Lisa Call

Home #3
Textile Painting
©2008 Lisa Call
8" x 10.5"
Purchase

Crafthaus

This week I’m one of the featured artists on crafthaus.

I’ve been a member of this ning group since it’s early inception and have always been impressed by the quality of the community.

With a zillion social networking groups out there this is one of the few I choose to belong to and participate in (although maybe not as active as I’d like to be).

Check them out if you are looking for more ways to spend time online! (har)

Short Updates

For those that have noticed my absence here on my blog and wondering what’s up, you can friend me on facebook and see I update my status at least daily. So I am about and thinking about things.

If you’d like only short art updates (and not off topic ramblings about making salsa and other such things which appear on my regular facebook page) – you can instead become a fan to my art facebook page instead. When I can’t think of an entire blogs worth of something to say I post short updates on my fan page.

Art and Fabric for Sale

When I left for Africa in late August I turned off my art for sale pages on my website. I’m just now getting around to turning them back on. Hm – I think I forgot about them.

Collectible Art for Sale
Hand dyed Fabric for Sale

I also have PFD fabric for sale to dyers that would like to try out the Kaufman pimatex I use in my artwork.

And you can still preorder my South African Impressions work at a discount through the end of September. There are only a handful of ACEOs left. You can get details here: South African Impressions.

I’ll be showing the first pieces in this new series very soon here on the blog.

Insalada Caprese
Textile Painting
©2002 Lisa Call
24" x 24"
$600
Purchase Here

Studio Sale

One of the items on my todo list this week is to enter the information for 6 older pieces of art into the artfulhome studio sale coming up in July. When I moved I came across a batch of work from my embellishing days so that’s mostly what will be listed.

The sale is a chance for me to find new homes for some of my older work and for my fans to own some of my work for a smaller initial investment than my normal prices. A win-win all around – I free up some storage space and you get beautiful art for your walls.

In the last studio sale I sold all of the quilts in my Stones series. It’s nice to know they have a new home.

I photographed all the work last weekend and it’s looking pretty good (love my new photo processing skills). It’s quite a bit of work to upload everything at artful home so I’m taking that a little bit at a time.

The above quilt is one I’m going to add and in a bit of avoidance (not in the mood for artful home) and desperation (I wasn’t in the mood for a more thoughtful post tonight) I decided to write about this quilt tonight.

Wed or Thurs I promise promise to write that blog post about the Sandy Skoglund lecture as I finally found my notes and now have no excuse. I did catch up on blog comments so if I didn’t answer a question you had please reask it and I’ll be more on top of thing now.

Insalada Caprese

Although this piece is very closely related to my Structures series, the quilting lines (big red circles that represent big tomatoes) makes it enough different that I don’t think of it as part of that series, and hence a very different pricing structure.

This quilt was included in the invitational traveling exhibit Potluck Quilts: Art Quilts from the Piecemakers and appeared in numerous museum shows around the country.

The requirements to participate in this show were as follows:

* Quilts are to depict some aspect of a potluck meal – food, drink, table decorations, etc.
* Each quilt is to incorporate in it red and white checks representing a tablecloth in some way.
* All quilts are to be 24″ square.
* Please include a recipe of the potluck dish depicted on your quilt to be published in the catalog.

Of the 50+ artists that participated I was one of a small handful to make an abstract piece. My red and checked tablecloth is that series of red and white stripes on the lower left.

My recipe was fresh mozzarella and tomatoes. Not really a recipe that needs much effort (cut up cheese and tomatoes and put on a plate) but it sounds better in Italian. The green is for a bit of fresh basil to make the dish (and art) more interesting. And of course I don’t grow just red tomatoes in my garden but also orange and yellow ones also.

I think not getting to have a garden this year (between the lack of landscaping and being gone for a month while in Africa it just didn’t seem like a good idea) also inspired my renewed happiness with this quilt. Reminds me of all those lovely tomatoes I used to grow. Next year – yep – they’ll be back.

Insalata Caprese

4-5 large ripe red and yellow tomatoes
1 pound fresh mozzarella cheese
1/3 cup fresh basil leaves
extra virgin olive oil
salt
fresh ground black pepper

Slice tomatoes and mozzarella, about ¼” thick. Arrange on large platter with basil leaves. Drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

June Studio Newsletter

I’m working on my June Studio Newsletter so look for that in your inbox later this week or early next week. You’ll be one of the first people to see Structures #73 and the new format for my newsletter.

I’m moving to a monthly newsletter because I find when I do things on a schedule it’s easier. Only writing one 4 times a year made it seem like a huge chore. I’m putting a lot of work into creating systems around my art business and this is the first big step in that direction.

If you aren’t a subscriber you can join over 500 of my other supporters and sign up here: Lisa Call’s Studio Newsletter.

ACEO #38
Textile Painting
©2009
3.5" x 2.5"
$40
Purchase Here

ACEO #36
Textile Painting
©2009
3.5" x 2.5"
$40
Purchase Here

New Artwork

These 2 new aceos are a bit of a departure for me. To date all of my aceos (except I think #2) have been inspired by existing artworks by use the same fabrics as I used in a larger textile painting. These 2 I just went with some hot summer colors and had fun with them. Same with ACEO #37, which I posted the other day, loved that bright bright yellow to play with.

It feels really good to have new work coming out of my studio again. It seems everything has been on hold for about 5 months so this is way cool.

Because I sold all my small work in January it’s also been a chunk of time with not much income coming in. Between the art sales and fabric sales (sold half of them the first night), I’ve got a bit of cash flow again. Woohoo. So tomorrow I’ll be ordering more fabric for dyeing.

Thanks everyone for the support.

Really Super Productive Week

In addition to getting in 18 hours in my studio (3 over my goal of 15 per week) I also worked on my art business 28 hours this week (along with the 40 hours at the day job).

At the beginning of the week I worked out a method on how to record and track art business time and after I refine it over the next few weeks I’ll post details on what I’m doing.

My inbox is down to 29 emails again and this time I’ve figure out a way to process emails that seems to be working. Again – after I get it refined a bit (as in figure out what the heck I’m actually doing that seems to work) I’ll write about that also.

Now I need to focus on getting caught up on blog comments. I think there is about a month outstanding. And the last 2 posts about my studio need to come to closure.

Completion – it’s good thing to feel, things are really clicking for me and I’m loving working on my art.

Weekly Planning

Now I’m off to do my weekly planning. My super high productivity will slow down a bit. My planning needs to reflect the expected time with kids.

As it’s summer, the kids’ schedule is a bit wonky. I’ll have another 5 days with them at their dads, then they return on friday and be with me until July 5th. So the number of hours getting things done will decrease as they still like spending time with me (sometimes – being teenagers it becomes less and less each month so I try to maximize the time I can with them.)

Photography and Weeds

I’m very happy with how much better my photography is turning out these days. I still have a bunch to learn but I’m not nearly as frustrated as I was before.

My second private photo class is sunday. Time to talk printing, then I can get on some old todos that require a printed portfolio.

I’m also meeting with my builder this weekend to talk about a covered patio. I can’t afford to build it at the moment but I need to put in some landscaping so I’m going to get a design so I can plan the rest of the yard accordingly.

I had hoped to do landscaping earlier but the universe had other plans for that money, so now I’m working on plan B, which is do the minimal to keep from getting a big fine for not having any landscaping. Got my first nasty-gram from the city last week. Oops! Apparently 2 foot high weeds are frowned upon.

This is what happens when you work 86 hours a week. Something has to give:

On a Roll
© Tracy Wall
7 5/8″ x 6″
oil on panel

New Art

On sunday I took delivery of my newest piece of art from Tracy Wall. When I saw this painting on her blog in January I knew I had to own it.

After I get it framed I’ll be hanging it my bright orange painted bathroom. It’s going to look great! Thanks Tracy for personally delivering it.

Handdyed Fabric for Sale

 
I’ve been asked many times if my fabric is for sale and the answer has always been no. That answer is about to change. Turns out I like dyeing a bit more fabric than I use each year and instead of cutting back on the big wet sloppy mess, I’m going to sell the extra.

I did my first dye session of the summer this past weekend and have selected the 25 yards of fabric laying out on the floor to sell (the stacked up fabrics are the ones I’m keeping).

It’ll take a while to photograph it and get it on a webpage for sale but I’ll let everyone know when it’s ready.

The Past

I used to put in 20 hours a week in my studio. Always. Every single week I’d prioritize the creation of art and I would make sure I found the time to make art.

Then I decided I needed to change my life. I wasn’t happy, things weren’t working. I was letting things into my life that I didn’t absolutely love. I wasn’t making choices, I was just letting life happen.

So I took some time to discover what I really wanted. The first step in this process was to eliminate things from my life that weren’t working. The boyfriend, the clutter in the house and eventually the house.

This lead to the remodel project, which I’ve been writing about weekly since last August. Wow. I contacted the contractor in July – we started the design in August. That is 10 months of construction on my brain.

The house has been 99% done since the end of March but I needed April and May to settle in, get the punch list finished and write about the process.

The Present

So now – here I am – where am I? I certainly have changed my life. I love living in Denver vs. the suburbs. I love living my life with intention. I love my new home and new studio.

The turmoil is over and when I look back it’s been 2 1/2 years since I’ve been at this place (the year prior to my move my father was ill and passed away, as did 3 other close family members) with no big things to distract me.

This is a very exciting and scary place to be. I know myself. I know this is the time when historically I am very likely to create yet another diversion to keep me from having to answer that scary question:

"What Do I Want?"

It’s good to know this – to have the awareness. Because this time, I’m not going to do it. No boyfriends, no more moving, no more building. This is it. Just me and my dreams. Time to create them.

The Plan

I’ve been working on answering that question last 4 months. Thinking about what I love doing. Writing, reading, thinking big.

I’ve made tons of notes on scraps of paper it’s been fun to hint around at the answer to the question. Wonderful fun ideas coming up daily.

This dreaming part, which is wonderful and fun and vitally important, is now ready to take a more definite shape. I have a good idea of what I want, now time to make it concrete.

I’m ready to move from dream to plan so for that to happen I am putting the following task on my todo list daily:

- Planning – 30 minutes or more

I’m taking all those wonderful ideas and pulling them together into a cohesive plan that I can take action on. Priorities and systems and schedules.

And all of this is very fun, but it’s also pretty scary. Cause it’s a lot of work. Because all the big dreams that my right brain came up with, my left brain is saying "You are going to do WHAT? Do you know how much work that is? Do you even know how to do that? "

So I think those thoughts and still I move ahead, cause in addition to distractions I’m not letting fear stop me either. I just think about the next 30 minute planning session and I am making steady progress forward – turning the dream into reality.

And, because first and foremost I’m an artist and love creating art, the other thing on my daily todo list is:

- Create Art – 1 hour or more

I am committing to returning to 15 hours (or more) of studio time every week. I debated going back to 20 but decided I’m doing more art business work so I’ll stick with 15 for now.

I’ll let you all know how things progress.

Studio Posts

I’m not quite done with my posts on building a studio. Next up will be a post on my studio storage.

Tomorrow I plan to catch up on all the blog comments I’ve failed to respond to the last few weeks and see if there are other studio topics I need to cover based on the questions.

Once that is done I’ll need to think up another theme for my blog posts for June. Hm. Somewhere I had a list…

Structures #83
Textile Painting
©2007
12"x12"

Studio Newsletter

I’ll be emailing my first studio newsletter for 2009 in the next few days. I planned on gifting Structures #83 to a subscriber in the December newsletter but the winner never contacted me. I got busy with construction and didn’t draw a new winners name so decided to do it in the next newsletter, which will be this one.

So again I will select one of my subscribers to receive Structures #83 as it seems like a festive joyful thing to share my work this way. So if you’d like a chance to win a piece of my artwork please sign up below.

You can check out a sample Studio Newsletter here: Lisa Call Studio News if you’d like an idea of what you are signing up for.

Sign up here:

 
And of course, I will never share or sell your email address and will only use it for sending my newsletters. All emails sent will include a link to unsubscribe should you decide you are no longer interested.

[Winner of the artwork will have 1 week to contact me if I don't hear from them I will draw another name.]

Home #5
©2008
10.5" x 8"
Sold

The Paradox

I read an interesting article the other day:

In a survey of attitudes toward artists in the US a vast majority of Americans, 96%, said they were greatly inspired by various kinds of art and highly value art in their lives and communities. But the data suggests a strange paradox.

While Americans value art, the end product, they do not value what artists do. Only 27% of respondents believe that artists contribute “a lot” to the good of society.

Further interview data from the study reflects a strong sentiment in the cultural community that society does not value art making as legitimate work worthy of compensation. Many perceive the making of art as a frivolous or recreational pursuit.

That doesn’t sound very promising does it. Making art is not worthy of compensation? So which came first – artists/curators/etc thinking that art is for art and not commerce? Or society thinking artists don’t deserve to be paid for what they do? I have no answers – just interesting things to think about.

The entire (and short) article is on the United States Artists website: An American Paradox.

Part of the Solution?

The mission of this organization, United States Artists, is to invest in America’s finest artists and illuminate the value of artists to society. Closing the gap between perceived value of art and artists will take work on many fronts.

In my mind, the making of smaller accessible art for everyone has a place in that effort. I think many Americans feel they can not afford art and so they never think about buying it so the idea that one might want to pay someone for it doesn’t really sink in.

If they could own the art themselves and see it each day in their home, the value of the artist’s creative effort might become more obvious. Or at least that’s my current theory.

What do you think?

Home #5

The newest of my textile paintings inspired by the building of the new studio. I was working on this piece as they were putting on the roof last Wednesday and finished it yesterday (along with several other small pieces that still need to be photographed). As with all the new small art, it’s available for purchase on my Update: It’s sold – but there is more small artwork available here: small art for sale webpage.

This piece is not mounted on canvas as it’s very hard for me to predict how large the houses are going to turn out. I haven’t mastered the diagonals quite enough for that. So it came out to be a bit too large for the 6″ canvases. So this piece is designed to be hung directly on the wall and comes ready to hang with a board in the back for hanging it on the wall with 2 small nails.

I’ll be doing a post about how to hang textile art sometime in the next few weeks with photos, as I think it’s probably not so obvious unless you’ve seen it before.

Pencil Holders
By Paula McCullough

Pencil Holders

One of my goals when I decluttered my house earlier this year was to only keep things that I loved. I believe things definitely have an energy and keeping things about that drain that energy is not something I want to do anymore.

I am working on this down to the smallest detail. I used to keep my pencils in old coffee mugs that I never really liked but someone gave them to me. They were functional but ugly. Definitely not things I wanted to keep around but my pencils needed to go somewhere.

So along came Paula McCullough thinking she also should make some smaller affordable art and she made pencil holders from an old piece of gutter (details here). I immediately fell in love with them and bought two. I smile every time I see them sitting on my desk.

Yesterday I decided I wanted more so I bought the remaining 9 in the limited edition to use in my house and maybe give as gifts (if I can bare to part with them).

My original plan was to blog about them so others could share in their beauty and buy one also – er – oops. Guess you will have to purchase one of her amazing clocks instead since these are sold out. Check them out at Paula’s Etsy Store. Some day I’ll own some of these also because the white plastic cheap things from Target aren’t the energy I want in my house.

Pint Sized Mugs
By Cynthia Guajardo

Mugs

So I just mentioned the ugly coffee mugs. They had to get out of the kitchen also. I don’t drink coffee but I do drink peppermint tea and it tastes much better out of my brand new mugs by Cynthia. I stopped by her potters guild sale a few weeks back and bought these and a few other items that are currently packed away until the builders are out.

I keep one at the office and one at home and when my house is complete Cynthia and I are going to work out a trade so I can get more in exchange for one of my small textile paintings. Yay!

Cynthia also has an etsy store and I hear she will soon be stocking it with new work. Cynthia’s Etsy Store.

More Affordable Art

Art doesn’t have to be large to make a home beautiful. I think small details like these pieces of functional art can have a big impact on the energy of a home.

I also buy small art that has no purpose than to make my house beautiful, such as the ACEO I bought from Tina Mammoser a while back. It’s currently sitting in front of my modems on my desk top and adds touch of color to my world. She also sells her work online: Tina’s Etsy Store.

I’ve got a small but growing collection of this small art (most of it in storage awaiting the house to be completed) and am looking forward to adding to it. Buying art is always my favorite purchase.

Black Friday

Here in the US it’s Black Friday, the day everyone heads to the stores to start their christmas shopping. If you are like me and don’t feel like fighting the crowds you buy art as gifts online instead. Check out these artists that came together to provide you with a variety of art to choose from:

Small Art Showcase
Fine Art Department

And, of course, you are always welcome to purchase some of my artwork – see my page of small art for sale.

Markings #20
©2008
14"x 14"
Sold

New Paradigms

It seems an unwritten rule of the art world is that if you want to be taken seriously you do not sell your work cheaply and you certainly don’t worry about affordable art. I used to buy into this story, thinking that if I wanted to show my work in museums I needed to only make large, serious artwork.

I think the art world is changing with the advent of the internet and old patterns of thinking are no longer necessarily valid. And even if they are, I’ve decided they don’t apply to me.

I’ve decided to take full responsibility for my art career and in doing so have decided I get to come up with my own rules, if I ever feel a need for rules.

Who says I can not make ACEOs and sell them for $25 while at the same time having 6 large pieces in a museum show and also sell my larger work for thousands of dollars? Apparently no one because I’m doing just that.

Quality

I do not think my $3000-$10,000 artwork is devalued by making smaller textile paintings. The main reason for this belief is the quality. I know that I put extreme care into every aspect of my art, from the largest pieces down to the smallest. I also believe my art is really, well, good.

I’m consistently told by collectors that they are impressed with the level of detail and precision in all of my artwork. Every color, each line, each shape is created with care. Even in my small work I am pushing myself to make the best art I possibly can by trying new things and pushing limits on what I think might work.

All of my art is priced about the same amount per square foot. Actually the smaller pieces end up being more per square foot because it takes longer to work on such a scale. My line of affordable art is not a lower quality, but is instead simply smaller so it takes less time and materials to create, so it can be sold at a lower price point.

I’ve considered doing larger affordable pieces but haven’t yet worked out the details. I’d have to do some type of limited edition where I could create the work quicker in quantity, but still with the same quality.

By keeping my quality consistently high I believe the value of the work, no matter the size, will always be evident.

Art for Sale

Markings #20 is another small piece inspired by Markings #19, one of my favorite of the Markings series. I know coming up with $350 to purchase a piece of art is not always possible. I’ve sold a few of my larger pieces in a series of payments and it worked out well for everyone involved so if you are interested in any of my artwork, no matter the cost, and would like to work out a payment plan please contact me and we can figure out something that will work for both of us.

Markings #19
copy;2008
56" x 58"
$17,000

ACEO #23
©2008
2.5" x 3.5"
Sold

Because That’s What I Buy

It’s taken me several years to come around to the idea of making affordable art. My first love is to make big expansive artwork. Given the time and materials involved in that process I can’t afford to sell my large textile paintings for only a few hundred dollars, which prices me right out of most people’s budget, including my own.

I started seriously buying art a few years ago and find that most of the art I purchase is under $200. I see a lot of other people buying art in this price range also. While I have saved my money and bought a few pieces in the $500-$1000 range that it doesn’t happen very often yet.

When I made the decision this year to actively look to sell my artwork I decided that this was a market that I wanted to participate in. I know that I very much appreciate the artists that make work at price points that fit my budget and it feels right to be able to do this.

Small Art Showcase

The impetus for creating my small artwork for sale webpage was to participate in an online small art showcase my friend Jeanne Williamson organized. (Thank you Jeanne!)

The website is now live and in addition to my work you can find small art work by 11 other artists working in a variety of mediums. The work ranges from $25-$500. Check out the website Jeanne created and get some holiday shopping done: Small Art Showcase .

I here there might be more artists coming soon so check back often.

ACEOs

Until this month I was selling my ACEOs for $21 including shipping. They are now $26 with shipping as I realized I wasn’t making much of a profit on them, between paypal fees, postage, materials and my time (to both make the ACEO, then photograph iand list on my website). While I want to make small art that is affordable, I also want to make some money while doing it.

Each of my aceos is created the same way I create my larger artwork. Each piece is cut individually (I never strip piece – for those that know what this means). Each cut I make and each color change in the work was made with deliberately.

On a very rare occasion I will have scraps leftover from a piece and will use those to make my aceos (I think this has happened twice), otherwise the pieces are made with intention, just like my larger textile paintings. The result is these are rather time consuming and if I want to keep making them it needs to make financial sense.

ACEO #23, above, was inspired by Markings #3, as was my small piece Markings #25. It is available for purchasefor $25 on my small artwork for sale webpage (near the bottom of the page).

A Series of Posts

I have much to say on the topic of affordable art so I’ve decided to write a series of posts so look for more thought on the topic over the next week or so.

Construction Progress

No post these days is complete without some construction progress. I think tomorrow I’ll have studio walls. Today they got one built:

Construction Photos – Wednesday – November 19
Construction Photos – Thursday – November 20