Lisa Call

I mentioned in a blog post a few weeks back, that I’m working on completing a bunch of incomplete projects. Both art and personal.

I’ve been writing about this process on my other blog: MakeBigArt.

MakeBigArt is about

Empowering artists…

…to think big about their art
…to think big about their marketing
…to think big about their lives

With encouragement, tools and practical tips on Mindsets, Marketing, Motivation and Management.

To date there are 4 articles about completion with more to come:

1. The Magic of Completion
2. A Quest for Completion – introducing a plan on how to get there
3. Creating an Incomplete Project List – it was harder than expected
4. More on the Incomplete Project List – categorizing, prioritizing and more (new today)

Working Vacation

Today is the last day of my working vacation in Santa Fe. I’ve had a fabulous time with my kids and I’ve gotten a lot done.

Being in a hotel room, with no distractions, is a great way to make forward progress. I’m not tempted to go cook something, or run to the store, or hang out with friends. Every morning I’ve spend 3-5 hours working on my art business and on my personal todo list.

I then spend the afternoon and evening doing the vacation thing. My todo list is mostly checked off complete and I’ve eaten a ton of green chile, soaked in the beautiful scenery of Santa Fe and seen some fabulous art. It’s been an excellent arrangement and I think I’ll do this again soon.

Home #58
©2010 Lisa Call
3" x 3"
Textile Painting (Fabric hand dyed and painted by the artist, cotton batting, cotton thread)
$55 + shipping
Purchase Here

New Mexico

I’m taking a few days off work and headed to New Mexico for a much needed vacation.

This is the annual trek to Santa Fe with my kids to eat as much green chile as possible. We then hang out and do very little of anything else.

This year they said “No museums” so I’ll be hitting the Georgia O’Keeffe and Folk Art museum alone I suppose. They didn’t say no galleries and the new galleries down by the rail yard are fabulous so we’ll definitely be going there.

It’s also a working vacation. I’m going to do much planning for my art business, prioritizing future projects and catching up on some paperwork.

Getting away from the house and holing up in a hotel room with my fabulous kids is a great way to focus on this type of work. They’ll watch TV (something we don’t have at home – we’ll other than hulu which is essentially the same thing I suppose). I’ll work.

Last year I spent the working part of my Santa Fe vacation cleaning up my blog as my web hosting account said it was taking up too much bandwidth. I learned a lot about optimizing a wordpress blog over that weekend.

Home #56
©2010 Lisa Call
4" x 4"
Textile Painting (Fabric hand dyed and painted by the artist, cotton batting, cotton thread)
$90 + shipping
Purchase Here

Respect

Today at work we had a meeting with an executive that came into town for a day. It was demoralizing. The voice of the individual contributor (that’s what they call us) was not heard. Our managers did not speak up. Including me – I should have said something. I may not be a manager but do lead a team of developers.

I suspect many of my coworkers would think this is an overreaction. Which is probably why I don’t belong in the corporate world.

No job is worth sacrificing our self respect and the respect of those we work with.

As I was working in my studio I was getting frustrated about the situation, pondering how to proceed, I decided the best option was to go for a run.

So I did. And now I feel better. And will head back the studio with a clear head. Focusing on my art, creating streams of income that will replace the corporate income, that is how I move my life forward.

So onward making art!

 
PS – only 2 Color Improvisation catalogs remaining: Color Improvisation Catalogs. I won’t be ordering any more catalogs for at least a month (they come from Germany). And this might be it if I get on to other project by mid september, which is certainly what I have in mind.

A couple of quick notes:

1) The response has been quite overwhelming for the Color Improvisation catalogs. It’s so exciting to see the enthusiasm people have for this exhibit and the catalog. Thanks to all of you for that support.

I was able to get a second batch and set up a webpage for people to purchase them as all the blog comments were a lot to keep track of. Paypal is much simpler. (If you can’t do paypal I will take a check).

If you want to buy one of the remaining catalogs go here: Color Improvisation Catalogs

Here’s an interesting note – the orange ones always sell out first, followed by blue. We’ll see how the race goes between green, purple and yellow in the next few days.

2) My incomplete projects list is just about done – so a post on that will be coming soon.

3) I have a final design on my landscape and I’m getting bids this week for the work. Someone should be out there moving dirt around pretty soon – woohoo!

4) I’m working on artwork for the Quilt National (a big juried art quilt show) deadline in September. I can’t show the work in progress online so I’ll have to think of something else to blog about over the next few weeks.

5) The Artful Home studio sale ends on July 29th. After that date you are unlikely to see any of this art work for sale again (well except a few of the Chairs pieces). It’s time to get rid of the old and move forward with the new.

If you have your eye on any of the next few days are your last chance to buy them. (here)

If you just want to see images of the work and by pass Artful Home – I wrote a blog post about them here .

If you are interested in a piece but would prefer to make payments over time, I can arrange that also.

6) I’m working on my July studio newsletter and will be emailing it by the end of the month. If you aren’t a subscriber you can do that here: Lisa Call’s Studio Newsletter

6) It’s bedtime. Sleep well everyone!

It’s been a super productive weekend. I dyed nearly 80 yards of fabric, although I’m going to bed now with 1 last load still in the dryer that I will iron in the morning. So photos will have to wait until then.

I also started my list of unfinished projects for my quest for completion. You can watch the list evolve here: Projects to Complete.

Making this list inspired me to do something I’ve been putting off for 2 months – uploading all of the landscape “before” photos to smugmug. You can see what my yard looks like now (or close to it – the weeds are much bigger now) : Landscaping Before Photos.

I also started a second black and white Home textile painting, similar to Home #54, but it’s not yet complete. So again, photos tomorrow.

In the middle of the intense day of dyeing fabric on saturday, I took a break in the middle of the day to go to a yoga class. What a fabulous decision, the class was amazing (as they always are) and it provided a much needed pause in an otherwise very busy (and fun) day.

 
How was your weekend?

Dream #48 (informed by Dream #41)
©2010 Lisa Call
2.5" x 3.5"
Textile Painting (Fabric hand dyed by the artist, cotton batting, cotton thread)
$40 + shipping

Creating

I’ve been sticking with my goal of 1 hour (or more) in my studio each evening.

I’m working on piecing Structures #112 and adding more surface texture with quilting Dream #40.

While I’m not up to my old levels of 20 hours of studio time a week, I’m excited about being back and motivated to keep creating.

Writing

I’m also keeping up with my writing. In addition to my daily blog post here, yesterday I wrote and emailed my June Studio newsletter. I missed April and May so it was a wonderful accomplishment to succeed with June.

If you aren’t a subscriber, you can read the newsletter online here: Lisa Call’s June Studio Newsletter.

I’ve written in more detail about lowering my prices, showed Dream #41 after it’s makeover, have 6 new mini textile paintings available (like the one above), introduce the artwork of Nemo and you won’t want to miss the photo of me upside down doing yoga 7 months pregnant taken in 1992.

 
I also wrote a blog post on makebigart (empowering artists think big about their art, their marketing, and their lives), the article first in quite a while.

It’s about making artistic masterpieces. You can check it out here: Creating Artistic Masterpieces.

Being Inspired

To help keep me inspired, I’ve started a new online adventure: Lisa Call: Inspiration.

It’s an “inspiration journal”. The idea is to recognize something daily, or at least several times a week, that inspires me, and to share it with the world.

By focusing on what I find inspirational, I am sure that means more things that I love will come my way.

Same idea as behind a gratitude journal, but here the focus is inspiration.

What inspires you?

[Technical note - I'm using posterous for this adventure because it is super easy to update - an email or a text message works great. And setting it up took mere minutes. I'm going to hooking up a custom URL to my posterous blog soon and I'll post that when it's ready.]

Forth of July

We’re coming up on a 3 day weekend here in the US and I am planning on taking 3 days to relax and enjoy my time off work.

I may or may not work in my studio. I’m not making a single to-do list and will just do whatever I feel like it. Maybe I’ll create. Maybe I’ll write. Or maybe I’ll just eat a lot of ice cream.

Part of staying motivated is taking a break every once in a while.

This morning on twitter, artist Hazel Dooney wrote the following:

The latest excuse I’ve heard for not pursuing one’s dreams: “Life got in the way”.

No, your fear did.

Oh so very very true.

Thank you Hazel.

I highly recommend following Hazel on twitter, facebook and her blog.

 
PS – while you are at you can follow me on twitter and facebook (art updates, life updates).

After my post monday morning, about making time in my studio a priority, I found it challenging to make it happen.

I had an appointment at 8am for an estimate on landscaping, then a full day of work from 9-6pm. I then left directly for yoga, which finished at 8pm. Then a drive across town to pick my son up from his new job (we will all be rejoicing when he gets his drivers license).

I finally made it home at 9pm. Just in time to cook dinner – stir fry with organic veggies.

By 9:45 I was ready to give myself a pass on the studio time for the day. Maybe watch a bit of brainless TV on hulu. But I didn’t.

I went to my studio and worked for half an hour.

And it was excellent.

We like to think if we make a routine to create it is somehow not creative. That we need to be “moved” or “inspired” to go to our studios. We don’t. We just need to show up.

Which is what I’m going to do now – finish off a full hour in the studio this evening, after a little bit less hectic day.

Untitled
©2010 Lisa Call
9″ x 12″
Watercolor on paper

Excuses

The last few months I haven’t made much textile art. It’s frustrating. I have a long list of reasons as to why it isn’t happening but basically they are excuses.

• My day job sucks up way to much of my time and soul.
• I’ve been battling depression (and mostly winning – so this excuses is losing legs)
• I’ve been sick this week.
• Exercising takes up a lot of my time
• I have a bunch of art, so why make more?
• quack, quack, quack

Ditto for the excuses and why I haven’t been blogging. I’ve completely let myself off the hook on writing. Not that I don’t want to write, I love writing. I’m just not making it a priority.

And where the heck is my studio newsletter? It’s supposed to be monthly! I think it’s been a while since I sent one.

All these excuses seem so reasonable. All the comments that say “be nice to yourself” are a great justification to not push myself.

Passion

But where the heck is my passion? Where am I directing it?

So – the real answer is – into a romantic relationship (which started 10 months ago – when I returned from South Africa). And into my day job.

Both worthwhile pursuits.

Sometimes I think the day job is questionable in value, until I get the paycheck. There are days I like it, although lately it’s just stressful and unpleasant. Fortunately the team I work with, they are fabulous, and working with them makes it not seem as bad as it is. We play mini golf, go bowling, and try to laugh at the insanity, in between being asked to do unrealistic things that causes us to be stressed.

The romantic relationship has been (mostly) fun and it’s been a while since I’ve enjoyed someone’s company as much as I do Seth’s. Years. The ups and downs of such relationships, as we learn how to communicate, has taken it’s toll on me also. (I think I could do a month of posts on how relationships can impact ones art career – or maybe a year).

So – I have a job and I have a boyfriend. It’s time to get all this sorted out and figure out how I want to spend my time. I’m sure it’s not watching netflix movies, yet I seem to be doing that more than desired.

A Commitment

This is raw, rambling stream of consciousness this morning that I won’t edit much.

I have to update my status for my day job before 8am, when I’m getting a bid on landscaping my yard, and then off to work, lunch with Seth, yoga later tonight, picking kids up and driving them about.

I’m not sure how I will do it but I am going to spend a minimum of 1 hour a day in my studio today.

In fact, I will spend a minimum of 1 hour a day every day this week in my studio.

I’ll also write at least 4 blog posts.

Writing, creating. I love these things – time to make the time and DO THEM.

(and yes – I’m being nice to myself :)

Other Medium

This was originally a blog post about the houses I have painted this summer. Until I started writing the above.

I thought of saving them for tomorrow, but here they are. Although I haven’t done much textile work, I have played around a bit with oil paints (below) and water color (above).

Painting is hard. Although I really enjoyed both adventures. I have no idea what I’m doing, as I’ve had 0 training in painting or drawing. I would like to pursue these more, as a way of expanding my textile skills.

But first it’s time to put this train back on the tracks.

Untitled
©2010 Lisa Call
9″ x 12″
Oil on canvas

Structures #112 (in progress)
©2010 Lisa Call
~38″ x ~38″
Textile Painting (Fabric hand dyed by the artist, cotton batting, cotton thread)

Fear

The last 3 and a half months I’ve not created much art. I tried a few times to start new artwork and selected fabrics for a few pieces.

And then I would lose steam and wander out of the studio.

While I lacked energy due to the depression, I also had a lot of fear.

After a period of time goes by without creating new artwork, I find this happens to me. I think “what if I have forgotten how to make art?”, “what if I have no ideas left?”, “what if I’m not really an artist?” etc etc.

These thoughts can keep me out of my studio for days, weeks and this time months. I was starting to think “why did I build this huge studio in my house if I’m not an artist anymore”. It was not fun.

Moving Beyond

It was with those negative thoughts floating about my brain, that I turned to my studio on monday, determined to move forward.

With the work I’ve done to move beyond my depression, it was time to move beyond the fear in the studio also.

A few days prior, I had selected a stack of brown and red fabrics to start a new textile painting, which I had abandoned. I’d done this a handful of times over the past few months. Selecting a stack of colors and then abandoning it.

Monday I had enough of myself and with no ideas on where to start (or even which series I wanted to work in) I was determined to make some artwork.

Creating Structures #112

And so I did – I picked up the first fabric and started ironing it. Hoping an idea would pop into my head.

Not much there. So I went to the second. And ideas slowly came to mind.

Structures, it’s my favorite series, I needed to return to it.

And slowly as I moved through the stack of fabrics I had the start of an idea.

I cut and pinned the background browns up on the wall (see photo #1 above) and then spent 30 minutes pondering what I would do for the lines. Red seemed boring so I tried some green, then blue, then purple. Nothing really worked and the negative thoughts were creeping back in.

I almost walked out of the studio to return at another time, defeated.

Something stopped me (myself, really, I was sick of the excuses). So I returned to my original idea of using reds and browns and selected the accents (again see the photo above). It worked and I left the studio with a sense of satisfaction.

Finishing the Design

On tues & wed I was able to cut the strips for the lines with only positive thoughts in my head. How quickly the negative voices disappeared when I gave them no power.

The result (below) was something that had potential and I was looking forward to creating the composition by sewing it together.

 
 
Thursday morning was exhilarating as I stitched the first few sections together and the design came alive with energy. Dozens of ideas for new directions, colors, lines to try out are now floating in my head.

I knew this was how it worked. All I had to do was ‘do it’ and I’d be back making art as it is what I love to do.

Fear always loses to love, when we are willing to trust ourselves.