Lisa Call

A Word not a Resolution

A few years ago I read about Christine Kane’s idea of picking a word for the year instead of making resolutions. As I was never a big resolution fan this worked for me.

I was more into predictions. In 1999 I asked my kids their predictions for the year. Their answers: 7 year old son: “I’ll be in boy scouts”, 3 year old daughter: “French fries and hamburger. Go to McDonalds and eat in the car. No, I want chicken nugget fingers”.

I predicted I’d get the house organized (hm – that kinda sounds like a resolution). Either way it didn’t happen. Although my daughter might have gotten a burger but my son lasted only a few months in scouts before quitting.

So this word thing sounds good to me. I’m a big fan of boiling things down to a simple concept as the resolution wasn’t working very well.

In 2008 I selected courage and made some huge changes in my life, in 2009 I went with expansion and integrity and it brought more amazing things into my life.

A New Decade

Every year I want to pick the same word, Joy, because when I boil down my intentions to my most basic desire, all I really want is to be happy. Blissfully, joyously happy.

Yet I never pick this word as I am a 3 on the enneagram (a personality indicator kinda like a myers briggs but maybe more spiritual – I find them both interesting – btw – I’m an INTJ).

As to the enneagram – the 3s – we are the achievers. We get stuff done. We get a lot of stuff done. And sitting around laughing is great but it doesn’t cross anything off the todo list.

I pass by Joy every year with a bit of longing. No more. I’m declaring the 10s as my decade for Joy. So in everything I do, I am intending joy. And much blissfulness and smiling.

I might pick it as my word of the decade for the 2020s too, if things go well the next 10 years.

Moving Forward in 2010

As I think about 2010 and my plans I can see big ideas. Huge exciting things in my head that I want to do.

I also see some things in both my professional and personal life that need a bit of work on the ground level so I can grow in a sustainable way.

My intention is to put a lot of focus on the foundations of my art business, such as my website, inventory, image storage, etc. All the systems that keep it running smoothly.

Ditto for my personal life. I want to look at my habits and beliefs and focus on making sure the foundation is solid. I’m at the beginning of a new relationship and establishing a healthy base is key.

Yet I don’t want to just muck around on the systems and get stuck in the basement. I have big ideas for how to grow all parts of my life in new and exciting ways. I intend to find joy by doing new fun stuff, not just working on the basics.

With that in mind, my word for 2010 is Construct.

Yes – definitely a ‘getting things done’ 3 kinda word.

It reminds me of my home construction project – the importance of the solid foundation but also the fun of framing the big new studio.

2010 is going to be yet another fabulous year.

 
What’s your word of the year? If you wrote a blog post about it please link to it in the comments – I’d love to read about what everyone is intending.

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.

Structures #95
©2008 Lisa Call
52" x 34"
Textile Painting (hand dyed fabric, batting, thread)

Music

Many (most? all?) artists are happy to talk about the music they listen to in their studio while creating art. I’m certainly no exception and have written about it before. Today’s post is a bit of a stream of consciousness and my music listening.

So now the confession – I’m not a big music person. It’s not that I don’t like music, it’s just I can’t be bothered to learn very much about it and there are days and weeks that go by when I forget to listen to it.

I like silence. I like the meditative quiet as I stitch parallel lines back and forth on my textile paintings for hours on end. Much self coaching and problem solving happens during this time.

But this post is about music, so back to that.

Music History

I have a nice sized CD collection, mostly the rock I listened to in high school and in my 20s – cause it’s what I know, I like it, it’s obvious, it’s easy. Stuff like The Beetles, The Gogos, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Leonard Skynard, Blondie. Pretty main stream stuff or at least it was in the 70s and 80s.

I listen to this music on the stereo I bought in graduate school with the student loan I took out to go on a ski trip and buy a stereo.

I actually have a pretty nice stereo because I was dating a guy (who I eventually married) that vacuumed his records with a nitty gritty record machine (if you don’t know what that is – it’s fine – just imagine a vacuum cleaner for records and people rather obsessive about sound quality from a piece of black plastic).

Music was a big thing for him. Listening to, playing, watching performances. A crappy stereo was not an option (hence the need for a loan).

We attended a lot music events in college and then in New York City when we were working at IBM Research. Almost weekly we’d head down to Carnegie Hall and the Lincoln Center from Westchester County to listen to folks like Yo-Yo Ma and The Berlin Philharmonic. I learned to love opera during these 2 years.

He grew up with music and his family is packed with musical talent. He inherited that talent and love for music.

I don’t remember a lot of music in our house growing up until my sister conned me into paying for half or her stereo (with an 8-track player – we were on top of the trends). When she left for college she took the stereo with her. I don’t recall being unhappy about it.

About the same time my mom moved out and my dad started listening to music. Even bought a nice stereo as I recall. I enjoyed the likes of Willie Nelson and Kenny Rogers with him. And PDQ Bach.

I owned a few albums so I listened to them over and over as it was all I had. Lots of repetition.

In the Studio

So now – back to the studio. As a result of having been married to a guy that was into music I have alot of CDs. Mostly rock – he kept the classical.

But what I listen to is extremely limited. For the last 18 months it’s been almost exclusively Christine Kane’s music.

The above textile painting was designed while I listened to She Don’t Like Roses on repeat over and over and over again for hours and hours.

Turns out I love repetition. Not surprising as I’ve created 111 textile paintings in the Structures series over the years. Could be how my brain is wired.

In the past a few other artists have captured my attention and I’ve listened to them repeatedly – just before Christine it was Johnny Cash.

The music I do remember as a kid was my brother listening to Johnny Cash over and over and over again. He was apparently into repetition also. My sister and I used to tease him mercilessly about it and he was smart enough to ignore us (or maybe he didn’t, but he didn’t stop listening to it).

After seeing the movie Walk the Line (about Johnny Cash) I bought a few of his CDs on my way home from the theater. Listened to them repeatedly for months and months. Bought my sister a CD as a gift, which she also liked.

We decided we should probably apologize to my brother for teasing him so much – he apparently had pretty good taste in music as a kid.

I try to remind myself of that when my kids are playing music in my studio (they bring their ipods and plug them into my stereo). Last night my son was programming (my 16 year old is writing an game for the iphone this summer) and came up to spend the evening in my studio while I worked.

We listened to Velvet Underground and The Horror from his MP3 player. Not bad but more on the noise side than I usually listen to.

 
PS – this blog post is also my entry into Vinyl Art’s contest: Storied Past. Barely squeaking in by the deadline.

 
What are you listening to in the studio?

Upleveling

As long time readers know, I began working with Christine Kane in December of 2007 and since then my life has changed in amazing and positive ways. Christine calls this Upleveling.

My journey to improve my life began after listening to the book Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert in the summer of 2007. A truly awesome and fun book.

From there I attended Christine’s retreat and then participated in her Uplevel your Life Mastery Program home study course (she called it something different back in 2008 but it is the same thing – although I think it’s even bigger and better now). I redid both the uplevel program and attended a second retreat later in 2008.

Now in 2009 I am part of Christine’s platinum coaching circle. It’s all amazing. Christine is amazing. The group is amazing. Life is truly wonderful.

I knew I wanted things to change in my life and Christine provided the tools by which to make those changes.

Recommendation

I wrote a testimonial for Christine’s Uplevel your Life Mastery Program and since then I’ve gotten quite a few people asking me about her. Wanting some assurance I meant what I wrote. Indeed I did mean it.

So now Christine has offered an opportunity for me to recommend her further by creating an affiliates program, which means if you sign up to do a program with her I will get a percent of the price (her affiliates payout is 35%).

I have signed up to be an affiliate because I 100% believe in what Christine is offering. I also signed up because I spend a lot of time talking to people about Christine and it takes time away from my art and my art business. It’s nice to have an opportunity to be compensated for my time.

Free Teleseminar

If you want to see what Christine is all about and if she has something you might be interested in she is going to be giving a free teleseminar on June 10th in the evening. It’s titled 5 Simple Action Steps to Take Your Life to the Next Level this Summer.

You can sign up here (this is my affiliate link): Sign Up for Christine’s Free Teleseminar

Yes – the teleseminar is free – costs nothing and I get paid nothing. It’s only later if you do sign up for one of her programs that I will receive a payment.

So this is a chance to not only check out Christine’s amazing coaching talents, but also support me in my journey, currently all for free.

My Journey

What follow is the post I wrote on Christine’s blog last December about my word of the year Courage, it’ll give you and idea of the changes I made in my life in the past year (as will looking over the last few years of my blog posts).

I’m Not That Kind of Girl

When I first saw the information for Christine’s Great Big Dreams Retreats I thought with a bit of regret, I’m not the type of person that does things like this, and went back to my very busy life. Female bonding and getting all touchy-feely was not my thing, being the ever so competent INTJ.

Upon recommendation from friends, the internet and the universe, I listened to the book Eat, Pray, Love in the summer of 2007 and, like so many other people, it had a profound impact on me. I realized I was not living the life I wanted, yet I had no idea how to create the life I wanted. I wasn’t even sure what that might be. I was just sure it wasn’t what I was doing.

Taking a Leap

That fall my father passed away and a long term relationship came to an end and I was exhausted. It finally pushed me over the edge and even before selecting my word of the year, courage, I took a huge leap and signed up for the December retreat.

I thought, maybe if I were the type of person that did these retreats I would have a life I liked a lot more. Unfortunately I learned the single room I had wanted was sold out.

In an act of pure clarity (and a lot of experiences I did not wish to repeat), I declined the chance to attend and share a room with someone else and asked to be put on the waiting list for a single room, of which there are only 2. At the time I didn’t realize my chances weren’t all that good for getting this, I just knew what I needed for the retreat to work for me, and I knew I needed to attend.

So I was very happy, but not at all surprised, to get an email a few weeks before the December 2007 retreat that a space was available.

I am that Girl

So off to Ashville I went and not only did I survive my girl bonding weekend, I loved every minute of it. It wasn’t nearly as touchy-feely as I feared and I was welcome to be whoever or whatever I needed.

During that amazing weekend I had one aha-moment after the an other. Yes, I could indeed create the life I wanted, as I now had a treasure chest of tools to help me do just that.

I started by setting aside my usual beginning of the year ritual, that of setting dozens of aggressive goals and jumping in getting things done, and instead I choose just a single word to focus my year around.

Courage

I selected Courage. Courage to slow down. Courage to listen to myself. Courage to find my feelings. Courage to listen to the tiny voice that was my true desires. Courage to follow my dreams no matter how foreign the territory or scary the path might be.

I’ll be the first to admit, 2008 has been an incredible fabulous year for me. I thought of my word often and have managed to free myself from many of my old limiting beliefs. Every day I choose to create and live the life I want to live.

The list of positive changes I have created in my life over the past year is astounding, from health improvements, to an upcoming amazing vacation in Africa, to deeper and closer friendships, to an art career that turned a profit for the first time ever. I could write for pages on all that has come about this year. But this is a blog and I’ve already rambled on for longer than recommended, so I’ll just touch on one which took great courage.

Leaving the Burbs

One of the first things I tackled upon arriving home was to declutter my house. I rather smugly sat through the discussion of clutter during the retreat thinking I had very little. When I got home I discovered I just had a really big house to hide it all in. Clutter was everywhere. Er oops.

No wonder I was stuck. Did I really need a box full of 18 year old hand made mints from a marriage that ended 7 years prior? Tossed were the ski equipment, racquetball, scuba diving, etc, etc, etc. I gave away furniture, clothes, toys, keepsakes. I tossed it all. (Although I admit I kept the frog made out of icing that was on my birthday cake when I was 8 years old because you never know when a 37 year old amphibian made of sugar and fat will come in handy. Don’t tell Christine.)

After a few months of freeing myself from things that only served to drain my energy, I found the courage to admit to myself that I didn’t want to live in this big beautiful house anymore. The suburbs no longer appealed to me and it was simply too large.

I had always been afraid to admit this because the thought of moving was too daunting. As the house emptied out, it became very doable to pick up myself and my 2 kids and move to the city, close to both my work and their school.

So that’s what we did. In early April I talked to a real estate agent and 2 months later I had the house fixed up and ready to hit the market. I told her repeatedly the house would sell in 1 week or less, and yes, this was during what was supposedly a very difficult housing market.

I learned my lesson in 2007, getting really clear about what I wanted resulted in it manifesting, be it a single room at a retreat or a fast home sale.

So that’s exactly what happened. The house sold in 1 day and after a bidding war, sold for substantially more than my asking price. So much for the buyers market.

A few days later I found a small house within walking distance to my kids’ school and we moved at the end of June, less than 3 months after first having the thought that it was possible. I’m a 3 on the enneagram, the achiever, I don’t just sit around and wait for the universe to do it’s thing, I take action and help it along.

Dream Home and Studio

I first told myself this was a temporary move and after the kids were out of the house I would move again, because I could not afford to live in Denver long term. I stopped telling myself this story when it was clear I didn’t want to live in a 900 sq ft house with no studio, even temporarily.

That took about 5 minutes. Who was I kidding, I was not going from a 600 sq ft studio to a non-existent studio so I could claim some virtue about living small. I had this idea that I would find it easier to start selling and marketing my art if I had a tiny house, cause I’d look more like I needed money.

That’s crazy. I sell my art because it provides value to the world and people connect to it, it enhances their lives so they want to own it, not because I live in a small house with bad electrical and broken plumbing. I can’t create the art I want in that environment.

So enough playing small, I had the courage to admit I wanted a bigger house and I hired a contractor to build me my dream home and studio. Why wait? I could have both the art career and the cool house and big studio if I wanted it. And so that is exactly what I am doing. I found the courage to admit I deserve it and to take the steps necessary to make it happen.

 
PS – Here’s that link again if you want to attend Christine’s free teleseminar: Sign Up for Christine’s Free Teleseminar, 5 Simple Action Steps to Take Your Life to the Next Level this Summer.

Blog Theme for April

I said I was going to have a theme each month around my blogging and wrote about habits in January. Then the remodel activity moved out of the backyard and into my house and those plans were set aside.

The construction is complete so time to revive the themes. In April I’ll focus my posts on building a studio – what I learned, what I did well, what I might do different, etc.

I’m having Jim and Carl build 2 tables for my sewing machines and a larger cutting table this weekend. Although my studio is smaller than the my old studio it’s arranged in such a way that I can have more furniture than the last studio and not feel cramped.

The photo above is where the largest of the sewing tables will sit, right under that floating studio door. They’ll build a lot of supports for the table so I can walk on it to get things into the closet and so it won’t shake when I get the sewing machine going a zillion miles an hour.

It’ll be perfect. I know this because so far everything about my home is perfect. I’m totally in love with my remodeled house.

Group Energy

I’m in Charleston this weekend with Christine Kane’s platinum coaching group and really energized about my art and my art career. The power of positive group energy is incredible and I highly recommend tapping into whenever possible.

Even though we are all in different places I learn much and take away wonderful wisdom and insights from each person. Not to mention Christine, who is fabulous with her insights into our mindsets and patterns.

Tomorrow I will present my ideas for where I want to take my art career. Prepared a handout and everything.

We were supposed to include our current challenges to achieving our goals and I couldn’t think of any. No more using the remodel as an excuse for not getting other things done – so look out universe cause I’m ready to expand.

 
1) Dark chocolate for everyone. Today is the last full day of work at my house for the remodel. The painters are here doing touch up, changing the color on a few walls and painting my bathroom. After this it’s just a few punch list items and my house is all mine again.

Not that I won’t miss Carl and Jim, who have been part of my life almost daily for the past 5 months, but I’m really going to like having my quiet, studio focused life back.

2) That crazy floating studio door is no longer visible from most of the house – I’ve moved it around the corner (see photo above – it’s now painted – not sure I’ll get photos uploaded tonight or not). [update - photos of new paint uploaded here - check out my very orange bathroom].

I decided that I was not going to finish this project with anything still bugging me. Fortunately I’ve worked with the best contractors around and they are more than happy to fix things so I love the house.

This is my advice for anyone doing any sort of home project. Only hire people you absolutely trust (I know these guys are committed to doing the best job they can) and can talk to (I’m never worried about telling them my opinion) and like being around (they are here a lot – better not mind them being in your house).

3) I’m on vacation. I’m headed to Charleston for the first meeting of the platinum mastermind and coaching circle (or something like that – I can never remember the exact name) with Christine Kane. It’s going to be a fabulous weekend with some powerful wonderful women.

Plus it’s snowing in Denver right now and in the 70s in Charleston. Perfect timing for heading south.

4) When I return I’ll spend a few days setting up my studio then it’s back to making art again. And blogging about being an artist and not a wannabe HGTV star. Thanks all for your support duing this amazing project.

5) I didn’t upload construction photos for over a week. I’ve been exhausted. Much moving and doing of stuff and not as much sleep as I normally might like. My brain is in need of a vacation so good timing for that also.

Here are the new photos: The end of the construction – Scroll to the bottom of the page and starting with March 25 and thru the 31st those are the photos I uploaded this morning.

I’ll get today’s photos up when I find the time – maybe in Charleston. Not sure I’ll do much site seeing – mostly planning on resting and attending the stuff with Christine.

6) It’s 6pm and the painters are still at my house. I need to pack – best get on it.

Home #3
©2008
10.5" x 8"
$550
Purchase Here

TUT

Today’s Notes from The Universe:

No one ever regrets raising the bar, Lisa, ever, ever, ever.

Scare yourself,
The Universe

I love these daily emails – they make me smile – and think, good thoughts.

Fear and my Purple Paint

I thought about my choices for the paint in my bedroom when I first read the email this morning. I was choosing the lighter purples because everyone always says to pick lighter colors for paint and etc etc. So I was following rules but when I did, it so was not what I wanted.

I want a really deep dark royal purple – so scare myself I did by daring to go with the darkest purple I could find. I’m sure I’m going to love the room. Sometimes I have to ignore everyone else’s voice and just go for it to get the results I want.

Raising the Bar

When I first starting writing about my studio addition I wrote about adding on a small studio and living small. Somewhere along the way I raised that bar and went for the studio I really wanted.

Sure there have been a few scary moments along the way (mostly when I get hooked by the fear around the stock market) but it is quickly put at bay because I know this is exactly what I need and want. Absolutely no regrets here.

Same story on raising my art prices. I finally owned my success (to copy a phrase from Christine Kane’s latest teleconference) and it feels great!

 
Where do you need to raise the bar in your life?

To celebrate the coming of the new year I want to first honor my accomplishments for 2008.

1. Selected Courage for my year to guide me through a year of big changes.
2. I smiled more in 2008 than I did in 2007.
3. I sold my house of 12 years in a single day for over my asking price.
4. I bought a new home in Denver saying goodbye to the suburbs.
5. I hired an awesome contractor to build my dream studio on the back of my new house.
6. I have enjoyed the first 3 months of construction of my new studio.
7. I spent 446 hours in my studio making art (that an average of just under 8 hours a week. I had a few months during my house sale and move when I made no art)
8. I spent at least 700 hours marketing my art. I didn’t track it as closely as studio time but it was the lions share of my art career in 2008 as it was something I could do while the studio was inaccessible during the moves.
9. I created 4 new textile paintings in the Markings series.
10. I created 13 new textile patings in the Structures series.
11. I started new series inspired by my new house, called Home, and created 8 textile paintings – .
12. I started a new series of small works mounted on painted stretched canvas and created 21 textile paintings in the series – Lines.
13. I created 27 new ACEOs.
14. The result: I created 73 new pieces of art this year.
15. I set a goal of writing and sending 4 studio newsletters in 2008 – I met that goal by sending the 4th newsletter on New Year’s Eve.
16. I ended the year with 431 newsletter subscribers, exceeding my goal of 400.
17. I wrote 174 blog posts.
18. I joined twitter.
19. I wrote 1588 tweets (in about 4 months).
20. I ended the year with 400+ follows on twitter meeting my goal of 400.
21. I became more active on facebook.
22. I ended the year with 201 friends on facebook meeting my goal of 200.
23. I had a solo show of my Markings series in Boulder, CO in February.
24. I had a solo show of a few of my Structures textile paintings in Lincoln, NE in April.
25. I curated a group show at the Lux Center for Arts in Lincoln, NE in April.
26. I gave an artist talk at my February show – and love it.
27. I exhibited 6 large textile paintings at the Butler Museum of Art in Ohio.
28. I attended the opening of the Butler Museum show.
29. I was juried into Form Not Function for 2009.
30. I was asked to exhibit art at the Danforth Art Museum in 2009.
31. I exhibited Structures #60 at Art Quilt Elements (AQE).
32. I sold 2 small textile paintings in the gift shop during AQE.
33. Structures #60 was mentioned in the review of AQE in the SAQA journal.
34. I participated in the Artist Breakthrough program with Alyson Stanfield
35. I did a podcast interview with Alyson for her online book tour – my first podcast.
36. I was quoted in Alyson’s new book: I’d Rather Be in the Studio.
37. I enjoyed Alyson’s series of artist interviews this fall.
38. I attended my second retreat with Christine Kane in November
39. I had a nice family vacation in Montana in July.
40. I signed up to go on a tour of Africa in 2009 with Nancy Crow.
41. I turned profit in my art business for the first time ever.
42. I sold 2 textile paintings to the Cleveland University Hospital collection.
43. I sold many textile paintings to supporters and collectors.
44. I received dozens of supportive and loving comments from fans.
45. I dyed a couple hundred yards of fabric in my backyard under a crab apple tree in my new house since I had no where else to do it. I didn’t just give it up for the year.
46. I set up a temporary studio in a small bedroom after leaving a 600 sq ft studio to continue making art while my new studio is being built.
47. I create a project and wrote a chapter for a crafters how to book to be published in 2009.
48. I participated in several online interviews.
49. I sold enough PDF fabric to others to keep my account open with Kaufman.
50. I created a webpage to sell my artwork directly to collectors.
51. My direct sales of art were better than I imagined.
52. I did yoga almost every morning for 3 months in a row. I am still following a 3-4 times a month routine (most of the time).
53. I journaled in the morning on a consistent basis.
54. I wrote a gratitude entry in my journal 5 or 6 times a week.
55. I went on some beautiful hikes.
56. I experienced the magic of an aspen grove near it’s peak fall color.
57. I had a wonderful relationship with Jim for a few months.
58. I recovered from the end of the relationship by focusing on Joy in December.
59. I visited the Denver Art Museum numerous time through the year.
60. I visited the Contemporary Art
61. I taught myself how to mount my textile paintings on canvas.
62. I bought a new laptop for my art business.
63. I enjoyed several wonderful meals and outings with my artist friends.
64. I started a rewrite of my website with a design I really love.
65. I defined what success means to me as an artist.
66. I applied agile software management techniques to manage my art business.
67. I sold work in the artfulhome.com studio sale in the spring.
68. I sold work in the artfulhome.com studio sale in December.
69. Structures #39 appeared in the artful home holiday catalog.
70. Three textile paintings were selected as covers for Myers Briggs Booklets.
71. I received good compensation for the use of my images on the book covers.
72. Participated in Christine Kane’s Great Big Dreams E-Seminar – twice.
73. Made an investment in myself and signed up for Christine’s Platinum coaching circle for 2009.
74. Participated in small art showcase.
75. Listed in Fine Art Department.
76. Wrote guest post on Christine’s blog about my choice of the word Courage for 2008.
77. Received innumerable wonderful, supportive and informative comments on my blog.
78. Maintained a daily photo journal of the progress of my new home and studio construction.
79. Donated and gifted 10% of my gross art income.
80. Became comfortable and defined my career to include selling affordable art in addition to having museum shows with my Big Art.
81. Worked a fulltime job as a software engineer.
82. Thoroughly enjoyed being a mom to my 12 and 16 year old kids.
83. Wrote a series of blog posts about energy, and why I get so much done.
84. Survived my Quilt National 2009 rejection (the first rejection from QN in 4 shows)
85. Ordered new business cards.
86. Spent a weekend in silence.
87. Completed one ink drawing – Lines #4
88. Purchased 3+ beautiful new works of original art by artists I admire.
89. Baked an amazing cake for Christmas dinner.
90. Gave away a good percent (30%? 40%?) of my belongings to move from a 4000 sq ft home to a 900 sq ft home.
91. Was interviewed for inclusion in a book about art quilters to be published in 2009 or 2010.
92. Spent time with some wonderful old friends.
93. Spent time with some new amazing friends.
94. Let go of some friendships that were no longer serving me.
95. Through the use of acupuncture, yoga and intention, quit taking advil and aleave ending a 20+ year dependence on the drugs for pain relief.
96. Bought myself a big box of See’s candy’s in an act of serious self care.
97. Gave street people money and didn’t worry about what they might or might not do with it.
98. Tried out some new bright colors in my smaller textile paintings.
99. Used a purple christmas tree for the topping off of my construction.
100. Dressed my cats up for the holidays with no serious repercussions.

When I first thought of this list I knew my studio time (~8 hours a week) would see so small compared to my prefvious years goals of 20 hours per week. And then I look at everything else I have accomplished and I wonder where I found those 8 hours plus the 12-13 hours a week for marketing my work.

Gratitude for all I have done this year feels like the perfect way to end the year.

Tomorrow – my words for 2009 – Expansion and Integrity.

Happy New Year everyone.

Home #6
©2008
4" x 4" – Mounted on stretched canvas
Sold

Home #7
©2008
4" x 4" – Mounted on stretched canvas
Sold

 

Home #7 and Home #6 – On Canvas

The Joy of Friends

Today I made plans to visit with several of friends, both new and old, throughout December. When I get all wrapped up in getting things done, it’s sometimes hard to stop and honor the amazing women in my life. That will not happen this month. I’m taking the time to let them know how much I value their friendship.

Not much beats a good laugh with a good friend over some really yummy food. What a perfect month for such things.

Courage

Short post today because tonight I’m determine to get my article done for Christine Kane’s word of the year guest posts. Look for my post about a year of couragecourage over on Christine’s blog sometime this month.

Preparing for the New Year

I’m not sure how it got here so quickly, but it’s December. I’ve been thinking about how I wanted to approach this month for a while and have decided to dedicate it to Joy. Absolute wonderful peace and delight in things that make me happy.

A snippet from my journal this morning:

Hello December, I’m happy to see you. This month is all about joy, peace, happiness. I’m going to have 31 days of delight. Each day my intent and focus will be to appreciate and do joyful things, have joyful thoughts and experiences and be a joyful person.

As I was writing my cat came over and silently sat next to me, her sign for "pick me up and put me in your lap so I can purr". My first moment of joy after declaring my intention for the month.

I will share my experiences with intending joy each day in our typically busy holiday season throughout this month of blogging and hope to hear from my readers about their joyful days also.

Pencil Holders

Driving home watching the beautiful sunset I was excited to see a package by my front door upon my return home. Aha – total delight – my pencil holders from Paula have arrived. I love them – look at the 9 new holders all in a row in the photo. I love it. I love repetition.

Paula – thanks for sharing your art and spreading happiness to this corner of the planet.

Thank You

And next a huge thank you to all of my readers as the pageviews for my blog topped 100,000 for the month for the first time ever. I’d been holding pretty steady around 75K-80K for a while and finally something pushed it over the top. Maybe spammers. Who knows, even if I cut that number in half to account for the noise, I have a lot of readers. Unique visitors are over 22,000 per month and average around 1300-1500 per day. Thanks everyone!

Thank you all for reading and commenting. I love what I learn about myself and my art when writing my blog and then I get more from all of your comments, rethinking my ideas. I fall behind occasionally on comments and I suspect there are questions I said I would answer that I forget about. Sorry about that – if it’s important, just ask again. Just wanted to let you all know every comment is greatly appreciated and my goal is to respond to them all.

New Beginnings

So what’s behind all the joy crap? Well a couple of things. The first is I have signed up for a year of coaching with Christine Kane and I suspect she might have been a baker in a previous life because most of us are are really getting a bonus 13 months, which means it started today.

I plan to get the most out of the upcoming year and I know that change comes from within, not from Christine, she’s just really good at holding me to the things I said I would do and calling out my bullshit. It felt right to dedicate the first month of the coaching to shear delight.

The other motivator is that my relationship with Jim has come to an end. It was time and while I’m sad I’m not surprised. I’ve gotten very clear about what I need and want over the last year and things weren’t working out for either of us. I wish Jim well and trust he will have a joyful life moving forward.

Clearing Out

Over the past few days, inspired by Colin’s rss cleanout, I’ve removed a large number of blogs from my feed reader. I think I was up to 150 or something around there. I was always behind and reading blogs wasn’t an activity it was a diversion.

I’ve got the list down to less than 70 and will probably weed out more as I find the ones I don’t really read. Now reading blogs is an activity – 10-15 minutes a day and I should be caught up. Feels great – it’s decluttering! I’m hoping this leaves me more time to respond to blog comments and look over the blogs my readers are writing.

It felt great to dump all the "you should read this if you are a real artist" type of blogs, like Tyler Green. I tried really really hard to care. I just couldn’t. It always just sounded like gossip and complaining, or it was just boring. Reminder – I am defining my art career, the only MUST DO things are the things I define.

I dumped most of the inspiration type blogs and the marketing type blogs as they started to sound repetitive. I’m really tired of blog posts with lists: 7 ways to have more energy, less hair, more clothes, less time, etc. That format has lost it’s charm on me.

Also, anyone that didn’t publish a full blog post in their feed got removed. Okay – 2 exceptions – but I still prefer you publish full posts. Katherine and I already had this conversation and agreed to disagree, darn. Colin, please, give us the full feed – save us from carpal tunnel having to click to read your thoughts.

Sea Foam Green

Two of the new pieces of art I made over the weekend were sea foam green in nature. Looking at Paula’s pencil holders I can see what inspired me. Not to mention the same color on the mugs I bought from Cynthia. Hm.

Here’s my green:

Lines #7
©2008
4" x 4" – Mounted on stretched canvas
Sold

Lines #7 – On Canvas

ACEO #29
©2008
2.5" x 3.5"
Sold

Available for purchase here, along with art that is not green in case that isn’t your thing. I think I had those old pink and green bathroom in my mind when I made these. Or maybe there was never a time when people had pink and green bathrooms. But it sounds good.

My daughter wants a neon orange bathtub. Do they make those?

 
Happy Monday everyone!