Lisa Call

Upcoming Solo Exhibit

This article is part of a series of posts on the preparation for my upcoming solo exhibit, Dwelling, at Macky Gallery, Feb 17-March 17 with an opening reception Sunday, Feb 21 from 1-4 and artist talk at 2pm.

To see photos of the artwork for the exhibit as I’m creating it, check out my page on facebook: www.facebook.com/LisaCallFineArt.

Writing an Exhibit Statement

This past weekend I completed my artist statement for the exhibit. It takes me a few weeks to write my statements as they go through several iterations before I finally settle on the final wording.

Words are much harder for me than images, probably why I’m a visual artist and not a poet or writer, but over the past 5 years I’ve gotten a lot better at writing. I attribute the majority of that improvement on my blogging. The more one writes the better one gets.

Kinda like making art also. Just keep doing it.

The Statement

Dwelling

Recently life has revolved around houses, starting with a move into the city after selling my large suburban home two years ago.

During an extensive remodel of my new abode, turning the small fixer-upper into a dream home and studio, I began creating the stick figure structures that became the Home series, as houses had permeated my thoughts.

Shortly after construction ended, I spent a month traveling in South Africa where I was captured by beauty and simplicity of the dwellings, which inspired the box like buildings in the Dream series.

The desire for a place to call home feels nearly universal. Most often it is linked to words such as security, comfort, happiness and belonging. A home is a container for our possessions, our love, our hopes and our dreams. It’s also where we feel safe to share our vulnerabilities, fear and disappointments.

The past few years I found myself contemplating these concepts of house and home often. What exactly defines a home? When does a house become a home? If four sheets of tin can become a home why do I desire a larger space to inhabit?

What makes your house your home?

Upcoming Solo Exhibit

Part of a series of posts on the preparation for my upcoming solo exhibit, Dwelling, at Macky Gallery, Feb 17-March 17 with an opening reception Sunday, Feb 21 from 1-4 and artist talk at 2pm.

To see photos of the artwork as I’m creating it, check out my page on facebook: www.facebook.com/LisaCallFineArt. Images of Home #10, in progress, were posted over the last few days.

If you become a fan (click the ‘become a fan button’) you’ll see these updates in your newsfeed. If you aren’t on facebook you can still check out the page every once in a while as it is public and you don’t have to be on facebook to see the images. So I can focus on creating the artwork I’m posting the images on facebook as it is quicker than posting them on my blog.

You’ve Got Mail

This morning I designed and ordered postcard invitations for my upcoming exhibit (front show above, back shown below). I have a mailing list of collectors, supporters, fans, family, acquaintances, etc that will receive the card.

My longer term goal with this mailing list is to send out a hard copy announcement 2-4 times a year. I’m getting fewer and fewer of these cards from artists and galleries as it is quite expensive in comparison to email so I think I will continue to send them, as they are a rare treat and will stand out more as fewer people are sending them.

[If you'd like to be added to my mailing list please email me.]

Creating the Invitation

I haven’t yet shared all the details of the office work entailed with the preparation for the exhibit and will soon. Today I’ll just touch on the creation of the postcard as it takes a fairly good chunk of time.

Yesterday I photographed the artwork and prepared the image for the front of the card. Earlier this week I worked with the gallery director to get approval of the text I was using on the back of the card.

With the content determined this morning I started work on the layout. I have no training in graphic design but I still find it great fun to play around with layouts. I used photoshop to do the work.

I decided on using a detail image for the front of the card as the textile painting was long and skinny and left too much white space at the bottom if used in it’s entirety. I find layout of the text most difficult as I know very little about what is supposed to work so I wing it and go with what looks okay to me.

I order my cards from Vistaprint so I use their template when designing the card. I’ve found that to get the file size small enough I have to save it as .pdf and so far the printing has turned out great. I always order the oversized card as I like the impact of the larger image.