Lisa Call

ACEO #35
©2009 Lisa Call
3.5" x 2.5"
ACEO – textiles, beaded, thread
Purchase Here

Coaching

I hired Christine Kane as my coach this year and joined her platinum level mastermind coaching circle. I’ve learned much from Christine over the past couple years and appreciate all she has to offer and very highly recommend her Uplevel Your Life Mastery program and retreats.

Christine has leveraged a very popular and successful method of marketing online, ie The Client Attraction System + variations from other online gurus, and is now fabulously successful and teaching marketing along with the mindset work she is so amazing at.

I have no doubt Christine will be excellent teaching the business and marketing stuff also and I’m sure her clients will be equally successful when they follow these formulas because they do work.

Problem is that style of marketing is not for me. Doesn’t fit my personality, doesn’t fit my goals, doesn’t sound like fun to do, etc. The result was a lot of friction in our coaching relationship and so last week it came to an end.

I still think Christine is fabulous and am grateful for all she gives the world, she just isn’t the person to help me with my business decisions. I am now working with a local coach here in Denver as I find in person meetings to be a better fit for my needs.

Transparency

The standard of success in life isn’t the things. It isn’t the money or the stuff — it is absolutely the amount of joy you feel.

— Abraham

My way of writing and marketing is very simply stated with a single word: transparency. Pretty much not much happens that I don’t write about the “why” of it. Like pricing of my artwork or this post, explaining this decision. This is me at my authentic best and where I find joy.

I’m not a pioneer in this type of marketing (Steve Pavlina is an example of a very successful blogger using a similar style) and over on makebigart I’ll write more about the different styles of online marketing some day as it is interesting look at the marketing on the internet and think about how the different ideas can be leveraged in selling art online.

I absolutely believe in abundance and I have no doubt that my style of marketing will bring me exactly the success and joy and I am looking for.

Beaded ACEO #1
©2007 Lisa Call
3.5" x 2.5"
Beaded ACEO – textiles, beaded, thread
Purchase Here

Huh?

When organizing my new studio I came across the above ACEO* that I made a few years back. It was the very first ACEO I made and clearly not my normal type of art.

Shiny non cotton fabric, lots of beads – not trademarkl Lisa Call. Definitely one of those fun playing days in the studio.

In the big studio reorg all of these types of fabrics have been pulled to the side as I have no plans to do anything with them again so this is definitely a unique one of a kind sort of thing.

I do think I’ll make more beaded aceos (hence the name), as I love beading, but they’ll be quite different. More on that another day when I finish a small beaded piece I’ve been working on for years.

Nearing the Finish Line

I have a big studio deadline on Tuesday. Images of the 2 textile paintings for the secret show have to be in the mail (fed ex) by the end of the day. So – where am I?

I’ve put in 100 hours since June 10th finishing the quilting on these 2 pieces. Tonight I finished the first half of the second quilt, leaving me about 35 hours of quilting to do in the next 4 days. That is a lot of work, especially with a full day of work on fri and mon. I can see some serious focus will be called into play this weekend.

Please send lots of good vibes my way! I’m sure I can do it -because I want to! I’m loving all this studio time and some extra positive energy is always great also.

 
* ACEO stands for “art cards, editions and originals”. Originally known as ATC, Artist Trading Card, and are traded between artists. When sold to the public they are referred to as ACEOs. The primary rule for an ACEO or ATC is they be 3 1/2″ x 2 1/2″ – the size of a trading card. They are created in many different mediums and are collectible, trade able and affordable art for everyone.

Resting

I’ve put in a huge number of hours in the studio and on the art business the last few weeks. I’m nearing 1/2 way done on the big deadline coming up in July so my brain took a vacation.

Last night I watched a movie with my daughter that on a scale of 1-10 was maybe a 1. Tonight I watched Mall Cop, which maybe doesn’t even make it to 1 on that scale. This is serious “lisa needs a break” time.

Tomorrow I’ll be back to making art and dyeing fabric cause this deadline isn’t going to go away.

Living with Art

In the meantime here are some images of more ways to display small art and a small sampling of the art in my house:

My bulletin board – the aceo in the lower left hand corner was made by Jessica Torrant. Around it are my journey blessings from Journey Juju. The card to the right is from Sandy Woock (a brilliant textile artist who has a new blog). The postcard is of art by Charles Waller. The dream catcher was made by my mom (who is very talented but has no website).

There are also fortunes from fortune cookies on there, some photos of rocks (one sent to me by my sister), a card from a hospital with 101 ways to praise a child, and a few quotes I like: “You can be right or you can be free” and “I won’t let anything into my life I don’t absolutely love”.

I have a bulletin board above this one that ends up with the more practical things that people put on bulletin boards – like the recycling pick up schedule. Although it seems to have more art than life management stuff on it also.
 

This is Lines #28, a small 3″x3″ textile painting stitched to canvas, posing in front of some old glass insulators, which came from Kansas from my grandparents – they are way cool. These little artworks on stretched canvas are great cause they can stand up on their own or be hung on a wall.

Lines #28 is available here: Lines #28.
 

This is Lines #23, another piece mounted on stretched canvas. The plant in this photo is a favorite meal for my cats so adding a bit of color to the scene maybe hides the bit marks.

These glass bottles are from my sister and the lava rocks (which probably have a more technical name) are from New Zealand. I brought a lot of rocks home from New Zealand – they’ve got really good ones.

Lines #23 is available for purchase here: Lines #23.

Two small pieces by Tina Mammoser, a purple aceo and an orange 5″ horizons. I love them both and see them daily as they sit next to my clock in my bedroom.
 

This is a larger context for where they live. That is Structures #44 on the wall. To the right is a howling coyote my mom’s husband made for me many years ago (Fred was also very talented) sitting next to a pinecone I long since forgot where it came from but I’ve had it forever so it must mean something.

And here is Lines #31 hanging out with some plants on top of my piano. I love having little spots of color about my house. (these aloe plants are babies from my big aloe that seems to generate more new plants than I know what to do with – like zucchini it seems – want some?).Lines #31 is available here: Lines #31.

ACEO #19 and ACEO #21
©2008 Lisa Call
photo by NIkki Jackson

Displaying in Style

I’ve recently started asking a few of my collectors* if they could send me images of how they are displaying their artwork and Nikki very wonderfully sent me the above image of the 2 aceos she purchased recently.

[* if I haven't asked you it just means I haven't had time yet - but I'd love an image if you could send me one - I love seeing how you are displaying my art.]

Her comments on the framing (note they were photographed without the perspex box due to reflection):

I used velcro to mount the pieces, in part because I love the way it makes them sit slightly out from the surface, and cast shadows. It may be only 1/4″ clearance but it makes a difference! The perspex box slides over the frame and meets that small black ledge, with about 1/2″ clearance to the art work.

I like the sense of unity, in terms of presentation, for these small works of art, especially as they are all in the same room.

Jane Davila recently posted an image on her blog of her recent art work purchases. That’s ACEO #28 in the top frame in this post: Art in The Studio.

They look great – thank you Nikki and Jane for your support and purchase of my artwork!

Little Pieces of Art

I knew about aceos for a few years before I bought one or started making them. I thought “what could one possibly do with artwork so small?”. Course I make big stuff, 4 or 7 feet wide, and 2.5 inches is almost microscopic in comparision.

Then I bought some. And made some. And it became clear.

These small pieces of art brighten up the little corners of our homes and can have an even larger presence once they are framed either alone or in groups.

I’ve got aceo’s tucked into corners of my house that add wonderful color and interest to areas that can’t fit larger artwork.

Take it With You

I think one of my most favorite ways a collector uses one of my ACEOs is Kit Vincent, the very first person to buy one of my ACEOs and the owner of aceo #1.

She carries her around with her in her wallet so she has art with her all the time. What a great idea.

She posted a photo of this here: Art In the Mail

And You?

How do you display your aceo collection?

 
PS: My aceos available for purchase are here: aceos

ACEO #33
©2009 Lisa Call
3.5" x 2.5"
Textile Painting (hand dyed fabric, batting, thread)
Sold

ACEO #31
©2009 Lisa Call
3.5" x 2.5"
Textile Painting (hand dyed fabric, batting, thread)
Purchase Here

Blogging

Looks like I have dropped the ball on blogging this week so this post will be a collection of thoughts I’ve wanted to write about but haven’t done.

First up, why I didn’t blog (I ponder these things it’s great feedback for moving forward):

1. I sent my studio newsletter on thursday evening so my writing this week was focused on the newsletter. I’m now writing a monthly newsletter so I’m anticipating the interruption from the newsletter to become less as time goes by and I establish this more as a habit.

If you aren’t a subscriber you can see an online version of this newsletter here: June Studio News. The above ACEO was inspired by the new large textile painting included in that newsletter, Structures #73.

2. I have a project due in mid july for an exhibit. I need to complete 2 very large textile paintings between now and then. I knew I needed to do this but didn’t really think it through or I would have started a lot sooner than earlier this week because I’m estimation 120-160 hours of studio time will be needed to complete these 2 textile paintings.

Oops! Not that I mind working many hours in the studio, but it does cut into writing time. So blogging could be a bit light the next 4-5 weeks. Or maybe not. We’ll see how it plays out. I’m not worried but I am staying very focused.

3. I have finally recovered from being sick earlier this week, which required a few nights of going to bed really early. One night at 7:30. What a treat. I didn’t worry too much about blogging when my brain wasn’t working.

Photography

I’m really excited with my images these days – they are so much better than they used to be. Tomorrow is my second private photography/photoshop class and we’re going to talk about printing.

I’m not looking to print giclees but I do need to print out portfolio pages so it’ll be great to get that figured out. If we have time we’ll work on photographing black and red artwork also.

Assumptions

Someone asked me what my ACEOs were made out of. I’ve always assumed it’s obvious, which I realize is a really bad assumption. Someone finds my blog or website for the first time and they have no history or knowledge of my artwork, it’s far from obvious.

So I’m going to start including a bit more information with my titles.

I wonder what else I’m assuming cause I figure it is obvious but people would like to know. Hm…

Hand Dyed Fabric

I started selling my hand dyed fabric from my blog. I can’t say I’m surprised the bright/darker colors sold first. I kinda expected that.

I am surprised the lights aren’t really selling at all. Okay, I’m not that surprised. They aren’t all sexy and rich. Good thing is I’ll be happy to use these in my work and will as I use lights very often. I couldn’t have made Structures #35, which was purchased by the University of Cleveland Hospitals for their art collection, without some gorgeous lights.

 

Structures #35
©2005 Lisa Call
49"x32"
Textile Painting (hand dyed fabric, batting, thread)
Corporate Art Collection

Blocks

Now that I think about it there is a 4th reason I haven’t blogged much. I told Paul I would write up some thoughts about the Sandy Skoglund lecture I attended last month so I jotted down a few notes after the lecture.

Then I lost them, then found them and said I’d write the post (this has been a conversation on twitter). Then amazingly enough I’ve lost them again. I want to write this post but it’s not really working out. So my brain gets stuck about blogging because I want to write the Skoglund post but I don’t. So then I don’t write a post at all.

This is the kind of crazy stuff my brain does to get my blocked at times. Not just about writing but about many things.

I promised someone I’d help them with their website months ago but haven’t finished that work. So here I am wanting to do my website but this guilt over not finishing theirs stops me. I know it’s absolutely ridiculous (I really can work on my own website even though I haven’t finished theirs) yet it happens and has been an issue for months.

So I decided to put an end to this block. Tomorrow I’ll be turning over the website as is – what ever I get done is great and anything else they want they can hire someone to do the work. So that energy drain is going to get cleared out and I can move forward.

I find that when I get stuck I can very often trace it to some crazy stuff like this.

 
Where are you blocked? What can you do about it?

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:

ACEO #37
Textile Painting
©2009
2.3" x 3.5"
Sold

Busy

I think I have not yet written a blog post about a big change that occurred in my life recently. I am now a scrum master at work. I know – I can hear the collective “what? huh?” Basically I’m a project manager with a cool title.

This means my days at work are a lot busier. There is something every minute that needs to be taken care of and I have to actually keep a todo list instead of having just one or two things I’m working on.

It’s pretty fun so far.

I plan on writing a big post about this at some point, about how it fits in with my year of expansion and integrity, but for now this is what I have time for. And it’s my way of saying…

Sorry I am still behind on blog comments. I will catch up over the next few days. One post at a time if I need to. There are some good questions in there that I want to answer.

New Art

I’m very happy to report I have 3 new ACEOs completed this week and the first one I posted above. I love love this little house – love the chopped off roof.

Reminds me of moving into my first house with the husband. He was backing the uhaul up the driveway and came within a few inches of ripping the overhang off the garage. He didn’t do it but for some reason that image never has left my mind.

I’ll rephotograph the other 2 and post them soon.

Ascending #1(working title)
Textile Painting
©2009
8" x 8" – To be mounted on stretched canvas
In progress

Ascending

The other day I was browsing facebook and came across a note that Martin Puryear had a fan page.

I started looking through photos of his work, which I love, and came across this piece: Ladder for Booker T Washington and it reminded me that I was going to do ladder themed art way back in 2001 but got side tracked by fences (my structures series, which currently is comprised of 111 textile paintings and still growing).

I wrote a note (ie tweet) about this on twitter. Encouraged by a friend who saw the note (thank you Joanie) I headed straight to the studio to get to work.

It’s taken a few more studio sessions to work out the kinks but Ascending #1 (still working on the title) is above. It’s not yet got the surface stitching so the texture, which will soften it a bit, is missing. I’m loving what I see so far. Much to explore in this new series.

Why Ladders?

It feels like the right transition from my Home series,which might be over, or it might not, we’ll see, right now I’ve got ladders on my mind.

This year is about expanding and growing. Ladders are all about moving up. And I’ve certainly looked at plenty the last few months during construction.

Not to mention the original inspiration behind ladders, which was my growing up in Northern New Mexico. I spent many hours at Bandelier National Monument climbing up the ladders to hang out in the caves.

We used to tell the tourists we were native Anisazi – er – make that Ancient Pueblo People – apparently Anasazi is no longer correct according to the Bandelier website:

This outdated term has a Navajo origin and can be roughly translated as "ancient enemies," thus the term is no longer used.

Hm – guess I missed that update.

Anyway, back to ladders, a popular hike in Bandelier is to the ceremonial cave which requires ascending a very large number of ladders to get to it. Or at least I recall it being a large number as I was terrified of heights and of those ladders. Every time we did this hike I’d be stressed about the ladders. So part of the appeal of doing ladder motifs is about courage and doing things anyway, in face of the fear.

Ascending – expanding – courage. That’s what the ladder series will be about.

The Studio is Painted

And speaking of going up – look at my studio! The paint went up today. I’m am dancing with joy over this.

They are scheduled to finish the electrical in there this week (well maybe not lights, they aren’t here yet) and I can move in (without carpet) by the weekend! Yay!! It’ll be another month before I bring in all my studio furniture and really set up but this is the first huge exciting step.

I’m going to do a series of post about building a new studio, I think in the month of march, so I’ll talk about paint colors and all that in more detail later. Everything is white except the stairway wall, which is a pinky/purpley light brown color, which ties the studio into the rest of the house as it’s all open.

It is absolutely beautiful!

Habits in a Construction Zone

Last week I was very disciplined, got a ton of stuff done. This week I’m just going with the flow.

My post about starting the habit of walking, well, out the window that went. It’s 9 degrees here in Denver. Who am I kidding, I’m not starting a new habit in 9 degrees.

I’m still thinking about habits I want to put in place, but when your kitchen moves around your house every month or so, it’s hard to have any sort of habit.

As you can see my latest construction photos – the kitchen is now in the entry way – which used to be my son’s bedroom until 2 days ago. New front door, many walls are gone and the place looks awesome (although maybe not finished): January 27 Construction Photos.

Four Days Remaining

I have been absolutely thrilled with the positive response to my announcement that my prices are going up on February 1st. Thank you to all of you for the positive comments, thoughts and a big huge thank you to those buying my art this month.

There are only a handful of pieces left on my small artworks for sale page. Thank you – it’s so exciting to sell my artwork.

I plan on focusing my effort in the smaller works to pieces mounted on stretched canvas and am not sure I’ll be making these little ACEO’s anymore. I like the look of the little textile pieces mounted on canvas so I might phase these guys out for a consistent look in the smaller sizes.

I still have a few available if you’re interested in owning one of these. [ACEO stands for “art cards, editions and originals”. Originally known as ATC, Artist Trading Card, and are traded between artists. When sold to the public they are referred to as ACEOs. The primary rule for an ACEO or ATC is they be 3 1/2″ x 2 1/2″ - the size of a trading card. They are created in many different mediums and are collectible, trade able and affordable art for everyone.]

Available ACEOs [Update - they've all been sold] (I’m going for the world’s longest blog post here it feels like):

ACEO #28
©2008
2.5" x 3.5"
Sold

ACEO #19
©2008
2.5" x 3.5"
Sold

ACEO #21
©2008
2.5" x 3.5"
Sold

ACEO #23
©2008
2.5" x 3.5"
Sold

ACEO #24
©2008
2.5" x 3.5"
Sold

ACEO #25
©2008
2.5" x 3.5"
Sold

ACEO #21
©2008
2.5" x 3.5"
Sold

Yum

Today’s joy is brought to you buy some delicious pizza the kids and I had for dinner. Yum. We sat and savored every bite. Except my preteen daughter, who was practicing staring off into space and ignoring me, which I must say was great fun to observe, especially when she couldn’t resist and would smile at what we were saying.

Friday dinner with the kids – priceless.

Construction

They did work today, I didn’t feel like taking photos when I got home from work. So tomorrow there will be an update cause they are working on the studio all through the weekend. I think tomorrow I’ll have windows.

I get to go shopping for stuff now, faucets and bathtubs and a bunch of other stuff that I have completely forgotten. Not being a shopper type this is going to be a challenge for me, but I am determined to have fun with it. How many times does one get to pick out a bathtub?

My daughter wants an orange one. I hope they don’t make such things. How could I say no? Think they have any resale value at all? Wonder if there would be a matching toilet and sink.

In the Studio

I’m in the middle of making a new batch of 3" square lines paintings mounted on canvas. I’m also working on a new piece with a color scheme suggested by a reader. I don’t do commissions per say but if there are some colors you’d like to see in a piece, I can see what I can do with them in your requested size. If you like it, you can buy it, if you don’t I’ll put it up for sale on my small art for sale website.

The above ACEOs was inspired by Structures #99:

Structures #99
©2008
33" x 39"
$7000

Structures #104
©2008
6"x 6" – Mounted on stretched canvas
Sold

Confession

Time for a confession. When I listed the textile paintings for sale on my small art for sale webpage a few weeks ago I said 6 of the pieces (Lines #1-#5 and Structures #104) were mounted on painted canvas. Truth was I had painted the canvases and I was pretty sure I could figure out how to attach them, but I didn’t think they would sell right away and I was going to take them with me to North Carolina to figure it out.

Er – nope – Lines #1, #3, #4 and #5 sold via twitter within a few minutes of tweeting about it. I hadn’t even announced the sale on my blog. I was leaving town in a couple days and had to figure out how to do this asap so I could get the work in the mail.

Turns out the little 3" square textile paintings are easy as the stretcher bars are small and I can stitch from the backside of the canvas and it went fairly quickly. And looked really nice. Like this:

Lines #2
3" x 3" – mounted on stretched canvas
Sold

I had a few minutes before leaving on my trip to tackle Structures #104 and wasn’t quite as successful. The stretcher bars are much larger on these larger 6" canvases and stitching next to them is not an option. The stitching has to go under the bars to hold the textile painting correctly and I was having a really really hard time figuring out how to do it. Oops!

Success

I ran out of the 3" canvases and wanted to make some more work this week so I decided to go for the 4" canvases and I bought and made a few new textile paintings in that size: Home #6, Home #7 and Lines #7.

Today was the day to tackle attaching these things on to canvases with 1 1/2" wide stretchers. Turned out that it isn’t all that hard. It’s not exactly easy but other than the one I got on upside down (never sign the back of the canvas before getting the textile painting in place) it went pretty smoothly. The trick is to sew from the front – in between textile painting and canvas. It’s a bit funky but works out great.

Here are my results:

Home #7 and #6
4" x 4" each – mounted on stretched canvas
Home #6 – Sold
Home #7 – Sold

 

Lines #7
4" x 4" – mounted on stretched canvas
Sold

Even Bigger

That accomplished I went back to Structures #104 and it’s 6" canvas, shown at the top of the post and mastered it. It’s just more stitching than the 4" canvases but same size stretcher bars.

Structures #104 and Structures #103 (not on canvas but also a small work for sale) were informed by Structures #45. I had it on the wall in my studio because it recently came back from an art consultant so it became the object of inspiration.

Here’s a quick look at these (it’s picture day on the blog tonight):

Structures #103
©2008
6"x 17.5"
Sold

 
 

Structures #45
©2005
28" x 28"
$4000

For Sale

Yes – I know – as I talk about affordable art the subject of sales seems to be brought up a lot. Probably because that is the point. I’ll finish this up soon and be back to my normal posts, but I have a few more things to say.

I’m working on a post for Christine Kane’s blog about my word of the year, courage. Talking about my artwork being for sale on my blog requires courage. Art and money are a bit weird sometimes and commerce on a blog is also a bit touchy, but forge ahead I am, knowing that my art does add much value to the world and unless I make it clear it is for sale it tends to just hang out at my place with me.

So, all the pieces in this post are available for sale on the Small Art for Sale webpage, except Lines #2, which sold in the middle of preparing for this post.

Most of these shown today are new so I did a bit of clean up and moved the sold pieces off that page and onto a sold page. In addition to the work shown here there are a few other new Lines piece (#6 and #8) and a couple of new ACEOs (#28 and #29).

I also did this because rumor has it a blogger with a huge readership is going to mention the 2 group artists websites I’m a part of so we might be getting a lot of traffic tomorrow. That would be great! (A reminder they are Fine Art Department and Small Art Showcase – I will get these into my sidebar soon so I don’t mention them so much in the blog).

And one last photo of all these guys on canvas at more of an angle so you can see how cool they look on there. I ordered some 2.5" x 3.5" canvases and will be putting some of my ACEOs on them cause I’m loving how this looks.