Lisa Call

An Artful Weekend

Travel Diary, Friday, April 4th:

1. Awake at 5:30am to pack and print out maps.
2. Have daughter help load car. Apparently BAHO and BDHO will be joining me on the road. I insist on driving. BAHO cries but finally moves over. BAHO = Bite Alex’s (brother) Head Off. BDHO = Bite Dad’s Head Off (pronounced Baa-ho and Bid-ho). To date there is no BMHO. Mom rocks (and is in charge of shark shopping).



3. As I back out of driveway I notice brake light warning is on. Frantically flip through car manual as I drop ACEOs off at post office. Discover it means my brake light is out (clever how the warning is called that). Relax, no need to fix before leaving, car is running fine, who needs brake lights anyway.
4. On the road at 7:45am. I thought it was 6 hours to Lincoln as a quick scan of mapquest said it was six hours a few weeks ago. Apparently I should have looked at the details – it said 6 hours and 56 minutes. Oops. Good thing the car goes faster without brake lights.
5. Arrive in Lincoln 6 hours and 30 minutes later. I was right about the brake lights.
6. Stop by hotel procured via Priceline. It was cheap – the large number of high school students loitering in the lobby and in front of the hotel gives me warm fuzzy feelings (translation – I’m glad I packed my earplugs).
7. Quick change of clothes and I arrive at the brand spanking new International Quilt Study Center to say hello to Nancy Crow who is teaching a class.
8. Nancy asks me to give a quick talk about how I can focus on my work while also a fulltime cube worker and single mom. I have no idea what to say but once I start I don’t shut up. Rambling might be a good word to insert here.
9. I head over to the Lux Center to check out the show and take some photos before the crowds arrive.



 

Overview from front entrance (both shows are in one room)

 

Overview from front entrance (Two pieces of Deidre’s work is on the wall behind me in both of these pictures, my work is in the back left corner.)

 
Distinctive Directions

 

Deidre Adams and Joanie San Chirico

 

Deidre Adams

 

Jeanne Williamson

 

Pam RuBert

 
Fencing In or Keeping Out – Lisa Call


Structures #42

 

Structures #95 and Structures #59

 

Structures #39

 

Structures #96

 

10. It’s 4:40 – time to prepare my gallery talk. I think I should have done this earlier. Good thing I printed out notes on the artists in Distinctive Directions.
11. It’s 5pm – show time. The next 2 hours are a blur. I talk, Pam RuBert talks. We had a great turnout. (Deidre Adams, Joanie San Chirico and Jeanne Williamson are in Philadelphia at the Art Quilt Elements Opening.)
12. Dinner with my Aunt Myrna from Omaha, which is apparently quite close to Lincoln. Who knew!
13. And finally back to the hotel to chat with Pam.

 

The sharks have settled in

Tomorrow – gallery hopping with Pam, the drive home, donuts and high school kids.

Sign by the Front Door

 

View from the front entrance

Lux Center For the Arts

My trip to Nebraska for the opening of the shows at the Lux Art Center was short but fun. I arrived in Lincoln not long after 3:30pm on friday and left the next day around noon. I had to get back to Colorado to take my daughter to dinner for her birthday last night.

The opening was well attended and I enjoyed giving another gallery talk. I’ll post more pictures of the show tomorrow and talk about my trip. Today I had a few odds and ends I wanted to write about.

Etsy

I’ve decided to try Etsy again. I was deciding between shutting down the shop or using it to sell some of my older work. Because the fees are so low I decided to give it a try. If this doesn’t work out well or feel right I think the next plan is to try putting something on my website, which is in the process of being redesigned. I’m moving the entire thing to wordpress so it’s easier to maintain.

I’d Rather Be In The Studio

As I mentioned last tuesday, I’m giving away a copy of Alyson Stanfield’s wonderful book I’d Rather Be in the The Studio.

I used an online random number generator to select the winner – and that winner is Patty O’Rourke. Thanks to everyone for playing along and creating the links. Patty – congrats! Contact me with your address and I’ll get the book in the mail to you.

What’s Next

I spent some time on the 7 hour drive home from Nebraska thinking about what’s next for me. On January 1st I posted the following goals for my art career:

1. I complete the new Markings pieces that I need for my solo show at the Macky Gallery in February by February 14th.
2. I frame my plains drawings by February 14th so they can be included in my solo show.
3. I create new Structures pieces for my solo show at Lux art center by March 15th.
4. I complete all paperwork and provide requested materials for both solo shows and the show I am curating at the Lux on time.
5. I ship all artwork for upcoming juried shows on time (Materials Hard and Soft, Art Quilt Elements, Artist as Quiltmaker XIII at Firelands Association for the Visual Arts).
6. I determine with crystal clarity my definition of success for my art career.
7. I write goals for the remainder of the year that will lead me to the success I define.

I’ve now completed 1-5 with some minor exceptions. Like deciding to skip #2 so I could hang more of my textile paintings and I won’t be shipping the work to FAVA until the end of the month.

That leaves me with 6 & 7. My goal is to complete #6 (my definition of success) by April 13th and post it on my blog. Then I’ll move on to #7.

What’s Happening in the Studio

Honestly – not much. I completed the work for my 2 shows and haven’t done much since. I put a total of 3 or 4 hours of work into my studio in March. I was sick for longer than I’d like to admit. I had an infection that resulted in a very unpleasant lower back ache and I had no motivation to make art. Now that I’m healthy I can’t wait to get back to my studio.

Time to head there now.

ACEO #4    ©2008    2.5"x3.5"
This card was inspired by Markings #22

Made My Goal

Hurray! Today I emailed my first studio newsletter. I missed my deadline of March 31 by a few days because I couldn’t focus to finished the ACEOs (Art Cards Editions and Originals – aka Artist Trading Cards) that I wanted to include. No fun to be sick but I’m all better now. I figure today was close enough to my deadline so I left the newsletter dated March 2008.

I offered the 3 new ACEOs for sale to my subscribers and they all sold within a few hours. Woohoo. That was so cool. Thank you all for the support.

If you didn’t receive the newsletter but believe you have signed up please email me at lisa@lisacall.com and I can check on it. Also please let me know if you had any technical problems with the newsletter. In my tests I saw that yahoo was dumping it into the spam folder so check there if you didn’t get it and maybe add me (lisa@lisacall.com) to your whitelist.

If you missed it you can read it online here: Lisa Call Studio Newsletter – March 2008

The Making of a Studio Newsletter

I thought it might be interesting to recap what went into getting this newsletter out the door. It’s been quite a bit of work but the ground work is all in place and I anticipate no problems on keeping my intention of sending out a quarterly newsletter. Look for the next one in June.

As tempting as it is to recap it tonight I must start packing so that post (or 2) will have to wait until next week. I learned a lot over the past 14 months of getting this off the ground.

Lux Center Shows

I’m driving to Lincoln, Nebraska tomorrow for the opening of my solo show, Fencing In or Keeping Out, in conjunction with my curated show, Distinctive Directions. If you are in the area please stop by the Lux Center form 5-7pm and say hello. I’ll be giving a gallery talk at 6pm.

Art Quilt Elements

Structures #60    ©2006    33"x89"

In addition to the shows at the Lux Center, tomorrow is also the opening of Art Quilt Elements in Wayne, Pennsylvania (near Philadelphia). My piece, Structures #60, will be in the show.

They are having a big conference and it’s fiber month in Philly so most quilt artists will be on the east coast. Three of the four Distinctive Directions artists will be. Although Pam RuBert will be joining me in Nebraska at the opening.

In addition to my large piece in the show I have 4 smaller works for sale in the gift shop so if you are joining the celebrations check it out to see my work in person. It’s very hard to get the texture across online.

Playing Favorites

Last but not least (I missed a lot of days posting in a week when I had a lot to say). Check out Seth Apter’s blog The Altered Page for the past week or 10 days. He’s done an thought provokingseries of posts on artists’ favorites works. It makes for interesting reading.

The post with some of my favorites is here. Check it out to see what I’ve picked.

PS – I’ll catch up with comments when I return.

Structures #42    ©2006    81"x 33"

Fencing In or Keeping Out

In conjunction with the 2008 Fiber Invitational (see below), Denver, Colorado textile artist and curator, Lisa Call (me), will display her own hand dyed and stitched quilts textile paintings. Call employs the use of abstraction, geometry, and the color pallet of the Southwest within her work. Interest in both geological formations and man-made structures such as fences and walls manifest themselves within her Structures series. Visible delineations suggesting containment and boundaries also allude to the psychological boundaries we set.

 
Lux Center for the Arts
Lincoln, Nebraska
April 4 — 26, 2008
Lux Center Website

 
Opening Reception
Friday, April 4, 2008, 5:00-7:00 pm

I will be at the opening reception and will be giving a gallery talk at 6pm. Please introduce yourself and say hello if you are in attendance.

Distinctive Directions

Lux Center’s 2008 Fiber Invitational, curated by me, brings together diverse and talented regional and east coat artists: Deidre Adams, Joanie San Chirico, Jeanne Williamson and Pam RuBert.

See our website and blog at distinctive-directions.com

Structures #42

The above piece will make it’s public debut at this show. Although I completed it 2 years ago it has never been shown or even entered into any juried shows. It reminds me a lot of bamboo. Although bamboo might not be blue.

Detail of surface stitching:

Structures #96    ©2008    16.5"x 28"

Toxic People and Behaviors

I was reading an email yesterday that recommended making a list of all the people in my life and putting a + or – next to each of them to see if there is a pattern for the toxic people in my life. I put a bit of thought into this but didn’t get far. My mind took a leap and I started thinking that the non supportive/negative people in my life were most likely a result of negative thinking and behavior on my part.

Seemed to me instead of focusing on the symptom (people I’ve allowed into my life that I feel are not supportive) that I’d be better off focusing on the cause (my own negative thoughts and behaviors). I can’t change the behavior of the people in my life but I can change myself.

I also believe there are no longer people in my life that I feel are unsupportive. I’ve found that as I focus more on the positive and once I got clear in how I wanted to be treated, the people that didn’t share those choices moved on. As I shed my negative thoughts the people that came with those unhealthy patterns also disappeared.

Not To Do List

Many books about getting organized and getting things done talk about the importance of making a not-to-do-list. Here’s mine. If I catch myself doing or thinking these things I change my thoughts and behavior to something more nurturing and positive.

• Negative thinking.
• Getting hooked into other people’s negative thinking.
• Complaining.
• Criticizing.
• Whining.
• Gossiping and Colluding.
• Checking email 4000 times a day.
• Reading blogs more than 1 hour a day.
• Surfing the internet when I could be doing something else (which is pretty much anytime).
• Checking Blog and Website stats more than once every 2 weeks.

To Do List

I’ve also thought a lot about my priorities and where I want to put my time and energy. Here is my short version of my to-do list:

• Being self accepting.
• Being authentic.
• Being honest.
• Being kind.
• Being generous.
• Being gentle.
• Complimenting others.
• Feeling gratitude.
• Living in the present.
• Going for walks.
• Working in my studio with no expectations.
• Hanging out with my kids.
• Spending time with my friends and family.
• Gardening and cooking.
• Living healthy
• Living life effortlessly.

Not Finishing

A final no-to-do – leaving my artwork unfinished. I thought I had Structures #95 and Structures #96 finished but last night as I was packaging them up to mail them off to my solo show at Lux, Fencing In or Keeping Out, (opens April 4 – more on that tomorrow or thursday) I discovered I didn’t have the hanging mechanism (a fabric tube) or labels sewn on to them. Oops!

I’ll chalk this one up to my Getting Things Done approach to stuff starting after I dropped the ball on this work.

 
Do you keep a not-to-do-list?

I’ve mentioned a few times I was curating a show at the Lux Center for the Arts in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Early in 2007 I contacted 4 artists who’s artwork I admire (Deidre Adams, Pam Rubert, Joanie San Chirico and Jeanne Williamson) and asked them if they would like to look for venues to show our work together. I already had a solo show at Lux schedule for 2008 and a few weeks after I contact these artists, I was asked to curate a show in conjunction with my solo show, tada, instant show. Interesting how things tend to happen like this.

Today I picked the work for the curated show. I printed out the available work and cut walls to size and played around until I found a layout that would work. It was pretty fun to play around.

In addition I’ve been working on a website for this show the last month and it’s now ready to unveil: distinctive-directions.com. The website includes a blog that all of us will be participating in so check that out also: distinctive directions blog. Today’s post is a short introduction to the artists in the show.

Here are the mock ups for the show:

 
My work for the solo show, Fencing In or Keeping Out, will go into the corner that is empty. It will be all new work from my Structures series.

Structures #80    ©2007    15.5" x 15.5"
 
I haven’t had much success in getting things done this week, other than attending the museum opening. I rarely go to a social type event like that alone, so I spent the entire day telling myself how much fun I would have and sure enough I really enjoyed the evening. Amazing what we can convince ourselves of if we think positive.

I’m not much for walking up and talking to people I don’t know but I chatted with several of the volunteers and one of the exhibiting artists. Something that normally I would never do. The internet/email is generally my domain, but I’ve decided I’m not going to get very far in this art world unless I become a bit more social. I’ll never be an extrovert, INTJ that I am, but I think socializing is probably a learned behavior and if I can jump off a bridge I can probably learn to make small talk.

 
I’ve only put in a few hours in my studio so far this week as I’m still lacking focus after my dad’s memorial service. I’ve designed a few new small pieces but they aren’t ready for prime time yet. After I finish this post I hope to get a few of them a bit further along.

I’ve had work at the Lux Center for the Arts that past year that is shown in rotation in their new fiber art classroom. I asked them to send them back so I could send in some fresh work and they’d like mostly smaller pieces.

I need to sit down and see what I have given my other obligations this fall/winter. My mom is coming out to visit next week and then in November I hope to have the focus to get back to work.

Structures #80, above, is one of the small pieces I completed earlier this year.