Lisa Call

An Artful Weekend

Travel Diary, Saturday, April 5th:

1. Stayed up past midnight chatting and laughing with Pam. Notable topic of conversation was powdered sugar donuts, a favorite of Pam’s on road trips and her aliens (see her comments on her blog). Surprisingly we hear little noise from the high schoolers sharing the hotel with us as the evening goes on.
2. Earplugs in I sleep until 8am. Unfortunately the high school kids played a round of volleyball in the bathroom next door so Pam enjoyed the early morning taking great photos of the sculpture at the International Quilt Study Center.
3. After a yummy breakfast it’s off to galleries to see an exhibit of Michael James new work at Modern Arts Midwest. This work seems more saturated to me than some previous pieces. Could be my memory but I liked these richer colors better. My favorite was from 2006 and is not on either the gallery or artist’s website.
4. Next we went over to the brand new International Quilt Study Center and Museum to see a show of Nancy Crow’s work. It was good to see a collection of her work from over the years.



5. The building for the Quilt Center had some cool architectural features. Including a large reception area with very cool windows.



 


6. They also had a really cool mesh screen on wheels. Love the feet.


 

7. It’s my daughter’s birthday so I pack up and head back to Colorado for a 6:30 dinner reservation. The sharks are ready to hit the road.



8. Looking for something to do I phone up my friend Kelly and we have a 2+ hour chat as I drive down I-80. In addition to fabric dyeing the topic of powdered sugar donuts comes up as we were huge donut fans growing up. My car is in need of a gas so at a bargain $3.69 I fill up the tank and go inside in search of some fine pastries. I’m shocked and dismayed to discover there are no donuts and not even a twinkie in the entire convenience store.
9. Fortunately this is America so I drive over to the next store and find exactly what I’m looking for. I have a hard time deciding between the powdered sugar and those yummy plastic chocolate coated ones so select a package of both and head to the counter. The worker guy has just hit some magic button and the register is spitting out a very long tape of recent purchases and I’m told I’ll have to wait 5 minutes. Not wanting to look desperate I opted to walk out of the store empty handed.
10. All is well until I hit I-76, a stretch of road that makes driving across Nebraska seem exciting. It’s just me and a bunch of huge trucks and some tumble weeds. Realizing I’m darn close to falling asleep I stop and buy myself some sunflower seeds. Not being a caffeine drinker, food that requires effort to eat seemed like the next best option for staying awake. And really, why not, a pack of powdered sugar donuts ends up in my hands also.
11. The universe was clearly trying to send me a signal as there was a huge line at the cash register (in the middle of nowhere eastern colorado) - yes - it’s shift change and mr. manager is counting the pennies. I can hide my desperation no longer, I ignore the universe, and I stand there a good 10 minutes to purchase a pack of stale donuts. Happily I was in good company. It was kinda funny watching us. We’d look at what we wanted to buy. Look at the line. You can hear the wheels spinning "am I really standing in line to buy this?" Then we’d realize noone we know is watching - so yep - sure enough we did.



12. Yummy!
13. I was 20 minutes late picking up my daughter for our sushi dinner date. I blame it on the traffic.

May all your art adventures be inspiring and fun. And enjoy the donuts on the drive home.

Markings #1    ©2006    44"x62"

Cross Hatching

The idea for the Markings series began in September 2005 when I read an article on Danny Gregory’s blog, Everyday Matters, about cross hatching. His comments and images captured my imagination:

Cross hatching is quite miraculous. How is it that black ink lines on white paper have the ability to create an infinite number of shades of grey, to evoke all the colors of the rainbow and to suggest textures and materials and varied as silk and stone, glass and schnauzer hair?

I was hooked. I started drawing squares filled with lines in my sketch book.

• What if I could do that in fabric?
• Would parallel lines in fabric have the same power and beauty as that of a hand drawn line?
• Would it be interesting?
• Would it be technically possible?

Time to Play

Six weeks later I went to Sandpoint, Idaho, for a workshop with Nancy Crow where I spent 2 weeks essentially doing independent study. Although my focus was mostly on my Structures Series I took the time to do a small fabric sketch of my cross hatching idea:

After looking at this for a few days I decided to go for it and see what the idea would yield.

Markings #1

Having just driven across Wyoming and eastern Montana, with a stop at Little Big Horn, the grasses of the prairie were on my mind and I pulled out some soft golds and greens and dry grass colors and worked out my first composition. This is what it looked like before I started constructing the sections (I always cut all my lines and rough out my design on the wall before sewing):

 
The completed work, Markings #1 is at the top of this post and the detail image is below. This is still one of my favorites in this series as it brings back memories of the beautiful drive across Montana. This piece is included in the show Markings: Repetition and Pattern, currently in Boulder, CO.