Lisa Call

Artful Home

The Artful Home Studio Sale started today or maybe it was yesterday.

Either case you can peruse some of my older artwork that I don’t think I’ve ever shown online before. When I moved I came across some older work from my embellishing days. Lots of beads and buttons on these. I’ve also added in a few of the older pieced artworks also.

It’s a fun trip down memory lane for me to look at this work so I’ve decided to show them on the blog as a group as it’s fun to see our history.

Space Donuts

My preschool aged son wanted help with this quilt, so I let him name it. I love what he came up with.

This quilt is collage appliqued, machine quilted with rayon and metallic threads and hand beaded.

Space Donuts
© 1998 Lisa Call
25.5" x 21.5"
Quilt (fabric, beads, trim, threads, batting)
$1590 $795 – on artfulhome

 
Detail Image:

Chicken Quartet #1

A singing chicken! A group of 4 embroidered cocktail napkins found at a garage sale were the inspiration for this fun wall art.

The quilt is composed of commercial cotton fabric over dyed fabric by the artist and a selection of vintage fabrics to compliment the chickens. The piece is heavily embellished with beads and buttons for an updated folk art look.
 

Chicken Quartet #1
© 2004 Lisa Call
12.5" x 13.5"
Quilt (fabric, buttons, beads, batting, thread)
$700 $350 – on artfulhome

 
Detail Image:

El Niño

In 1997 they predicted would be a wet year for the western part of the United States due to the warming El Nino currents in the Pacific Ocean. In October my home in Colorado was buried beneath 3 feet of snow overnight. This quilt is the result of being snowed in that weekend.

Collage appliqued, heavily embellished with machine quilted with rayon and metallic threads and hand beaded.

El Niño
© 1997 Lisa Call
34" x 31"
Quilt (fabric, buttons, paint, batting, thread)
$990 $495 – on artfulhome

 
Detail Image:

Chairs #6

Chairs No. 6 is part of a series of work that was inspired by the shape of my kids’ highchair. They spent a lot of time there and I spent a lot of time washing it. So it was bound to inspire my artwork. Bright colors combined with black and white result in a very graphic and cheerful composition

Free hand cut, pieced and quilted with swirling quilting patterns in multiple complimenting colors on a home sewing machine.
 

Chairs #6
©2000 Lisa Call
18" x 18"
Quilt (fabric, batting, thread)
$390 $195 – on artfulhome

 
Detail Image:

Blossoms II

Japanese style cherry blossoms embellished with button centers. The irregular shape was fun to work with.

Raw edge applique, machine quilted, painted, embellished.
 

Blossoms II
©1997 Lisa Call
34" x 31"
Quilt (fabric, buttons, paint, batting, thread)
Sold

 
Detail Image:

Insalada Caprese

Fresh Mozzarella and Tomato Salad – a summer garden inspired artwork. A simple recipe that requires little effort (cut up cheese and tomatoes and drizzle with olive oil) and it sounds so yummy 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.

Hand dyed fabric by the artist, cotton batting, cotton thread. Free hand cut. Pieced and Quilted on a home sewing machine.
 

Insalada Caprese
©2002 Lisa Call
34" x 31"
Quilt (fabric, buttons, paint, batting, thread)
$1190 $595 – on artfulhome

 
Detail Image:

Structures #59
©2006 Lisa Call
70" x 56"
Textile Painting
 

The Brain

I’m currently reading A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future by Daniel Pink and am finding it quite interesting.

I’m not too far into it yet but being a software engineer I can definitely relate to the outsourcing of the left brain software jobs. The people remaining in the US doing software tend to be more right brain software architect types. And managers.

There was a discussion in the book about chess and why computers do it better than humans and it made me think of my textile painting Structures #59 above (a definite right brain association). This quilt has always looked like a chess board to me. In a rather abstract kind of way.

Busy

With the new position as scrum master at work (ie project manager kinda) and the 160 hours slated for my studio work over the next month, and driving kids about town I’ve had really busy. Little time for chatting or focusing on the art business.

I figure that’s okay as it’s all an ebb and flow. I’ll come around to super busy art business stuff again here soon.

Tonight was the final lecture at the Denver Art Museum in this series of the Logan lecture series. Beverly Semmes gave an interesting talk about her work. The big purple robes in Denver were her first sale to a museum, and in fact her first sale of any kind of her art. What an awesome piece of news that must have been to receive.

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.

Structures #73 – In Progress
Textile Painting
©2009 Lisa Call
Detail

Holiday Weekend

This 3 day weekend I work in my studio 16 hours. It was the first weekend it felt like home again. I’ve loved having the space but hadn’t really felt it was broken in yet. Now it does.

I’m most thankful it rained all weekend, so I relieved myself of all responsibility for pulling the nearly 2 foot tall weeds in the landscape free yard. The day will come when I’ll have to deal with that issue, but with the rain I was free to just make art.

I’m nearly finished putting the surface stitching (quilting) on Structures #73 and started some new ACEOs. The first ones of the year.

I also made big progress on Structures #100. I decided to make it the first new larger piece I designed in my new studio and it went together well. The composition is done so now I need to get it basted so I can start quilting it also.

Planning

It feels great to be motivated to make art again. Seems like it’s been a long time.

After my post a few days about about adding some more structure to my studio time, I decided to set some specific goals for the year to keep me motivated.

For 2009 my studio goals:

- 550 or more hours of studio time (~10 hrs a week)
- 256 or more days making art (70% of the days in the year)

As of today I’ve put in 126 hours in the studio and made art 68 days this year. To make my goals I’m going to have to make art pretty much every day for the rest of the year and put in at least 15 hours a week.

I’m be in South Africa for nearly a month later this summer, so I’ve factored in that time away from the studio also.

As a point of reference, in 2007 I put in 870 hours in my studio. The year I had a very clearly defined goal of 20 hours a week in my studio.

In 2008 it was 446 hours in the studio. A year with the laid back “let’s not set specific goals” plan. I also sold my house, moved into a house with no studio and started a major construction project – so to be fair I was a bit busier also.

Next up is going to be doing some planning and setting specific goals for the business side of art. I’ve been very reluctant to do that in the past and I think it’s time to get more serious about tracking the hours I spend on the business and keeping a better schedule.

I have big ideas of things I’d like to accomplish – specific goals will help me get there.

Lines #22
Textile Painting
©2009 Lisa Call
3" x 3"
$75
Purchase Here

Photography Lesson

This morning I took a 3 hour private photography/photoshop class. For years I’ve been saying I needed to figure out photoshop better and how my camera worked better. I finally did it.

Some of the best money I have spent in a long time. While I’m still not an expert I know a lot more and don’t feel quite as confused about the entire process. Amazing how investing in my career and gaining some skills can feel so empowering.

Lines #22

Above is Lines #22 processed today just after the lesson. It’s a bright magenta and lime green textile painting.

Below is what it looked like in my studio newsletter that I sent out a few weeks back:

Not so good on my screen. In fact – horrible.

Color Profile

The major different between these 2 images is the color management. I had used the Spyder 3 to calibrate my laptop monitor. Basically is was really really far off. So we removed the profile and things look a heck of a lot better now. All the images that were processed prior to getting my laptop are looking right again.

My big to-do after this lesson is to buy a flat screen monitor because my laptop monitor is not the best choice for doing color work. I also need to buy the xrite color management stuff instead of using spyder. It kinda worked on my old desktop monitor but it pretty useless for my laptop.

What I learned

A lot of folks on facebook asked me to pass on what I learned today. I said that was kinda hard because I filled in gaps in my understanding by taking a private lesson vs. doing a group class.

I’ve done a lot of reading about digital photogarphy/photoshop stuff and used to hang out with a bunch of photography geeks at work (we had a weekly photo geek lunch hour where we talked photoshop and shared photos by projecting them in one of our conference rooms). So I had a basic understanding about how all this goes together.

So the general list of things we covered today:

- Color management on windows – how it works – what the profiles are doing (translating the colors between between color spaces – this is a huge topic and tons of much more qualified people than I have written about it. Here’s an article by the guy I took a class with: Color Profiles).
- How to take an okay photo in my studio – it’s not a perfect setup but it’s what I have. I might invest in a few lights to get more even light coverage. The big thing I learned here are some tricks on how to get the image squared up – use a grid – probably obvious but I hadn’t thought of it.
- Some default settings for photoshop and camera raw in photoshop for better images. (use perceptual intent if you care mostly about color relationships, use relative if you care more about tonal relationships – I’m mostly thinking I’ll use relative)
- Some processing/default settings for camera raw – I think photographers don’t use adobe camera raw so much any more but it’s good enough for my purposes.
- How to sharpen images using the filter sharpen->unsharpen mask.
- We looked at some very specific images of mine I’m having problems with. Really saturated colors are definitely the most difficult.
- How to read the histograms.

I’ll be hiring him to do a second lesson that will focus on printing my images and getting them as good as possible in photoshop.

I’m not sure of what help that might be to anyone but wanted to summarize it for those that asked.

For anyone in the Denver area looking to hire someone for similar lessons the guy I hired was Nat Colalson. He does beautiful photography and also does a lot of teaching.

Structures #109 – In Progress
Lisa Call
Textile Painting
©2009
~80" x 80" (unfinished)

More Art Made During Construction

Structures #109 is another textile painting that I designed and constructed in my temporary 10′x12′ bedroom/studio while my house was under construction.

I love working with brown. It’s always the first color of fabric I run out of during the winter when I don’t do any fabric dyeing.

My fence motif got a bit more chopped up in this piece as I was playing around with the square shapes that resulted from some doodling I was doing.

Studio Lighting

My posts on studio lighting will return tomorrow. I spent my weekend up in Estes Park helping Alyson Stanfield with her Art Marketing online class.

Between that and getting sick last week my plan for the week pretty much went out the window, but I’m back on track this week and ready to make lots of forward progress.

Markings #26 – In Progress
Textile Painting
©2009
~80" x 80" (unfinished)

New Work

I’ve decided to take a break from the new studio posts for tonight and show some new art instead, lest I forget I actually do make art also.

During the remodel I designed and constructed 5 new pieces for a curated show. The curators have selected the work so I can now show the ones they did not choose.

The above textile painting is in progress (it still needs the surface stitching/quilting – many many hours left to go).

This work was designed and constructed in a small 10′ by 12′ room that also doubled as my bedroom so I was never able to stand more than about 6 or 7 feet away from it. Makes for some tricky design work.

I posted a photo of the strips of fabric I used back in Janurary (these turn into the thin lines in the finished work). So now you can see what these turned into.

 
Happy weekend everyone!

Structures #40
Textile Painting
©2005
44" x 44"

Create Denver Expo

This saturday I will be giving a talk, titled Social Media: Marketing Miracle or Waste of Time, at the Create Denver Expo. I’ve attended this expo the past 3 years (previously called Building Creative Businesses Expo) and am looking forward to both participating and speaking this time around.

The talk will be from 3pm-4pm.

Web 2.0, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace, Blogging etc., etc. Everyone’s talking about social networking. What is it? How might an artist use it? What can you expect in return? Is it really a valuable marketing tool or just another way to waste a lot of time on the computer? My first hand experiences with social networking as an artist (and a bit of geek-talk based on my 26 years as a software engineer online).

They’ve already had to move my talk to a larger room based on registration so that’s pretty exciting. You can sign up for the expo and my workshop if you are interested here. It’s only $5 for the entire day.

Structures #40

I made the above textile painting a few days after driving up to Grand Lake from Denver in the fall of 2005. The colors in the valley were incredible: dusty greens, purples and oranges – different grasses and bushes that blended together into a beautiful drive.

I don’t think I’ve ever shown this textile painting in public, it’s one of those that was made and then I moved on to the next. Back in the days when I was very focused on just making work and pushing myself forward and not putting much thought into marketing or even showing the work. Fun time!

Construction Update

They contractors are working feverishly to get everything done for the final inspection on friday so there is a lot of activity at my house these days. The house won’t be finished but it will be very close after the inspection. I didn’t upload images last night but here are the first few days of the week:

March 16: Moving Day (I hired movers to put my piano up on my hardwood floor & bring my stuff home from storage).
March 17: Flooring/Sidewalk/Lights/Fridge