Lisa Call

Structures #43    ©2005    21" x 22"

 
Post #3 on my thoughts on the design principles from my kids’ Expeditionary Learning school and how they relate to being an artist. [All my posts on design principles.]

Design Principle #4: Empathy and Caring

Learning is fostered best in small groups where there is trust, sustained caring and mutual respect among all members of the learning community. Keep schools and learning groups small. Be sure there is a caring adult looking after the progress of each child. Arrange for the older students to mentor the younger ones.

As this principle states my kids school is very small with only ~300 kids in grades K-12. All of them in a single building, high schoolers with first graders. The classrooms are paired up, older with younger grades, and once a week they get together for a "crew buddy" activity. It’s a wonderful experience for both the younger and the older kids.

Mentoring

I was fortunate to have some supportive mentors when I first started out making art. Having someone to ask questions, bounce ideas off of, and give suggestions is helpful in developing as an artist. Now I have a desire to share that with others to help them in a similar way I was helped. One of the goals of my blog is to do exactly that. I share my experiences and hope that others can gain from it.

The past year I’ve wanted to do something more tangible and specific along these lines. So I’ve started thinking about developing a mentoring program of some type. It’s something I want to do sometime this year, after I move and after I finish my website and after I get my book done. So I’m thinking end of fall or early winter having it in place. I have a bunch of ideas floating around in my head as to what this might look like, so watch this space in a few months as things become more concrete and I announce my plans.

Design Principle #5: Success and Failure

All students must be assured a fair measure of success in learning in order to nurture the confidence and capacity to take risks and rise to increasingly difficult challenges. But it is also important to experience failure, to overcome negative inclinations, to prevail against adversity and to learn to turn disabilities into opportunities.

I have had some really wonderful successes in my art career and I’ve had some set backs. While it’s easy to proceed in the face of resounding success it’s a lot harder to keep going when rejected or things don’t pane out as planned. I believe that successful people are those that respond well to failure. They learn to just keep on going as they have a strong belief in themselves and in what they want to do. They know they will eventually succeed and so they just keep moving forward, changing direction when one avenue fails and trying a different approach.

In fact I think this is the notable difference between those we view as very accomplished and those that never get far. Very few people never meet with failure or rejection, really probably no one. The questions is - what do you do when things don’t go well? Do you give up or do you continue to pursue your dream?

Moving Update

Yesterday was the last day of contractors in the house. It’s almost finished! Although I had hoped today would be a studio day I’ll be putting back the last of my furniture, washing windows, touching up a bit of paint, doing a bit of yard work, hanging the last few curtains. And of course putting some of my art back on the walls.

At 9am tomorrow morning I’ll have my first showing even though the house doesn’t officially go on the market until Tuesday. If you want to buy a gorgeous house in Parker Colorado let me know. It has an awesome studio.

Structures #43 - Moving Sale

I made Structures #43 a few years ago as a color study. This is the first of the thin line pieces that uses a different color family for the lines than for the ground. As I was just playing around I wasn’t getting too caught up in perfection. As a result I love the free flowing feeling of this piece that sometimes I fail to capture in my work if I get too analytical. I can tell when I into that right brain grove of making art as everything flows and it’s effortless. This piece is also available as part of my moving sale. Originally priced at $750, it is $450 until June 15.

If you are interested in purchasing Structures #43, or any of my available artwork please email me.

Detail of Structures #43: