Lisa Call

Structures #91
©2007 Lisa Call
12" x 12"
Textile Painting (hand dyed fabric, batting, thread)
$700
Purchase Here

Weekend Plans

The kids are celebrating father’s day this weekend with their dad (and will be giving him the art they bought him). Which means I have the weekend to get lots of stuff done.

My todo list:

• Studio time: surface stitching/quilting on Structures #111 so it is 3/4 complete (estimate ~18 hrs)
• Dye fabric: for back of my next large piece + a few yards cause it’s fun (estimate ~3 hrs)
• makebigart.com: get the initial pages of the website done and first blog post written & launch (estimate ~6 hrs)

I’m exited – making lots of forward progress.

By my math that’s about 14 hours of stuff to do each day – which means it’s time to get moving.

Energy

The number one question I am asked is how I have the energy to do this stuff. So I wrote a series of blog posts on the subject and now seems like a good time to summarize them:

• Energy – Physical Health
• Energy – Organization and Clutter
• Energy – Attitude
• Energy – Personality Type
• Energy – Making Decisions

I think I could write more posts in this series as there is probably more to say. Hm…

But right now it’s time to get to the studio and get to work.

 
PS. I think Structures #91, above, has amazing energy – I think it’s probably that saturated red.

Accountability

I’ve found that one of the most effective ways of keeping myself on track with my goals and habits is to publicly hold myself accountable for completing those goals. Telling everyone I’m going to do something and then not doing it is no fun.

So every night I email a couple of other artists my list of goals for the day and a checklist of how I did – yes or no – did I make my goal. Amazing what a huge motivation that is for me – I love the days I can email a big batch of YESes.

A friend (thanks Lester) sent me a link to an interest website that can be used to help you publicly form new habits. It’s called Joe’s Goals and it’s really quite simple. Create an account, list some goals, share them with people you want to share with, then start tracking.

Studio Time

One of the habits I am working on is to get back to 20 hours a week in my studio so I set up a Joe’s Goals account with one goal: Studio Hours. I’ll give a check for each hour I spend in the studio and you can see from this "badge" how much time I’m working in my studio for the week.

As of sunday evening I’m at 43 hours in the studio for the month (an average of about 16 hours a week) – not too bad given the construction.

The 30day average isn’t very accurate at the moment as I only entered data for the last 18 days. But the chart shows my studio hours for the last week.

I’ll put this in the sidebar in the next few days if it seems to have value. I’m not sure I’ll put my other goals in joe’s goals – but maybe. We’ll see how the studio hours go and if it looks useful I might expand.

Lime Green and Gray

The photo above is of a few of the fabrics I’m using in Structures #111 (another piece for the exhibit that has requested I not show the work publicly for a while). I’m loving lime green and gray together and am now thinking I’m going to paint the stair landing up to my studio and my home office in these colors. Need to get a few more paint chips but it could be pretty awesome.

I haven’t put the latest photos of construction up on smugmug yet but we’ve moved on to doing trim in the house and all the new walls have the primer on them. Next friday they’ll primer the trim and paint my studio white (I’m still in search of the perfect white for this project). Then I will paint the rooms colors. It means I’m getting very close to having a new studio! Two maybe three weeks if all goes as planned.

My goals for today were:

1) 10 hours in studio
2) massage appointment at 3pm
3) blog
4) journal
5) yoga
6) walk
7) to bed by 9:30

How’d I do?

1) 9 1/2 hours in the studio – yay. With yesterday that makes for 22 hours in the studio for the weekend and around 25 for the week. That is the most I have worked in my studio since February of 2008 when I had a week where I put in 45 hours. That was the week before my solo show opened so I was crazily finishing 2 last textile paintings before the delivery day.

Since that day I’ve had only 1 other week for all of 2008 where my studio hours topped 20 hours. Wow -moving has definitely impacted my art making. This could be the last of art for a while depending on how construction goes this week so a nice way to bring closure to the bedroom studio.

2) massage was excellent (I think I kinda fell asleep for a bit – hope I wasn’t snoring)

3) if you are reading this – yes

4, 5, 6) I put yoga/walk/journal on my todo list every single day. Journal I almost always do, yoga maybe 1/2 the time (for the first 3 months of 2008 I did yoga every single morning – can’t wait to get back into that habit), walk has been a ‘no’ for a while so it felt good to get out yesterday and today and move.

7) Yes – so goodnight. I hope you all had wonderful weekends.

Upcoming Week

If things go as I believe they will, this weekend will be the last of my concentrated studio time for my bedroom studio. I think they are going to rip down the plastic walls and studs that currently comprise my son’s bedroom next week. Which means he will get to move into my bedroom, which will really be his bedroom when we are all done with this process.

That will leave me a bit homeless but not for too long. They are also going to tile my bathroom next week and as long as they put some doors on the house I might move down to my bedroom, even though it still needs trim and carpet and paint.

Or maybe none of this will happen and they will build me a porch instead. Who knows. I try not to worry about it too much.

A Weekend of Art

Although just in case this is my last chance for some serious studio time these are my goals for the weekend:

Saturday
1) 12 hours in studio
2) blog
3) journal
4) yoga
5) walk
6) to bed by 9:30

Sunday
1) 10 hours in studio
2) massage appointment at 3pm
3) blog
4) journal
5) yoga
6) walk
7) to bed by 9:30

A Habit?

This was a week of making decisions from trim to cabinets to roof to lights to tile to countertops to stairrails. Above are some of my choices: the paint chip circled is the color I will paint the outside of my house – with the corresponding roof color. On the right my cabinet colors (cranberry stain on maple wood) and counter tops (a gray formica). These will be in kitchen and bathroom. The tile board is for the tiles for my master bathroom that were ordered today.

It was a busy shopping week so most of my plans for studio time didn’t quite work out.

As this month is devoted to habits, my initial thought about the next few months was that I didn’t want to make a habit of any of this stuff. While its fun and really exciting to build a house and pick out all the colors it’s not something to repeat any time soon. At least for me.

But there is a habit here I want to keep, and that is of being a-okay with the present moment.

There was a morning this week where we had no hot water. I just though "oh well, pilot light blew out again" and went on. Didn’t phase me at all. The builder figured I’d be upset. Well, no, I chose to live in a construction zone, how crazy would it be to be upset that it’s actually a construction site?

Stuff happens. No reason to take it personally.

Squares #3
©2005
Private Collection

Routine

Habits, structure, systems, routines, schedules. Use whatever word you want. These things are what I need to put in place for my year of expansion to manifest. I think about how disciplined I was a couple years ago when I would work on my art 20+ hours a week along with the fulltime day job. I was completely focused and it felt great.

Much of that success was because of the habits I had in place. To get everything done that I want to do, being super organized is really key. So when I think about this, what I really think is that I need to get back to that place of super organization.

I also think I need to be gentle with myself because tomorrow I have to pick out the stain for my kitchen cabinets, find a cabinet for my utility room, start looking for Formica. Then later this week I’ll have to pick tile so they can install it in the next week or two. In a few weeks I’ll need all paint colors picked out. Not to mention I need to get lights ordered. Guess first I have to decide which ones I want. I hear they are wiring the kitchen tomorrow – I’m not sure I know where I want all the lights and switches yet.

And carpet. Better get on that cause it takes a few weeks to get that ordered.

And they have to refinish my hardwood floors. That means moving all my furniture out of the house to the addition before the carpet cause it makes such a huge mess. Then move it all back for carpet.

Oh – and rebuild all my design walls – flannel on styrofoam insulation on all the studio walls and set that all back up again (most of my studio furniture is in storage).

And – and – and.

Okay enough, that hint of panic in my voice is not attractive. I’ve got a lot to do on the house over the next couple of months (the remodel is schedule to finish end of February) but all that matters right now is the list for tomorrow. Everything will get done, I just need to focus on things one day at a time.

Monthly Theme

So – habits. Yes – I need them but maybe right now isn’t the right time to get them going. Instead I think it’s the right time to think about what ones will serve me best and that is what I will focus on in January. My big goal for the month is to determine the systems that will allow me to leap forward as I have planned.

I really liked having a theme last month, joy, to write about on my blog and in the past I’ve enjoyed writing series of posts on the same topic, like energy and intention, etc. I’ve decided my first new habit for 2009 will be to have a theme for each month for my blog. Not every post will be on topic but it will give my writing structure, which makes blogging more efficient, which is the goal of setting up structure.

The month of January is devoted to habits.

Squares #3

I was talking about the hand stitching in my last post so thought I’d put up images of another piece with similar stitching. It’s the only piece I still have with the hand embroidery on it. The rest (not that many) were all sold. [Update - the piece is sold]

I have this one listed at the artfulhome studio on sale for 20% off so figure I should put it here for the same price. The design of the stitching is more subtle in this artwork than in Structures #15 in the last post. There is a big circle of stitches over the top of the squares. It’s more noticeable depending on the light and the angle and hard to capture in a photograph.

Construction Update

And finally – speaking of construction. Here are the latest progress photos:

December 30 – Finishing insulation
December 31 – Drywall and Siding
January 2 – Hanging drywall and a new front window
January 3 – The missing door and drywall in the studio

My Taskboard on Oct 1

My Scrum Taskboard

In September I wrote several posts about using Scrum to manage my art career. In the last post I wrote about taskboards and explained how I was using it to track all the work I wanted to complete in September.

Quick refresher – the colored cards are the goals for the month (user stories) and there is 1 per row on the board. Each of the white cards are tasks that need to be completed for the bigger goals. The first column are tasks not yet started, the second column are tasks in progress and the final column are completed tasks. The colored cards on the right are goals I’m tracking but not actively working on.

Comparing the board from today from the board closer to the beginning of the month:

 
You can see I got a lot done. Certainly not everything but that big pile of cards in the completed pile indicates I did a heck of a lot art business and marketing this month. Probably the most focused and organized I’ve been in a long time, if not ever, for the business side of art.

This very visual indication of what I want to get done is a huge incentive for doing things. So I’m calling my first initial trial with scrum to be a big success.

Blocked Tasks

One thing I will add to my board is a 4th column. This is where I will put tasks that are blocked and in need of an external event for it to move forward. Such as waiting to hear from juried shows, or to get a return email, etc. I’d like a way to distinguish these tasks from the tasks I am actively working on (in column 2).

If a task is blocked for a long time it might mean I need to check in with the progress, or reevaluate the tasks and maybe find another solution.

Most of the goals (the colored cards along the right hand side of the board) are user stories where one of the tasks is currently blocked so once I add a new column these have a more natural home on the board.

Real Sprints

In scrum the goal is to put up on the taskboard only the work for a single sprint (I’m doing 1 month sprints). I obviously have much more work on my board than that so am not really sticking to that aspect of scrum.

There is a lot of value in seeing all (or at least most) of the work completed after a sprint completes so I’ll eventually get there but I’m not worried about it right now since my house is a big priority. We will hopefully begin building in a few weeks. I’m trying not to set too high of expectations during the building process.

Making Art in September

Although not managed through the scrum taskboard, september was a really good month in my studio also. One of my goals is to make art every day. Between work and kids and the house, it’s my escape and it helps keep me centered.

For September I worked in my studio 25 out of 30 days for a total of 55 hours. I completed 2 new pieces in my Structures series (#98 and #99) and made several small textile paintings.

Yay. That puts a smile on my face.

October Goals

So now it’s a new month and time to set new goals and maybe put some new goals/user stories up on my taskboard. I have some projects that ave been languishing on my todo list for months as I feel I’m still not quite caught up after moving in June. These are completed in October, I’m sure of it!

The first big goal for Oct will be to write and email my September studio newsletter. Then I’ll turn to a few misc tasks and then finally, I’ll tackle my website redesign project. I excited to get back to it.

First – The Trees

(scroll down below the pictures if you just want to read about art and success)

 
As my long time readers know, I recently moved and am remodeling and putting an addition on my house to add a studio. So in addition to my normal art writing, this blog will, at times, resemble an episode of This Old House because I’m really excited about the work so I’m going to write about it.

The remodel will be starting very soon so first step was to get some trees out of the way.

In area #1 (as marked on the first photo) were 2 cedar trees much much too close to the foundation. They made a mess, not so sad to see them gone.

Area #2 is my beautiful crab apple tree in the backyard (pictured above) that I talk about often. It too had to go, as the new studio will be sitting smack dab on top of it. It took me over a month to admit this was a reality. My builder was patient with me as I finally came to terms with losing the tree. It was simply too close to the house and there was no way to keep the tree and still do an addition. They guys that cut it down said it needed to go even with no addition, so that made me feel a bit better. They also said it was one of the most beautiful crab apple trees they had seen.

Area #3 was another large crab apple wedged between my house and the neighbors. It was ruining my driveway with it’s roots. Again, much to close to the house, and it was already rotting and was dropping limbs when I cut it down.

The trees are now gone as seen above. My yard feels HUGE and full of possibility. It’s exciting. And much less sad than I anticipated. I can’t wait for the remodel to begin!

Lesson learned – those cute little trees that we all plant in our yards. They eventually end up as really big trees. So best not to put them very close to the house or the next home owner will have to pay big $ to have them chopped down.

Success – A State of Being

In my last two blog posts I wrote about
- why I want to know my definition of success
and
- what being a successful artist meant to me.

In both of these posts I wrote about success as a destination. Success defined as a set of goals to be achieved. I’m a big believer in planning out the future and working on the those goals so I stand by that definition of success. It helps to define what actions I should take.

But success is more than that. When I wrote the first post about why I wanted to know my definition for success, I was thinking about putting in "so I will know when I have made it" as one of the reasons. But it didn’t feel right. I couldn’t find any words to say this that didn’t rub me the wrong way.

That is because I consider myself a successful artist today, even without reaching those goals. I’m so ecstatically thrilled every day I wake up and think "I get to make art today". No amount of external recognition or achievement is better than this feeling.

I’m so fortunate to have found something in my life I am so passionate about and love doing so much. Even the marketing stuff is really growing on me and I get excited about it.

The process of being an artist is the best part of being an artist. Even if I never reach the goals I set out in the last post, I will always consider myself a successful artist by the sheer fact that I am one.

Although honestly, I’m pretty sure I will reach all of those goals, and it will be a fairly effortless process because I find all of this to be pure fun. I don’t feel I’m grasping or desperate, it’s just total joy each day to wake up and think about what I can do to move my career forward.

For me, success is both a destination and a journey and I wouldn’t want to give up either.

A Natural Progression

When I thought about being an artist 10-12 years ago, my definition of success was to get my work into some juried quilt shows. It didn’t take long and I was, by my definition, a success.

So I set the bar higher. I decided I needed to get into Quilt National to be a success. That goal was first achieved in 2003. I’ve now been accepted, into what to some is considered by some to be the quintessential art quilt venue, 3 times in a row.

With some success to my name, I decided to looked a little deeper and decided I wanted to focus on finding my artistic voice and this became my definition of success:

- I am the best artist I can be
- I have solo shows in not-for-profit galleries (note that non-profit part)

My focus was almost solely on making art and a bit of time was spent showing my work. My actions were in alignment with my intent and I was content. I spent years completely focused on my art and I feel this was a wise choice. As a result I have a lot of confidence in my art and skills and I had a few solo shows along the way.

Moving On

Each time I near or reach my definition of success I feel it’s time to change it and think bigger. The other option, declaring myself a success and coasting, doesn’t suit me very well. At least not yet.

It’s not that I’ve never had big grandiose ideas about where my art can go. It’s that I never spent the time to think about them in detail, write them down, focus on them and thereby make them my new reality. I don’t think this is a bad thing. Could be it’s a natural progression for many of us – start small and get bigger as the way becomes clearer and the obstacles seem less daunting.

Adding Value

Some of the change in direction I’m now planning came about when I was willing to realize and accept that:

1. It’s okay to sell art
2. I can work to be the best artist I can and market my work at the same time. This involved learning to ignore all the voices that speak to the contrary.
3. Getting money for something I love doing is pretty darn cool

I love Steve Pavlina’s comments on twitter the other day that read:

Becoming a millionaire (through honest means) requires delivering $1 million worth of value to other people. That’s generous, not greedy!

It’s a good reminder that as an artist I am providing value to the world and as such it’s okay to be reimbursed for that value.

Cynthia Guajardo had some interesting thoughts the other day as she was pondering what value she might be adding as a ceramic artist in her blog post about living simply. I was very happy to read that she came to the conclusion that she was adding value and will continue to make her pottery.

I suspect it’s fairly common for artists to question what value they might be adding to universe with their art and craft. I know I have. And I’m happy I also came to the conclusion that we add a lot and it is essential we keep creating. And expecting to be compensated fairly for that value.

My New Definition for Success

So now it’s time to take a deep breath and think big and tell the world all about it.

This is my new definition for what it means to me to be a successful artist:

• I am creating a body of work that I am proud of and that I know is pushing me to become the best artist I can.
• I see growth in my artwork.
• I am authentically marketing my artwork.
• I quit my day job and live comfortably from the proceeds of my creative talents. I want to be very clear about my definition so I have an amount in mind but think specific dollar amounts are a bit too personal for public consumption.
• My work is valued by buyers and collectors, who are willing to pay a good price for my artwork. Again, I have a specific idea of what I want my art to sell for so I am very clear about where this career is headed.
• I create an affordable line of work for those that can not afford my larger pieces.
• My work is included in 4 or more museum collections.
• I publish one or more books about my art and my writing about art. At least one will be a big "coffee table" style book
• I actively participate in a community of mutually supportive artists.
• I am an inspiration and mentor to other artists.
• I continually learn about myself through my art and my writing about art.
• I enjoy all aspects of being an artist.

Why Do I Need to Know This?

One of the items on my goal list for 2008 was to define what success means to me as an artist. As I mentioned in that post, my definition of success has changed, so I wasn’t sure where to go with my goals for 2008 at the beginning of the year so I didn’t really write any.

This wasn’t a bad thing because turns out what I really wanted to do this year was sell my house and get out of the suburbs. That lifestyle was no longer working for me. I loved my big house and big studio but I’m much happier in the city: close to work, close to the kids school and close to everything – museums, galleries, restaurants. I’ve seen more art in the past few months than I did the last 5 years, because it is right here 10-15 minutes from my house.

But back to success. I feel it’s now time to define what it means to me to be a successful artist. I have a vague idea in my head what I intend for my career but I want to write it down and give it some serious thought.

I feel I need to do this right now for a few reasons:

1. Clarity: Most importantly I want to get really clear about why I am making art and how I want to market it. Or more accurately, why I am making art today and where I am intending for this career to go. I believe that getting very clear about intentions is the best way to ensure they become real. When I am wishy washy with my intent my results tend to be wishy washy. When I get really clear I find I get very clear results also.
2. Adapting: I don’t think it’s realistic, at least for me, to come up with big grand ideas about what success means and for it not to change over time. I wrote out some definitions for myself a few years ago and then I moved and I decided I like selling my art and so much of what I wrote is no longer up to date. By revisiting this definition I can learn and adapt and move get closer to my true desires.
3. Direction: Having a definition of success for my art career makes writing goals very easy. If I know what I think success means then I just have to do the things that will result in that success. Without a definition of success it’s kind of hard to figure out what I should be doing on a day to day basis. There are thousands of things I could do as an artist and only by understanding what my desired destination is, can I pick the activities that best suit my stated intentions.

I’ve spent a couple days writing and thinking about the specifics of this definition and when I get it finalized, or at least polished enough that it feels right and it is clear, I’ll post it on my blog.

 
Do you have a definition for what success means to you as an artist?

Managing the Work

In my last Art and Scrum post I talked about tasks, which are basically todo lists for each of the stories.

As we all know there are many ways to maintain todo lists. I’ve tried all sorts of different methods of managing them and some work better than others.

For a while I was managing the project and task lists from Getting Things Done with a spreadsheet. [as an aside - I find the project lists and task lists from GTD very similar to stories and tasks from sprint - very similar - just different names and slightly different descriptions as to what they are]. There are also several software programs that can help project teams maintain their tasks lists. I think they are overkill for what I’m doing with my art business.

I didn’t much like the spreadsheet as I’m not big on putting lists online. I much prefer to hand write my lists as there here is something more satisfying about the writing process than typing. I also find online lists get out of date quickly and lists online are basically obsolete as soon as they are printed. I’d make notes on the printout and then weeks later I’d give up with the online list.

So I’m going with what many scrum experts claim to be the best way to do this: a task board.

The Task Board

A task board is a whiteboard or corkboard or some such thing that can be divided into columns and rows. I’m using one of my smaller portable design walls and have it attached to my wall as shown above.

I’ve written each story on a notecard and these are all in the left hand column. Acceptance criteria are noted on the card along with deadlines or any other notes I think are important to remember. Only stories for the current sprint are placed onto the task board.

Each task for each story is written on a white index card (sticky notes work great with white boards). There are 3 columns where a task card might be placed:

1. Not Started: The tasks all start in the second column on the left. This is the column for tasks not yet started.
2. In Progress: When a task is started it is moved into the next column over – this is for all tasks in progress
3. Completed: When a task is completed it is moved again to the next column – for all tasks completed.

By moving the tasks physically on the board I can see in one very quick look how the sprint is going. As you can see in the above photo, I had just started this sprint as almost nothing is done and just about everything is in the not started column. As the month has progressed I’ve been moving cards to the right. At the end of the month I’ll take another picture and show what it looks like.

The Daily ToDo List

I find that having this huge pile of tasks to tackle can be overwhelming and I can start spinning my wheels. This board is really pretty and cool but I can’t use it on a day to day basis.

So each night I evaluate where I am and I move tasks cards around as they change status. I then pick 2-5 tasks that I want to work on the next day and write them down on a piece of paper. My favorite – little scraps of paper that I can carry around as I move through my day. And I get to cross stuff off. Who doesn’t love crossing stuff off a list.

This little todo list allows me to put the big task board out of my mind (so I can avoid those "oh my gosh I have way too much to do how will I ever get it done" thoughts). I just focus on just a few items knowing that they are steps that make sense that will move me forward towards my larger goals.

A Few Notes

You’ll notice some yellow and orange story cards on my task board on the right hand side. These are for stories that I’m not actually working on right now but I don’t want to forget about. Things like juried shows I entered and I’m waiting for results, or commission projects that are on currently being approved, etc. I know I won’t have to "do" anything this month on these stories but I don’t want to forget about them either.

You’ll also note there are not tasks for the last 2 stories on the board. That’s cause I didn’t have them written when I took this picture. I now have tasks for one of them and am working on tasks for the last one (the update of my website). This is not good scrum. I’m not sure I care.

The Rest of the Stories

The stories on this board are just the stories I want to work on for September. All of the rest of the stories (in scrum called the product backlog) are also written on index cards and they are stored on a shelf next to this board. Every once in a while I flip through them to make sure I’m not missing anything important.

I also add new stories to that pile when I think of new things I want to do. I used to have great ideas for things to do with my art career but didn’t really have a good way to capture them. I’d write some in my sketch book, some got added to todo lists and many were just forgotten. Now I keep a stack of blank note cards and just jot it down and add it to the list.

 
I find this visual and tactile representation of the goals I’m working on for the month to be really helpful. In one quick look I can see how things are going. Right now I’m thinking this is one of the better things I got out of my scrum training.