39 ©2006    43"x29"
 

I’m very happy to announce a selection of my artwork is now available for sale on The Artful Home website (aka guild.com).

Please check out my work on my guild artist page.

(hurray!!)

Ransom ©1999

 
I made the above quilt many years ago in a workshop with Natasha Kempers-Cullen. We spent the first part of the week hand painting and stamping the fabric with Profab textile paints and the remainder of the workshop creating original work with our new fabrics. It was a wonderful workshop and Natasha is a fabulous instructor.

Although Natasha’s work at the time was very much not like my work (of course back then I’m not sure I knew what my work was in the first place). She did a lot of shrine type work and I just couldn’t wrap my mind around that style. So I made a big ransom note. While everyone else was working with iconographic images and thinking deep thoughts I was hand cutting letters out of my fabric with my scissors and giggling. It was better than kindergarten, although we didn’t have any paste to eat.

I have always wanted to make posters or note cards with this quilt because I think it pretty much sums up most quilters thoughts about their fabric. And their chocolate.

But back in 1999 that would have meant a lot of effort. So the quilt just hung on my studio wall and entertained my rare studio visitors. Fast forward 8 years and now we have cafepress. So with a few clicks – tada – I have a shop to sell t-shirts and posters and mugs and even a mousepad with this image.

I ordered a sample poster and t-shirt before offering it up for public consumption and I think it looks great. The poster is amazing. The colors are bright and clear. The t-shirt (I ordered a direct transfer one) isn’t quite as bright but it looks more like the original quilt this way. The mousepad is looking a bit iffy on the website but I might order one at some point and see. Ideally I would have created a unique image for each product to optimize the placement of the image on the product but with the free cafepress shop I’m limited to just a single image for everything and at this point paying $5 a month for more seems like a silly idea.

So if you are in need of a t-shirt or fridge magnet check out my cafepress store and get yourself a couple dozen of these. They’ll make great gifts, or at least I hope so because I know what my family is getting for Christmas this year.

 
 
I’m leaving early tomorrow morning (oops I mean today) for my workshop with Nancy Crow in Ohio and I have no plans to blog while I’m gone. I’m hoping for this to be as low tech of a vacation as I can manage. Although I hear there is a computer where I’m staying so I will probably check email a few times. Tomorrow is also my birthday and I think this will be a wonderful way to spend it. Well except the airplane trip, and getting up too early after staying up too late – but after that – it’s going to be great fun.

I’ll be back in 2 weeks with lots of images and adventures to share.

Stones #4   28" x 19"

 
After my posting at the end of March showing all the artwork I completed for the year I had to admit to myself that while I’ve been busy in my studio I really hadn’t done as much on the business side of things as I had hoped. So the last few weeks I’ve worked to try to catch up on this stuff. While not nearly as interesting as making art the business stuff isn’t as bad as it seems to be when the tasks are lurking unfinished on my todo list.

I still have a lot to do to feel I’m on track but I’ve got a few big things crossed off my list so I feel I’m on a roll.

This past week I added several more items into my etsy shop.

Most notably I’ve added the 6 pieces from my Stones series work to this shop. I made these quilts not long after returning from a 5 month trip in New Zealand. I found myself near water during most of the drive around the islands and I found I was fascinated with the smooth rocks that are found in such places. Here in Colorado our rocks are rather jagged so every where I went I picked up stones.

Although I do have the above small pile of rocks from a river in New Zealand, I was sad I couldn’t bring them all home with me as the suitcases were bulging. So I made a series of quilts to capture the essence of these wonderful smooth stones.

One of my favorites is shown at the top of this post but check out my etsy shop for the others. For some reason I even made a purple version.

You might notice Stones #3 and #5 are missing from the list. This is because #3 was never finished (maybe someday) and I sold #5 at the gift shop at Quilt National one year. I’ve always wondered who bought the quilt as it seems people either really like these quilts or they say "They look like a bunch of cookies – what’s with that?".

In addition to the small works I’ve also listed a few of the postcards I have left after the Postcards on the Edge show from last year and a couple tshirts that I dyed the last few days.

I wear tiedye tshirts at least 50% of the time as I love making the shirts. I’ve never read how to make the traditional swirl and other well known patterns when making shirts and prefer to just play around.

I’m not looking to get into production tshirt dyeing but I thought I’d do 1 or 2 shirts every time I do a batch of fabric and see how it goes.

Structures #69   ©2007    8.5" x 15.5"

 
I made my first sale on etsy this morning – hurray. It was to a good friend of mine who has wanted to buy my work for a while and was just waiting for me to start selling it, so that was pretty cool. We’ll see if the etsy community warms up the idea of art quilts in my price range.

In addition to Squares #1 from etsy my friend also purchased Structures #69, shown above. I made this piece to send to the Quilt National gift shop because it is similar to my piece in the show but I guess it didn’t quite make it there. He had to talk me into selling it to him. I think I need some serious help in the sales department. I’m pretty sure discouraging potential customers is not the right approach but it seems so weird to receive money for my art, especially from people I know.

But eek – I now have just a few weeks to make new work to send to the Quilt National gift shop. I’ve always sold a piece in the gift shop during the show so I want to make sure to have work there again this year.

 
All of these pieces are small pieces and to cover my expenses I’m going to have to also sell some of my larger work. As I mentioned in the comments on yesterday’s post I applied to become a guild.com artist last month. I heard today that I was accepted. So starting some time May some of my larger Structures quilts will be available for purchase on their website. Yahoo!

Squares #1   ©2003   9.5"x7"

 
As I mentioned in a post a few days ago, I do not make my work with the primary goal of selling the work. I make it because I want to make it and I think I really have to make it to be happy. I also create art because I want to show it. I love seeing my work on a gallery or museum or art center wall and sharing it with others.

Every now and then I sell one of my pieces and it is pretty cool because it is a nice validation that someone liked my work enough to purchase it. It also supplies much needed cash to keep making more work.

Being an artist is very expensive. Supplies, photography, shipping fees, entry fees, office supplies, studio supplies, marketing, etc. It adds up quickly. My annual artist expenses are always in excess of $5000 and usually much much higher. So at this point my expenses far exceed my income because I don’t focus on sales and marketing.

I’ve reached a point where I can’t keep spending all of my disposable income on making art. Life as a software engineer has been nice as it has allowed me to just focus on creating a solid body of work and becoming the best artist I can without worrying about where the money will come from to do this. But I see as my kids start reaching college age and my car gets older and older I’m probably coming into some fairly big expenses and it’s time think about getting the art to pay for itself.

In my original post about my art goals for the year I hinted that this was to be the plan for 2007 with this comment:

Find money to pay for new computer and 2 week workshop. Preferably via some art related activity.

I have some specific ideas on how I might go about selling my work and the first of these to become reality is the creation of my etsy shop. I’m not really sure I like the name etsy very much as it sounds so crafty and quilts already suffer enough from the "too-crafty-to-be-art" problem but I’ve been observing how etsy works for a while and decided to give it a try.

I currently only have a few pieces listed at the shop but I hope to get more listed over the next few weeks and in time for my first studio newsletter release in mid May (it’s been delayed from my original goal of March for personal reasons).

My current plan is to only sell small work that I do not enter into shows on etsy. I create several of these pieces every year because not all of my work is large work in my major series (Structures and Markings – which are what I exhibit). I like to play around with other ideas and at times do hand quilting and beading. These smaller pieces are perfect for something like etsy.

The above small quilt is one of the pieces currently for sale on etsy.

 
Although I will be putting more effort into selling, my main goal for my art is still to become the best artist I can and to really focus on pushing my 2 current series as far as I can. I’m hoping to find a nice balance between these 2 activities.

After a significant amount of messing around with phplist, open source newsletter management software, I’ve finally got my mailing list set up and working somewhat to my satisfaction.

My studio newsletter will be sent out 3 or 4 times a year and contains information on my upcoming exhibitions, photos of work not yet available on my website or blog, and other noteworthy news from my studio.

To subscribe enter your email address below:

 
I will never share or sell your email address and will only use it for the purpose stated above. All emails sent will include a link to unsubscribe should you decide you are no longer interested.

 
This was a much bigger job than I think I anticipated. But maybe mostly because I'm a perfectionist and I found much of the wording of the subscription emails and forms that came with the software not to my liking. So I changed a lot of it. I also customized everything so it has my website header.

Of course all that meant mucking around with php code, of which I don't really know. There were a few times I broken everything by deleting some necessary stuff - oops! But I think it's all working again. Do let me know if you try to sign up but run into problems.