Lisa Call

Markings #16
©2007 Lisa Call
45" x 68"
Textile Painting (hand dyed fabric, batting, thread)

Still Stitching Stitching

As I mentioned the last few weeks I’m still working towards my big deadline of July 15th. I’m taking tomorrow as a vacation from the day job and intend to spend 15 hours in front of the sewing machine. This will put me on track for finishing the artwork with a few hours to spare.

I delivered my kids to camp today so the house is quiet and I can really stay focused.

All this secret art creation doesn’t lend itself to exciting art related blog posts so things will pick up around here in 10 days or so with photos of new art.

Other Stuff I’m Thinking About

I announced my new solo show in my last studio newsletter (in Boulder, CO in Feb/March 2010) and I’ve been thinking about the art I want to display. I have this vision of making some huge pieces in the Home or Ascending series. I think that would be pretty cool.

I have gone back and forth about what I’ll do about blogging while I’m in South Africa (I leave at the end of this month for a 3+ weeks). I finally decided to stay in touch so I’ve ordered a mini dell netbook to facilitate that decision. Course I might get there and decide I’d rather not bother, but if I feel like it, I’ll have the equipment to post photos.

When I went to New Zealand in 2000-2001 it was pre blogging days (or at least my blogging days) so instead I sent very long and detailed emails to my friends and family during the 5 month adventure. I anticipate having an easier time finding internet this time around. Wireless wasn’t much of an option back then so we carried a cable with us every where.

Speaking of my newsletter I’ll be sending out the July issue this week or next (depends on how well I’m doing on my deadline). This issue will be a celebration of the completion of Structures #100 and I’ll be announcing a fun art project I will be doing in September after my return from Africa.

If you’d like to sign up for that newsletter you can here: Lisa Call’s Studio Newsletter.

MakeBigArt.com

A few weeks back I launched a new website called MakeBigArt. It’s now where I write articles for other artists. This blog is now devoted more to my art and my studio and my life as an artist.

This week on MakeBigArt.com a post about responsibility.

It’s Here

Woohoo! It’s official – makebigart.com is now live.

The first blog post, Do I Need a Facebook Fan Page, can help you decide if a fan page is right for you.

The website is far from polished and it’s in what might be called a pre-launch state. There are no pretty graphics or pictures and there isn’t much more content than the blog at this point, but I decided to not wait for all of that to catch up with my ideas.

This blog started out a bit on the unpolished side 4 years ago, heck, it’s still pretty ugly and that doesn’t seem to have stopped it from being successful. So I’m not too worried. I know the prettiness will catch up as it needs to.

I’d love to hire a web designer to do both of my websites and I plan to, just waiting for the bank account to refill after the big studio construction project.

[On complete tangent - I find it disconcerting to put a link to the images for my construction project - not because it's weird to link - but because I probably have new readers that weren't around during the very long project and don't know I just turned 900 sq fixer upper into my dream house/studio - if you are one of those folks - check out the link if you love construction photos. Everyone else - yes - I know - I still don't have "after" photos. I hope to get to those in July.]

What is it?

I have often posted tips and information for other artists on this blog. I love helping artists. Problem is it always felt it didn’t quite fit into the purpose of this blog, which is to talk about my art and my life as an artist.

So now I have a place to put that stuff that feels right.

I’m pretty excited and have a whole bunch of plans and ideas for makebigart.com so I hope you make the journey over to makebigart.com and join me.

(I also have a facebook fan page: MakeBigArt.com Fanpage)

Weekend Review

As long as I’m here I thought I’d give an update on how my weekend went.

This was the todo list:

• Studio time: surface stitching/quilting on Structures #111 so it is 3/4 complete (estimate ~18 hrs)
• Dye fabric: for back of my next large piece + a few yards cause it’s fun (estimate ~3 hrs)
• makebigart.com: get the initial pages of the website done and first blog post written & launch (estimate ~6 hrs)

This was how it went:

• Studio time: I spent 14 hours working on Structures #111 – I’m about 5 hours short of having it 3/4 complete.
• Dye fabric: Done as planned – took 3 hours
• makebigart.com: woohoo – yes! And it too 6 1/2 hours so that was a pretty good estimate also

I’m not sure where those other 4 hours of planned time went but I suspect part of it was spent on my porch swing relaxing. I love my porch swing and am looking forward to some landscaping to go with it.