Lisa Call

Structures #96    ©2008    16.5"x 28"

The Pulse

Seth Apter, of blog The Altered Page, has posted compilations of artists’ responses to a few of his questions. It was fun to read the answers. I asked to join in after he got going and my answers are posted in the postscript.

Purple and Rothko

Two of my answers (you can read the others on his blog):

If I could take a class from one artist from anytime in history, including today, it would be…Mark Rothko - I love his work and would love to chat with him about his take on abstract expressionism.

Today my favorite color is…Purple - always purple - deep royal purple but any of them will do. Although I don’t use it often in my artwork as I’m drawn more to earthy southwestern colors in my art. Subtle purples creep into these pieces. Maybe I’ll go home tonight and make something purple.

In response to my answers Seth sent me an email with this image (one of Rothko’s amazing paintings):

Structures #96

A few days later I made Structures #96. It will also be part of my solo show at the Lux Art Center, Fencing In or Keeping Out. Hard to miss the influence.

I also had the Structures #35 in mind, the piece recently installed at the medical facility in Cleveland. I didn’t take the idea in that piece very far and now I’m excited about seeing where it leads me.

 
Detail image of surface stitching on my piece:

100

Only 4 more pieces in this series and I’ll hit 100 - woohoo! I might have to plan an event of some sort.

Although I’m switching gears back to my Markings series tonight to finish up a few things for my solo show opening at Macky Auditorium Gallery in Boulder, Colorado in 2 weeks. I won’t get back to Structures pieces until late this month.

Markings Show

The Macky show is titled Markings: Repetition and Pattern. Mark your calendars now for February 23 from 2-4 for the opening if you want to see the show in person. I’m also giving an artist talk at 3pm. I’ll be posting images of all the work in the show on my blog after the show opens.

The gallery isn’t open to the public very often, just Wednesdays from 9-4, as it’s in the lobby of a theater, so I asked for an opening time on the weekend for all us working types. Thousands of people will see the show during performances so it’s an excellent venue, just not very accessible to friends.

Structures #95    ©2008    52"x 34"

New Artwork

Publicity images were due today for my solo show at the Lux Art Center, Fencing In or Keeping Out, so I’m very happy to show this piece, newly completed and photographed. I sent off my resume, artist statement (newly revised), bio and images so I can check yet another item off my todo list.

According to my spreadsheet I started this piece in 2007, although I don’t recall doing much more than select the fabrics. I did most of the design and construction work middle of January. When doing this type of work, the design/creative stuff, I either keep my studio silent or I listen to music. No books on tape because it slows me down and distracts me.

Repetition

I get a bit obsessive at times with the music and I’ll put my CD player (no ipod here - I live in the dark ages) on repeat and listen to the same album over and over again. Or the same song. For this piece I listened to She Don’t Like Roses by Christine Kane, on her Rain & Mud & Wild & Green album, over and over again while constructing the composition. I love this song.

Over and over again, for about 6 hours one day. Repetition - it’s soothing.

When I do this the artwork becomes permanently linked in my head to what I was listening to. This piece will always remind me of this song, and the book A Version of the Truth, which I listened to while doing the surface stitching, a meditative repetitive process itself. The book was fun and felt like it fit the piece, as does the song.
 

Detail image of stitching:

Taxes!

Next up on my to do list are taxes. By end of this week I’ll have the packet in the mail to my account plus have budgets and spreadsheets for 2008 up to date and ready to go, for both business and personal. I actually like doing taxes and the financial stuff. I’m good with money and it’s fun to add up the numbers and see how the year went.

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.