Lisa Call

Markings #16    ©2007    45"x 68"

Courage

I decided I wanted to give an artist talk during my show because I think there is huge value in talking about ones work out loud. I do a lot talking about my work in my head and I do a lot of writing about it, which are both super valuable. I’m looking to add more speaking about my work to my life.

It was also about courage. Doing something that seems scary is the only way to feel courageous.

For me getting up in front of a group of people and talking isn’t super scary because I love teaching. It is a little scary, I can’t deny that, but standing in front of group of people and rambling on is something I love doing and it’s why I love teaching.

My biggest fear was not standing up and talking but that I wouldn’t shut up and people would wander away bored.

Preparation

I spent quite a bit of time thinking about what I wanted to say about my artwork and wrote up an outline for the talk. I didn’t really practice it much other than to run through the outline in my head and get down the order of things I wanted to say and try to remember the main points I wanted to highlight. I think I do a better job speaking when I just ramble about a topic rather than repeat a rehearsed speech.

One thing I knew is I had never gone to an artist talk, or at least not one I had remembered so I was a little nervous I didn’t really know what one was. When asked by friends at work what an artist talk was I said I wasn’t sure as I had never seen one and probably should.

So the universe stepped in and a week before my talk a friend invited me to go see an artist talk at a gallery here in Denver. I didn’t find the talk very good but it was a great experience because while sitting there I finalized the outline for my talk by thinking about the things I wanted to hear as an audience member.

Intending an Audience

In early January I set an intent that there would be 30 or more people at my opening. This gallery has no mailing list of it’s own as their goal is to decorate the walls of the lobby of the theater. Although the gallery has amazing traffic going through during performances, which is why I love showing there. So those 30 people were most likely to find out about the show as a result of my publicity efforts (blogging, postcards, trying to get the press to pay attention).

I journaled about my intent for 30 people, told a few people about it and asked them to send me good thoughts along those lines.

The week before the opening many of my friends told me they weren’t going to make it to the opening. I tried not to panic and think: Where were those 30 people going to come from when the people I thought might be there weren’t going to be there?

Instead I told myself that this meant I would get a chance to meet new people. I took a deep breath and continued to believe that 30+ people would attend.

The Talk

Although I didn’t count, the number of people in attendance through the opening was near 30 with over 20 in attendance at my talk. Woohoo. I was thrilled.

To top it off an amazing artist I’ve had the pleasure of working next to in a workshop for 2 weeks came to my opening. From Chicago! She flew out to Denver just to see my show. I’m still smiling. What an honor and wonderful surprise.

I feel my talk went well. I said what I wanted to say and I loved every minute of it. People asked really great questions and I met some new people after the talk and enjoyed getting to talk with them.

And no one wandered off bored because I wouldn’t shut up. (at least that I noticed)

Markings #16

Another piece in my show, Markings: Repetition and Pattern. My thought in this piece was to include a wide open area in the composition. I had to rework the design a few times but I’m quite pleased with the final results. I’m definitely going to explore this idea in future work

In addition I managed to put a bit of white in this piece. One of my goals in 2007 was to put some white in my work. I didn’t get much in there but this is a start.

Markings #7    ©2007    64"x 72"

Markings - Artist Statement

A while back I posted my first pass at an artist statement for the Markings series. Here’s the latest version that I’m using for the show: Markings: Repetition and Pattern.

I began drawing in 2005 and was quickly fascinated with cross hatching. I dispensed with drawing objects and became obsessed with drawing pages of closely spaced parallel lines in abstract patterns. I love the quality of the hand drawn line and wanted to capture the beauty of basic marking making in my textile paintings. The Markings series is a result of that investigation.

The series refers to the comfort humans derive from repetition. We are soothed by the well known patterns that result from duplication: telephone poles in a line, a grouping of trees in a forest, our unchanging daily routines. The artwork also raises the question of how we handle the unforeseen, a break in the pattern. Disruption is often inevitable, no longer making it unexpected but part of the pattern itself.

Artist Talk

Today is the artist reception for the show up in Boulder [links for parking and directions are on my website here]. I spent yesterday evening baking cookies for the event. I love baking and it seemed like a good way to relax before my artist talk today. First time I’ve ever given one but the word of the year is courage so I decided to give it a try.

Starting today and running over the next 14 days I’m going to post the images of the 15 pieces of artwork in the show. I’ll follow it up with installation images, so those of you that can’t make it will be able to see it virtually.

I’d send you each some cookies but wordpress doesn’t have that feature yet.

Markings #10

I decided to start with the piece on the show postcard. If you click the image you can see it in better detail. This is one of my favorite pieces in the series. It feels very Colorado to me - tree trunks and blue sky.

Here’s a detail of my usual very close parallel line surface stitching: