Lisa Call

My Studio - Cutting Table and Laptop

Electronic Distraction

Currently my computer sits on a table in my bedroom, specifically the table I use to cut the fabric for my textile paintings. I find it very distracting and rarely can pass it by when I first wake up, with today being no exception.

It draws me in when I’m trying to create art as it is basically, well, in the way. It is warping my cutting mats with it’s 100 degree bottom. It’s a jumbled mess of cables that I keep thinking I might chop into with my rotary cutters. I have no other place to put it in the house at the moment so I need to learn to ignore it. While it’s not evil- my inability to ignore it is rather pitiful.

Today = Art

This weekend is my first weekend since moving into my new house that I have reserved for making art the entire weekend. No kids, no house chores, no distractions. Except this computer.

I’ve been having trouble really focusing on my art. In my old studio I could work for 8+ hours without drifting off to do something else. I want to get back to that place today. I am going to get back to that place.

So to reduce temptation, even though the real answer is some self control, it’s time for the computer to go away, at least temporarily. So I’m joining Cindy Davis and unplugging this weekend. Powering down the computer until sunday evening. Turning the ringer off on my phone. Going to get focused and make some art.

I thought about going til monday morning but I want to pay bills this weekend and do some art business activities that require me to be online. So I’ll group all those together and do them sunday evening. If I have time I want to do another post on scrum sunday evening also.

A Design!!!

Met with my builder last night and we have a design that I really love and that fits my budget. We will sign contracts tomorrow and the plans should be at the Denver Building Dept later this week. Then we sit and wait - up to 6 or 7 weeks - for them to approve the plans. I want to start soon so I’m going to believe that they will review the plans and issue the permit within the 4 weeks they say it takes. And they will.

Cause they know how much I really want a dedicated studio.

Without a computer in it.

Notes on the Above Photo

1. The new piece on the wall is Structures #98. That’s what I’ll be focusing on this weekend along with Home #2. All those bright colors are very different for me. I’m excited about working with them.
2. The beautiful glorious crabapple tree in the back yard is history. We tried everything to save it but I couldn’t build up, down or back without killing this tree (we even thought about picking up the house and moving it forward on the lot - but even that wouldn’t work). The tree is simply too close to the house. I’m sad. I’ll plant many more trees to make up for it. But none of them this close to the house.
3. My laptop is totally cool - although you can’t see it in this photo - it’s orange. No wonder I can’t just walk past it when it’s closed. They made these things colors to make them more irresistible.
4. The first thing on my todo list today is to clean up my studio. There is no way I’d show you the view from the other direction. I need to bring a bit more organization to my bedroom/studio/office.

Do you have any tricks for ignoring a computer?

Markings #4    ©2006    56"x 55"

Distractions

When I left the workshop in Idaho in October 2005, where I completed the first composition for the Marking series, I was excited about doing more work in the new series.

I was so hyped up about it I decided to leave Sandpoint friday evening after the workshop was over instead of spending the night as planned. I figured I could make the 1150 mile drive back home in a day and half and it would give me all day sunday to work in my studio.

That plan worked out great and I was home by Saturday evening.

Unfortunately I came home to a big mess in my yard from a snow damaged tree. And to top off the distraction I managed to lock myself out of my house as I investigated the mess 5 minutes after returning home, barefoot and with no coat. I spent the next 2 hours at my neighbors watching bad TV waiting for the other neighbors with the keys to my house to return.

That drama was the end of any work in my studio for a while (it took a few weeks to clean up the mess in the yard) and when I returned I worked on my Structures series.

Drawing

Although I wasn’t investigating mark making with textiles I started drawing that fall. I started with objects but quickly graduated to lines. Lots of parallel lines. Pages full of them. You can see my drawings here.

With many months of drawing experience under my belt, in late March 2006 I decided it was finally time to go back and explore mark making in fabric. I feel taking the time to explore pencil drawing before jumping into this series was a good thing. I can’t say I exactly planned it but in looking back I feels right.

Back on Track

I decided to dedicate the entire month of April to an exploration of lines and I designed and constructed the compositions for Markings #2-#10. A fairly significant effort as these are all large pieces. Markings #9 was the only smallish piece.

I find that when I really focus like this, only on the design and composition leaving the surface stitching for later, that I can get into a flow. One pieces follows another and new ideas arrive faster than I can work on them. It was a very satisfying month.

Interestingly my blog posts from April 2006 give absolutely no clue I’m working on these pieces. Just like now I am writing nothing about what’s happening in my studio (I’m working on the surface stitching for Structures #72 and #73). I think it’s rare for me to discuss my current studio work. It needs to incubate for a while before I find words for what I’m doing.

Markings #4

In Markings #4 I was playing around with the values of the thin lines. In the top of the piece the lines go from light to dark and back light again. The bottom half is reversed.

 
Detail of stitching: