Lisa Call

Shaded Walk    ©2007 Stephen Carl
Reprinted with permission from the artist

Artist Breakthrough Program

The last 4 weeks I’ve been participating in the Alyson Stanfield’s online Artist Breakthrough Program.

Today is the last day, the last phone call. Time to evaluate how things went.

So to start here are the goals I stated for the month:

1. I work 5 or more hours a week in my studio making art.
2. I complete the rewrite of my website and blog and go live with them by May 12, 2008.
3. I update my resume to include jurors for all juried shows.
4. I create a complete resume for my personal use with every show in my career listed. This list also includes a list of which pieces were included in each of these shows.
5. I design a portfolio package to send to galleries (the package does not have to be complete but I identify all the parts and the format of the package)
6. I start a list of potential galleries to contact for representation. The list has 30 or more galleries listed.

In addition to the above, I was also working on getting my house ready to put on the market. Cleaning, packing, hiring contractors, yard work, etc.

How Did I do?

1. I worked in my studio 19 hours over the 4 weeks - very close to the my original goal.
2. Nope - the website is coming along nicely but it needs more work.
3. Didn’t even start
4. Didn’t even start
5. Didn’t even start
6. I have between 15-20 galleries on my list with contact info.

In addition I got a lot done on prepping my house. This weekend I completed the last of the decluttering, and have done a bunch of packing, cleaning and yardwork. I’m almost done getting contractors lined up to do the big stuff (paint, carpet, refinish hardwood, etc). This was a larger job than anticipated, getting estimates, rescheduling, etc, etc. I’m certainly learning a lot about how to deal with these guys (number one tip - don’t have expectations about getting anything done soon).

How Do I Feel About It?

I’m super happy with how things went. I probably stayed focused about 70-80% of the time I had available to "do stuff", which is a lot more than normal. Although I didn’t complete everything on my original list I didn’t really think I’d get it all done so that’s fine (more on this later).

I knew I’d be super busy, not just because of all I had going but also because my kids were with me almost the entire month since I didn’t get to see while they were in Europe for 3 months. Not every weekend was as crazy as the one I outlined in this post, but we were still busy. Staying this focused for a sustained period of time, with my kids at home, was probably a first so I’m very happy about that.

I got some really great ideas from other participants in the program for my website so I have more work to do than originally planned. I’m writing a custom plugin for wordpress to display my artwork images, as I couldn’t find anything out there that did what I wanted. I haven’t written code in a while so I’m excited.

What Did I Learn?

I set my goals higher than was realistic. I did this to keep myself motivated. But what I found as the weeks went on is that I wasn’t taking the goals quite seriously enough. I’d list 6 or 7 things to do in a day and only have time for 4 or maybe 5. So I set myself up from the start to not finish everything.

I think this is how I normally operate. It’s safe - because I know I never get everything done I fall back on that as the excuse every time to not do stuff. Eventually I start to think I don’t really need to finish things.

This month has shown me this is maybe not the most optimal way of doing stuff. I love my Getting Things Done project and tasks lists (from David Allen’s Book) as they are great at capturing the big picture. Yet this month I’ve found I need to get more specific, and more realistic, about what I am doing TODAY.

So in addition to my big lists, each morning I started to pick at most 3 things todo. The super most important things that absolutely have to get done. And I put my focus on getting those things done. At the end of the day it’s awesome to say I’ve completed them all.

Learning this new way of approaching my work was the best thing I got out of this class. Taking the time to think about how I get things done and to try some different approaches.

Where Does Blogging Fit In?

Obviously I stopped blogging about 1/2 way through the program. I’d find myself with an hour of time to work on my website or to write a blog post and more often than not I’d blog. So I decided to drop the goal to write and spent my free computer time on my website.

I don’t intend on making this a habit. Living my life at a pace where I don’t have time to blog is not okay with me. I love writing and I find it a great way to process information about my art and myself. So something else is going to have to give because I’m going to continue to blog 2 or 3 times a week throughout the process of selling my house.

One fun thing about this class was watching other artists work on their goals. Steve Carl (photographer - the above image is his work) had a goal of starting a blog and it’s been fun watching him and remembering back to when I started mine 3 years ago. I think he’s off to a great start. You can check it out here: Works by Steve Carl

What’s Next?

The other important thing I feel I learned is that trying to do 3 things at once (make art, build a website and get a house ready to put on the market) is too much. I think if I would have focused on just 1 thing at a time in the end I would have gotten more done.

Time to focus on the house and get it on the market. I’ll have a few moments here and there to do some art/art business work but at least 2 of the 3 must do items on my list each day are going to be house related. While I’m not excited about losing momentum on the website I think in the end this is the best choice. I’ve been feeling a bit too scattered the last few days not really making huge headway on any one thing.

Deb Kirkeeide wrote the following comment on my last post (the crazy birthday party weekend for my daughter):

I’m exhausted! How do you keep such focus? And when do you have time for fun and relaxation? I admire your fortitude.

Very good question Deb. Recently I listened to the book The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness by Dave Ramsey. He’s the debt free guy. While I don’t agree with all he says, nor do I like some of how he delivers his message (I think the belittling and sarcasm are way over done), he makes a lot of good points.

What struck me listening to this book was how his line:

Live like noone else,
so you can
Live like noone else.

applies to many of the choices on how I am currently spending my time. I am very busy with 2 full time careers and kids and a house, etc. I’m making choices today so in the (very near) future I can be a fulltime self supporting artist that doesn’t have to scramble for money. Those choices have me living today as very few people are willing to live: staying super focused and not having tons of time for just sitting about. I believe the pay off in the future will be well worth it.

The alternatives don’t sound very attractive to me.

1) Just work the day job and wait until I retire to make art (no way!)
2) Quit the day job and struggle for money (also not for me)

I wouldn’t object to finding a wealthy art patron that would support me but that sounds like a recipe for disaster as these types tend to have hidden agendas and I’m not good at being told how to live my life.

 
But not everyday is a day full of goals and craziness like last weekend. Today, I’ve got nothing on the todo list that I must get done. Just doing what I feel like doing cause it’s my birthday. Yay! Chocolate for everyone on me.

And next weekend - I’ve told the kids I will not drive them anywhere - I’m going to get in some studio time.

This is what a weekend looks like when focusing on 2 major goals (preparing my house to put on the market and redesigning my website) when four 12 years olds visit for a birthday party:

Friday evening:

• 4:00-4:05pm: Arrive home from work thinking that the weekend isn’t busy enough so decide to participate in community garage sale in the morning.
• 4:05-5:00pm: Sort through kitchen in search of something to sell. Fortunately garage is full of things needing a new home as they’ve been decommissioned from my life.
• 5:00-6:00pm: Cook nice dinner for kids
• 6:00-6:15pm: Plan menu for daughters sleepover birthday party. Head out the door to purchase food for party and discover wallet is in purse, which is still at my office.
• 6:15-9:00pm: Settle for plan B: work in studio an hour and work on new website design.

Saturday:

• 6:30-6:50am: Up early to hear answering machine message from sister that airplane tickets for family vacation over 4th of July have just gone up to $600. Wonder why I didn’t purchase them last week when they were under $300.
• 6:50-8:00am: Drive to office (~1 hour round trip) to get purse, buy food for party (they don’t have the required ice cream flavor so leave that task for later), return home as the garage sale is to start.
• 8:00-9:00am: Pull stuff out of garage and slap prices on it. Note it is really cold and windy (as is indicated by the lamp that keeps crashing over).
• 9:00-11:30am: Send kids off to teen court training (they are jurors) as I come close to freezing to death doing yard work during the garage sale. Few people show up, I make $50 and get my tree trimmed and start cleaning up rocks overgrown with grass in my front yard. The snow is not encouraging. Look at clock often wondering when kids will be home.
• 11:30-11:45am: Bring remaining junk in to garage. Label unsold dresser (with drawer that won’t close) and 40 year old folding camp table (that is less than stable) as free and head to yummy thai restaurant for lunch.
• 11:45am-12:45pm: Have yummy lunch and hope that when thai place reopens in a week in new location it is still as yummy.
• 12:45pm: Return home to happily see that the dresser is gone. The camp table is still on my driveway as I type. I’m sure my neighbors are pleased with me - my house looks like a flea market at the moment as there is also firewood, some PVC pipe, bags of tree branches and a big pile of rocks on my driveway. This is all against HOA rules I have no doubt.
• 12:45-1:00pm: Purchase airline tickets for summer trip into alternate location requiring a 5 hour drive on days other than originally planned no doubt messing up everyone else’s plans.
• 1:00-1:30pm: Try to organize house for birthday party starting at 4pm as I try to get son to figure out his plans (something 15 year old boys do not excel at).
• 1:30-2:00pm: Phone call with sister about summer plans. In the background son discovered his cell phone is out of minutes and he has no idea what is going on. Hang up phone recognizing I need to take action.
• 2:00-2:10pm: Turn circles wondering what I’m doing.
• 2:10-4:10pm: Go to store to buy more minutes for sons phone. Drive son way the heck downtown denver (60 miles round trip) so he can attend friends lacrosse game and escape sister’s party. Includes turning around and driving back to give him money after I drop him off so he can take bus and lightrail to another friends house later on (plans changed 2 seconds after I dropped him off - surprise!). Also stop and buy ice cream for party. They didn’t have the required flavors either. Glad I added a second shopping trip to the day.
• 4:10pm - Arrive home 10 minutes late for the start of party. One kid has already been there 45 minutes. Good thing kids are old enough to babysit each other. Discover daughter did amazing job decorating for party - looks great.
• 4:30-10:00pm: Hide in basement packing boxes and organizing as kids make noise during party. Cook dinner, let them make huge ice cream sundaes, be thankful house has not yet been cleaned or repaired for sale as 4 girls are making a mess. Plans of working on website fly out the window when I realize it is just not very quiet.
• 10:00pm: Send girls to room, hope they sleep then head to bed.

Sunday:

• Wake up at 7am to discover girls are already awake and playing Wii (borrowed from kids dad’s house). Wonder if they slept at all.
• 7:00-9:00am: Escape to basement again and pack more. There is always more to pack apparently.
• 9:00-10:15am: Cook breakfast and try to round girls up into car to go bowling.
• 10:20am: Finally get girls in car - wonder if we will make it there by 10:30 to get the cheap rates.
• 10:35am-12:45pm: Kids bowl. We got the cheap rates so I buy them popcorn and sprite and win mom of the year award for about 10seconds. It’s over when I refuse to buy more sprite but offer to get them a pitcher of water. While kids bowl I shuffle papers and redo all my todo lists figuring out what I can get done in the coming week. Also talk more with sister about summer plans. Drive back home (40 minutes round trip drive time)
• 12:45-1:30pm: Make lunch for girls.
• 1:30-1:45pm: 15 glorious minutes in my studio.
• 1:45-2:00pm: Round kids up to leave. Hunt for lost retainer (which was already packed).
• 2:00-4:00pm: Drive kids back home. Not a normal birthday party service but needed to help out another mom that had to work. Also drive in complete opposite direction across town to pick up son - it’s safe to come home now. Total miles - 70, Total time in car 2 hours. THIS is why I am moving to Denver.
• 4:00-8:00pm: Try really hard to focus and get back to work on website or packing. Fail at both. Hang out with kids and play board game instead.
• 8:00-9:15pm: Identify that I can complete an item on my weekly goals for the artist breakthrough program if I write a blog post as it’s the only thing I have energy for.

This must be why others have cable/dish - I’m sure even reality TV might seem okay right now.

The Quillows (a quilt with a pocket so it can be converted into a pillow)

 
My daughter’s middle school humanities class is studying capitalism and each of the kids (or group of kids) has secured a small business loan from the Micro Business Development Center in Denver to start their own business through their YouthWorks program. Her teacher is an amazing teacher and this is a wonderful opportunity for her to get a glimpse into my world as an artist hoping to make a living from their art.

At one point she told me she was stressed out because she had to start a business and that I had no idea what she was going through. When I told her I knew exactly what she was going through she countered with "yeah, but you aren’t 11". Hard to disagree.

The Pillows (my daughter’s original designs)

 
They are working on marketing this week. My daughter is going for the socially conscience save our environment approach.

A selection of "cornbags" - heating pads you microwave.

 
The kids are setting up shop this friday during the monthly First Friday Artwalk in the Santa Fe Art District here in Denver. If you are in Denver come check it out. I hear there will be some very cool products available that will make excellent holiday gifts.

December 7th from 5:30pm to 8:00pm

The stores will be upstairs in the Micro Business Development building located on at 700 Kalamath.

Ransom ©1999

Yesterday my plan for posting 1 new piece a day came to an end. Not a very long streak - just 3 pieces finished. After working all day I spent the evening at school with my kids learning what the high school kids had learned about HIV/AIDS and listened to them debate proposals for US foreign policy for aid to Sub Saharan Africa for the AIDS pandemic. Very interesting and it didn’t leave any time for the studio.

This evening I spent shopping for the kids’ christmas presents. I even braved the mall, a very rare event, for some overpriced bubble bath. I think I better test it out before gifting it to my daughter (the sacrifices we make for our kids). Maybe after that I’ll head to the studio for a bit.

 
In the mean time I thought I’d give a shameless plug for my cafepress shop as black friday quickly approaches, although technically I should probably wait until cyber monday to post this but I needed filler given my failure to meet my 1 piece a day goal.

I only have 1 design available for sale on cafepress, the above piece, which is aimed at the quilt maker crowd. Quilters are notorious for they love of their fabric, and chocolate. Magnets, notecards, tshirts, etc are available.

I made this Ransom piece during a workshop years ago. We were doing some design exercises cutting up magazines and I finished early and got a little silly, so when it came time to work with the fabric we painted this seemed the obvious choice. The instructor did shrine type work, this is mine.

 
Goal tomorrow - post 2 new pieces and rephotograph the ones taken with a flash. We should be getting off work early tomorrow and since I plan on working from home I’ll be set to jump right to the studio when the email arrives.