Lisa Call

This year I selected the words Expansion and Integrity as my words of the year (in lieu of a resolution or setting specific goals for the year).

Some fabulous things did happen for me with my art career in 2009, but most of the expansion in my life was on a personal level. A home remodel project and the addition of a gorgeous new studio, a month in Africa and moving my mom to Colorado so she could live near me. Huge expanding changes and all of it wonderful.

When I set my intention last January I mainly had my art career in mind but clearly life had other plans for my expansion. Tomorrow I’ll post a list of my 100 accomplishments for 2009 and it will be clear my art career wasn’t neglected either. The completion of the South African Impressions Art Project was very exciting.

So here’s to 2009 – it wasn’t what I expected but it was still fabulous and the growth that I experienced I wouldn’t trade for anything.

Looking forward to 2010 – I’ve selected my word for the year and another one for the decade and I’ll post those on Jan 1.

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.

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.

Structures #15
©2005
12" x 13"
Private Collection

My Intention

Expand: to open up, to increase in extent or scope

Expansion: the act or process of expanding

Integrity: firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values: incorruptibility

I set my intention for the year by selecting these words to guide me.

Expansion

I am focused on growing by leaps and bounds in 2009. I chose the word expansion over expand as it’s the process of expansion that excites me. The end result will be great but I’m going to love getting there as much as being there.

What does it take to grow my art business? What structures, routines, and systems will I need to succeed? What goals do I need to set? What habits do I need to form? I love thinking about the process and then executing on it.

This isn’t just about my art career it’s about internal things also like expanding my acceptance and understanding of others. About deepening my relationships, expanding my view of the world, etc. The list is endless.

And of course building a great big new studio to make more big art. That’s the easiest and obvious expansion at the moment.

Integrity

When I settled on the word expansion it felt incomplete to me. I wanted to qualify it. I wanted to say "Yes – I want to expand but I want to recognize and honor my values – to be authentic." Not just to clarify the expansion but also because exploring and defining exactly what I want is an ongoing process.

While I have a good idea of who and am and what I want and how I want to say it, I’ll be doing quite a bit of marketing of my artwork this year. So to that end it is vital I am very clear on the message I want to send.

I wrestled a bit with the word integrity as the definitions sound very moral preachy, but that’s not how I think of the word. I think of it more as just being authentic and not being easily swayed by things you don’t agree with.

I considered authentic but it doesn’t sound as good with the word expansion. So I read more about integrity on wikipedia and felt it really was the right word. And it sounds great with expansion. Given my current studio construction I also like the connotation to the integrity of expanding a physical structure.

My intention is to identify my values and honor them, as well as expand beyond my wildest dreams.

Courage

I won’t be abandoning my word for 2008, Courage, as it will take much courage to proceed with some of the plans I have for the year. Expanding and living bigger is scary. Courage is about feeling the fear and doing it anyway. I got a lot of practice with that in 2008 and expect it will come in very handy again this year.

My Studio Newsletter

Yesterday I emailed my 4th studio newsletter for 2008, making my goal of 4 in 2008. It was my first year for newsletters and it feels great to have met that goal. If you aren’t a subscriber and are interested you can read it and subscribe here: Lisa’s December Studio Newsletter.

Structures #15

I wanted to include an image with this post so strolling through my folders I hit upon this small hand embroidered textile painting. I rarely hand stitch my textiles and to date this is the only one of the Structures series where I’ve done this.

Now that I see this I’m getting ideas for incorporating some stitching with my thinner lines. Hm…. Maybe time to explore and see if this idea pans out. Expanding the series in a new way. Cool!

 
Happy New Year Everyone!