Lisa Call

Structures #6    ©2001    20" x 26"

Getting Back to Normal Life

Yesterday afternoon we arrived back home from the trip to Montana and had 24 hours to get the kids packed for camp and off again for 2 weeks. I’m now back home and faced with the rather large chore of unpacking and settling in. I also have a todo list a mile long of things that I let drop the last couple months, many of them art related requests that need attention.

When I start the think about all that needs to be done I get a bit overwhelmed. So I’m doing my best to not think about it all. I got a lot done the last 3 months by just working on my goals every day. So I’m sure that in no time I can get caught up again if I just stay focused.

A rough outline of what I would like to accomplish in the next 2 weeks while the kids are at camp (no reason to think about the zillion of other things cause this is enough for now):

• Unpack entire house
• Set up studio
• Make small art for studio newsletter
• Write and send my second studio newsletter
• Catch up with the very many outstanding requests for photos, info, etc of my art
• Find all my dye supplies and dye fabric with my childhood friend, Kelly, over the weekend
• Process the 400+ pictures taken while in Montana (my kids went a bit nuts with the camera - I think well over half are to be deleted)
• Figure out timeline and budget for getting house repaired and possible addition added, talk to 3 builders and select one to do the work

Tomorrow I return back to work. After 2 weeks off it’s going to be difficult but it pays the bills right now so off I go. My todo list would be a snap if I didn’t have to give up 40 hours a week. Although now that I live in Denver my commute will be 10 minutes instead of 30+ so I’m looking forward to having an extra hour in my life (not to mention the gas savings).

Artful Home Studio Sale

The Artful Home (formerly known as guild.com) is holding a studio sale. Lots of amazing art at good discounts. I have several pieces available for sale that can be viewed from my Artful Home Artist webpage. The items marked as Studio Sale are discounted from 30-40%. The sale ends on July 15th.

The above piece, Structures #6, is one of the items I included in the items for sale and can be seen here: Structures #6.

Markings #14    ©2007    35"x37"

Two weeks ago I posted a list of projects I needed to complete by the Nov 25. My progress to date:

• Complete 6-9 small pieces for the Arvada Center Holiday Art show. Completed!
• Deal with paperwork for several upcoming shows, including preparing some images for catalogs. Completed!
• Buy christmas presents. We had a wonderful Christmas last week.
• Write and review requirement documents for 3 projects. Completed!
• Attend another memorial service for my father next weekend. It was a warm and comforting service with family and friends that knew him growing up.
• Sleep I slept lots over turkey day weekend - what a treat to have 4 days in a row to sleep late, which is making this week particularly brutal when the alarm goes off at 5:30am.

The 2 things I didn’t have to get done got pushed back but now the pressure is on to get these finished.

• Start a blog for the group show I’m curating next spring.I’m about half way done on the initial setup, although no rush since the show isn’t until next April we want to get our group blog up and running fairly soon.
• Make 10 quillows and help my daughter make 10+ pillows. This is painful, my daughter has little interest in this project and we need to have this done by thursday if possible. I’ve got 5 quillows nearly completed. Many many more hours to go.

So my goals for the next few weeks are to complete the above in addition to the following:

• Get back to putting in 20 hours a week in the studio - including this week. This will be a stretch but I’m tired of my life being so out of balance. Time in the studio with out time pressures and deadlines is where I recenter and it is much missed.
• Update my guild.com webpage. I’d like to submit new work as I’ve not had any luck selling the work on there yet. Time to add some new pieces.
• Ship some new small work to Lux Art Center. They shipped back my work I sent a while back, time to send some new pieces that they display in their fiber art classroom.
• Update my website. I have ideas for what to do but have not yet found the time to make it happen.
• Work no more than 40 hours a week at they day job. I put in enough overtime in November to buy me brownie points for a long time to come.

My plan is to wrap all of this up by Dec 11th as that day marks the beginning of a 3 month period that I plan to really focus on my art and my art business and get them into top shape. My kids are going to London and Spain with their dad for 3 months, leaving me with an empty nest. I’m excited for this opportunity for them but I will miss them a great deal, so I will focus on the art to make the experience as positive for me as possible.

 
The above piece I included in a post earlier this month about my Markings series and the image was terrible. I play around with the raw camera image in photoshop for a few minutes and figured out how to fix it . Hurray! Thanks to the commenter that left some tips on things to try to fix things.