Lisa Call

Packaging Day

I have a couple of textile paintings in shows coming up in January and today was the day allotted to package up the work and get it out the door. I always think I can do this quickly. I am almost always wrong.

In the tiny house it takes the first hour just to locate the work. All of my textile paintings are rolled on tubes and stored in the top of my closet. It’s a guessing game to figure out which roll a piece might be one.

Next step is to find the board to hang the piece on the wall. These are all bundled together in neat piles behind my couch in my living room. Today I could find neither board so I re-purposed boards from other work instead of cutting more wood.

Next up is steaming the work flat and letting it dry pinned to my design wall and lint rolling them as the cats are not welcome to travel along. Then finally rolling on tubes, putting in plastic and the paperwork and UPS website for labels, etc etc. Oops, cancel the shipment cause I put the wrong label on the small package and start over.

Over 3 hours later I have 2 textile paintings ready to head out the door. And while I was at it I packaged up Lines #6 and Lines #9, both headed to new homes tomorrow. Thank you Katy and Colin.

This is the glamorous life of an artist.

Joy

In all of that there was much joy as it means my work is headed to a museum and an art center for an invitation exhibit and a juried show. And it’s also headed to new homes. Yay!

This really is the glamorous life of an artist.

I’ll post details of the shows later – I want to get in a few minutes in the studio before bed. Tomorrow is designated as shopping day – I have to pick out lights and faucets before the builders start picking out this stuff for me.

Since I was taking photos of the stuff I’m mailing I thought I’d show you the tree also. Very cute huh!

ACEO #21
©2008
2.5" x 3.5"
Sold

Yum

Today’s joy is brought to you buy some delicious pizza the kids and I had for dinner. Yum. We sat and savored every bite. Except my preteen daughter, who was practicing staring off into space and ignoring me, which I must say was great fun to observe, especially when she couldn’t resist and would smile at what we were saying.

Friday dinner with the kids – priceless.

Construction

They did work today, I didn’t feel like taking photos when I got home from work. So tomorrow there will be an update cause they are working on the studio all through the weekend. I think tomorrow I’ll have windows.

I get to go shopping for stuff now, faucets and bathtubs and a bunch of other stuff that I have completely forgotten. Not being a shopper type this is going to be a challenge for me, but I am determined to have fun with it. How many times does one get to pick out a bathtub?

My daughter wants an orange one. I hope they don’t make such things. How could I say no? Think they have any resale value at all? Wonder if there would be a matching toilet and sink.

In the Studio

I’m in the middle of making a new batch of 3" square lines paintings mounted on canvas. I’m also working on a new piece with a color scheme suggested by a reader. I don’t do commissions per say but if there are some colors you’d like to see in a piece, I can see what I can do with them in your requested size. If you like it, you can buy it, if you don’t I’ll put it up for sale on my small art for sale website.

The above ACEOs was inspired by Structures #99:

Structures #99
©2008
33" x 39"
$7000

Pencil Holders
By Paula McCullough

Pencil Holders

One of my goals when I decluttered my house earlier this year was to only keep things that I loved. I believe things definitely have an energy and keeping things about that drain that energy is not something I want to do anymore.

I am working on this down to the smallest detail. I used to keep my pencils in old coffee mugs that I never really liked but someone gave them to me. They were functional but ugly. Definitely not things I wanted to keep around but my pencils needed to go somewhere.

So along came Paula McCullough thinking she also should make some smaller affordable art and she made pencil holders from an old piece of gutter (details here). I immediately fell in love with them and bought two. I smile every time I see them sitting on my desk.

Yesterday I decided I wanted more so I bought the remaining 9 in the limited edition to use in my house and maybe give as gifts (if I can bare to part with them).

My original plan was to blog about them so others could share in their beauty and buy one also – er – oops. Guess you will have to purchase one of her amazing clocks instead since these are sold out. Check them out at Paula’s Etsy Store. Some day I’ll own some of these also because the white plastic cheap things from Target aren’t the energy I want in my house.

Pint Sized Mugs
By Cynthia Guajardo

Mugs

So I just mentioned the ugly coffee mugs. They had to get out of the kitchen also. I don’t drink coffee but I do drink peppermint tea and it tastes much better out of my brand new mugs by Cynthia. I stopped by her potters guild sale a few weeks back and bought these and a few other items that are currently packed away until the builders are out.

I keep one at the office and one at home and when my house is complete Cynthia and I are going to work out a trade so I can get more in exchange for one of my small textile paintings. Yay!

Cynthia also has an etsy store and I hear she will soon be stocking it with new work. Cynthia’s Etsy Store.

More Affordable Art

Art doesn’t have to be large to make a home beautiful. I think small details like these pieces of functional art can have a big impact on the energy of a home.

I also buy small art that has no purpose than to make my house beautiful, such as the ACEO I bought from Tina Mammoser a while back. It’s currently sitting in front of my modems on my desk top and adds touch of color to my world. She also sells her work online: Tina’s Etsy Store.

I’ve got a small but growing collection of this small art (most of it in storage awaiting the house to be completed) and am looking forward to adding to it. Buying art is always my favorite purchase.

Black Friday

Here in the US it’s Black Friday, the day everyone heads to the stores to start their christmas shopping. If you are like me and don’t feel like fighting the crowds you buy art as gifts online instead. Check out these artists that came together to provide you with a variety of art to choose from:

Small Art Showcase
Fine Art Department

And, of course, you are always welcome to purchase some of my artwork – see my page of small art for sale.

Ransom ©1999

Yesterday my plan for posting 1 new piece a day came to an end. Not a very long streak – just 3 pieces finished. After working all day I spent the evening at school with my kids learning what the high school kids had learned about HIV/AIDS and listened to them debate proposals for US foreign policy for aid to Sub Saharan Africa for the AIDS pandemic. Very interesting and it didn’t leave any time for the studio.

This evening I spent shopping for the kids’ christmas presents. I even braved the mall, a very rare event, for some overpriced bubble bath. I think I better test it out before gifting it to my daughter (the sacrifices we make for our kids). Maybe after that I’ll head to the studio for a bit.

 
In the mean time I thought I’d give a shameless plug for my cafepress shop as black friday quickly approaches, although technically I should probably wait until cyber monday to post this but I needed filler given my failure to meet my 1 piece a day goal.

I only have 1 design available for sale on cafepress, the above piece, which is aimed at the quilt maker crowd. Quilters are notorious for they love of their fabric, and chocolate. Magnets, notecards, tshirts, etc are available.

I made this Ransom piece during a workshop years ago. We were doing some design exercises cutting up magazines and I finished early and got a little silly, so when it came time to work with the fabric we painted this seemed the obvious choice. The instructor did shrine type work, this is mine.

 
Goal tomorrow – post 2 new pieces and rephotograph the ones taken with a flash. We should be getting off work early tomorrow and since I plan on working from home I’ll be set to jump right to the studio when the email arrives.