Lisa Call

To Houston!

As I mentioned in my studio newsletter a few months ago, I’m rewarding myself for the hard work I put into Dwelling: An exhibit of textile paintings by Lisa Call, by taking a vacation to see some art.

I’m headed to Houston for the weekend to see art, most specifically the Rothko Chapel but I’ll be viewing a lot of other art also. And getting a massage and indulging in room service. It’s going to be a fabulous break from life.

To that end I’m not bringing technology with me, no cell phone, no lap top, no nothing. No interruptions – my intention is to devote this time to relaxing and exhaling.

(okay – I admit – I’m bringing a DVD of Bones as its a rare treat to have a TV about – I intend to spend more time reading than watching but a bit of brainless relaxation is also nice).

Letting go any residual stress from the show preparation because when I get back on monday it’ll be time to ramp up on the next project and get moving.

I’ll also post the photos from my opening.

Happy weekend everyone!

Small Art

There are currently only 3 small textile paintings remaining with the house theme – they are listed on my artist card page.

A while back I wrote some articles about how to display these small works of art – you can see them here and here. And check out this cool idea also.

Dream #39
©2010 Lisa Call
34" x 34"
Textile Painting (Fabric hand dyed by the artist, cotton batting, cotton thread)
Purchase here

Please Join Me

Dwelling: An exhibit of textile paintings by Lisa Call
Macky Auditorium Gallery
University of Colorado at Boulder
Boulder, Colorado
February 17 – March 17, 2010
The gallery is free and open to the public on Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and to ticketed patrons during performances.

Opening Reception
Sunday, February 28, 2010
1:30-4:00pm
Artist Talk at 2:00pm

Directions
Parking Information

The Artwork

I’ve created a website with images from all of the artwork from the exhibit. See them here: Dwelling.

All of the artwork is for sale and can be purchased directly from that website. If you’d like, all artwork can also be purchased over 2 or more installments, please contact me to reserve your favorite textile painting now and make a deposit.

The ACEOs

I’m creating a limited series of ACEOs to compliment the larger artwork in the exhibit. The first 3 of these, all of which sold, were unveiled in my studio newsletter sent out on thursday evening.

Check my brand new artist trading card (aka ACEOs) webpage often for updates with additional Home themed aceos, my most affordable artwork. I’ll also update my blog when new cards are available.

All house themed artist cards will be discounted 15%, for a price of $34, during the run of Dwelling, which closes on March 17.

Dream #15
©2009 Lisa Call
4″ x 4″
Textile Painting (Fabric hand dyed by the artist, cotton batting, cotton thread)
Mounted on stretched canvas
$125 $78 + shipping
Discounted prices good through January 2nd, 2010
Purchase Here

Reminder

Today is the last day for a discount on the Dream series. See all available artwork here: South African Impressions.

Later today I’ll put up my post with my 100 accomplishements for 2009. Running behind on posts as I’m working a lot in my studio and relaxing with my kids during their break.

Dream #14
©2009 Lisa Call
4″ x 4″
Textile Painting (Fabric hand dyed by the artist, cotton batting, cotton thread)
Mounted on stretched canvas
$125 $78 + shipping
SOLD

Dream #30
©2009 Lisa Call
3″ x 3″
Textile Painting (Fabric hand dyed by the artist, cotton batting, cotton thread)
Mounted on stretched canvas
$75 $46 + shipping
Discounted prices good through January 2nd, 2010
Purchase Here

Dream #10
©2009 Lisa Call
3.5″ x 2.5″
Textile Painting (Fabric hand dyed by the artist, cotton batting, cotton thread)
Mounted on stretched canvas
$40 $28 + shipping
Discounted prices good through January 2nd, 2010
Purchase Here

Structures #100
©2009 Lisa Call
Textile Painting (Hand dyed fabric, batting, thread)
22″ x 50″

WooHoo!!

Structures #100 is finished and I’ve reached a huge milestone: 100 textile paintings completed in my first major series!

Detail

Structures #100
 
 

A comparison to the first piece in the series:

Structures #1
©2005 Lisa Call
Textile Painting (Hand dyed and commercial fabric, batting, thread)
74" x 38"

[Post updated 7/29]

The History

I’ve taken several art workshops with Nancy Crow so I’ve known about her South African arts and crafts tours for years and have always wanted to go on one. I love the colors of the African landscape (at least in photos) and I love arts and crafts, so this is pretty much the dream tour.

In the fall of 2005 I was at a workshop with Nancy and I told her I wasn’t going to do anymore workshops with her and instead I was going to save up and attend her next African adventure. I had no idea where the money was going to come from but I knew I wanted to do this.

She only does the tours every 3-5 years so I figured I had some time to save up, so I did a bit of calculating and realized that putting back money each month for the trip wouldn’t get me there anytime soon. I still dreamed about going on this trip but saved no money for it.

When I took yet another artist workshop with Nancy in 2007 (never say never) I told her again that I was going to go on the next South African tour and to let me know as soon as she started taking sign ups as the trip sells out in a week.

At that time I had $0 saved up for the vacation with no idea where the money might come from but I didn’t let that bother me, instead I just thought about how awesome it would be to go on the trip.

Making it a Reality

So along comes June of 2008 and I got an email that the sign up page for the African tour had just gone live and did I still want to go? My answer was a resounding positive YES! And, not surprisingly, because I always seem to manifest what I want, I actually had the money to go.

That same week I sold my house and as long time readers might recall, I sold my house for more than I had asked for, a lot more. More than enough to cover a month long trip to Africa. So here I am – just 2 days away from being on a plane to Africa.

Speaking of planes, I hadn’t thought much about the expense of the plane ticket and it turns out I had enough frequent flyer miles to get there for free. Pretty convenient as it turns out tickets to Africa aren’t on the cheap side.

[The story of my amazing house selling experience here: Achieving Success - it's another way cool story about things working out exactly like I wanted them to.]

My Plans

I’ve never been on a group tour before. When I went to New Zealand in 2000 it was with my family and we rented a car and did whatever we wanted on our own schedule, so this will be a new experience for me.

I had originally intended to do a bunch of planning and figure out what I could see and do in the areas where we were going and be “in the know”. I then did a huge home remodel and those plans went out the window.

I’m now on the “don’t worry about it” plan.

I only read the itinerary a few weeks ago and only because I was sitting with the nurse trying to figure out where I was going and what shots I would need. She thought that was pretty funny. I figure the right stuff will happen as it needs to.

I’m flying out a few days before the trip starts and a quilter I met online has offered for me to stay with her family, which is just about as awesome as it could be. The internet is a fabulous place.

I have bought a Dell Netbook so I will be able to send updates and stay in touch (don’t tell the folks at the day job this). I’m not sure how much internet access there will be so I’m not going to try to make plans as to how much blogging I’ll be doing. We’ll just have to wait and see.

My Art

I have no doubt this trip will have a wonderful influence on my artwork. I have a new moelskine sketch book and intend on using it and my camera often to record my adventures.

Most of my planning has been on the art project that will ensue after I return home.

I’ve outlined a new South African art project, which I unveiled in my studio newsletter earlier today. It’s a chance to prepurchase artwork from this project at a fairly significant discount by paying 1/2 up front.

An ACEO is $14 now and $14 in October(ish) when the work is complete. Several folks have already reserved their South African Impressions artwork.

You can read about the details here: South African Impressions

The Photos

I’ve been including photos in my blog post, newsletter and art project page that my dad took in 2006 in Botswana and Zambia. This trip was his final big adventure as he was diagnosed with cancer a few months after his return and passed away the following year.

I love the connection to my dad that I feel in making this journey.

One of the Most Beautiful Spots on Earth

These photos were taken on the road up to Los Alamos, New Mexico on Sunday. Beautiful. I am still so thankful to have grown up in such an enchanted location.

Studio Update

With my upcoming trip to Africa (I leave next wednesday), things are all about packing and preparing at my house these days. I’m getting more excited by the hour – it’s going to be fabulous!

I’m also working on getting my July studio newsletter out the door so look for that in your inbox in the next few days if you are a subscriber. If you aren’t, subscribe here.

I’m also fitting in a bit of time to work on my website after the quarantine of last week. I’ve put most of the functionality back into the sidebar, although the archives are now on a separate page, which you can find in the new sidebar.

I have a ton of stuff to prepare at the day job to be gone for a month so I’ve been putting in long hours there this week also.

I have no idea how long the flight is to Africa, and I’m pretty sure I don’t want to know, but I’m pretty sure sleep is the activity I have in mind for most that event to recover from all this prep work needed before I go.

Studio Sale Update

News from artfulhome.com – they have decided to put an end to the year round studio sale so at the end of July (July 27th for me) all studio sale work will be coming down.

If there is something you have your eye on in my studio sale page you need to act fast. The next studio sale won’t come around again until december/january.

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:

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.

Lines #25
Textile Painting – Mounted on stretched canvas
©2009
3" x 3"
Sold

Motivation

Today I asked my friends and followers on facebook and twitter “Why do you buy art?”

I received about 25 responses and then summarized them on a page for everyone to read. It’s here: Buying Art.

As an artist looking to sell my artwork, this information is quite interesting and very helpful. Most of the people that responded are artists so the larger art buying population might have a different take on things, or maybe not.

My hope is that over time a larger group of people will find that page and more information can be gathered (you can add your response to the page and vote for the comments you like). If this is interesting to you, please pass the link along to your audience and we’ll see how it goes.

Connection

My answer isn’t on there but there are some close ones. The feeding my soul one comes close. And the obvious – I buy art I love – art I’ll want to look at for years.

I buy art mostly from people that I know something about, many that I was introduced to online and have had conversations with. The story behind the art is part of the compelling reason to buy someone’s art. Owning someone’s art is a connection to the artist and part of the appeal.

Hugh McLeod has been talking alot about art being social objects. Interesting thoughts. He’s posts about considering collectors as art users are definitely something to think about.

 
Why do you buy art?

 
PS : The newest buzzword from gapingvoid is cube grenades. My small 3″ textile paintings, like the one above, would make excellent cube grenade. Want to start a conversation at the office? Hang a textile painting on the wall! [Update - the piece above sold a few minutes after I posted my blog entry but there are more available here: Affordable Art For Sale.]