Lisa Call

Making Progress

I’m a week and a half into my 7 weeks of intense studio time as I prepare for my upcoming solo show.

I have 4 large textile paintings basted and ready for quilting and a 5th in design. I’ve started quilting the first piece, the one I’ve selected for the show postcard, and things are going well. I’m mostly on track and think I will meet my schedule.

Things can become quite a mess when working this much, as is evidence by my work table above. I know, not really all that messy, but for me it is, as normally I keep table tops clear. When things are organized I’m more efficient and I think more creative. I don’t waste energy finding things so I can use it all for creating art.

Save The Date

My solo show will run Feb 17 – March 17 at Macky Gallery in Boulder. The gallery is only open 9-4 on Wednesdays and to ticketed patrons of the Macky Auditorium.

Best chance to see the show will be at my opening – February 21 from 1-4pm. I’ll be giving a gallery talk at 2pm during the opening.

Mark your calendars now and more information will be coming with directions and parking info.

Number 101

I intended to include on my list of 100 accomplishments of 2009 my winning of the award for The Most Gorgeous Mouthwatering (MGM) Studio of the Year from Making a Mark but somehow forgot.

Thank you Katherine for the award. I love my new studio and so glad you loved all the photos of the construction.

Making a Mark is the most amazing and mouth watering blog by Katherine Tyrrell – if you are an artist and aren’t reading this blog you are missing out. It is a huge honor to be included in this years award winners.

Structures #42    ©2006    81"x 33"

Fencing In or Keeping Out

In conjunction with the 2008 Fiber Invitational (see below), Denver, Colorado textile artist and curator, Lisa Call (me), will display her own hand dyed and stitched quilts textile paintings. Call employs the use of abstraction, geometry, and the color pallet of the Southwest within her work. Interest in both geological formations and man-made structures such as fences and walls manifest themselves within her Structures series. Visible delineations suggesting containment and boundaries also allude to the psychological boundaries we set.

 
Lux Center for the Arts
Lincoln, Nebraska
April 4 — 26, 2008
Lux Center Website

 
Opening Reception
Friday, April 4, 2008, 5:00-7:00 pm

I will be at the opening reception and will be giving a gallery talk at 6pm. Please introduce yourself and say hello if you are in attendance.

Distinctive Directions

Lux Center’s 2008 Fiber Invitational, curated by me, brings together diverse and talented regional and east coat artists: Deidre Adams, Joanie San Chirico, Jeanne Williamson and Pam RuBert.

See our website and blog at distinctive-directions.com

Structures #42

The above piece will make it’s public debut at this show. Although I completed it 2 years ago it has never been shown or even entered into any juried shows. It reminds me a lot of bamboo. Although bamboo might not be blue.

Detail of surface stitching:

Structures #96    ©2008    16.5"x 28"

Toxic People and Behaviors

I was reading an email yesterday that recommended making a list of all the people in my life and putting a + or – next to each of them to see if there is a pattern for the toxic people in my life. I put a bit of thought into this but didn’t get far. My mind took a leap and I started thinking that the non supportive/negative people in my life were most likely a result of negative thinking and behavior on my part.

Seemed to me instead of focusing on the symptom (people I’ve allowed into my life that I feel are not supportive) that I’d be better off focusing on the cause (my own negative thoughts and behaviors). I can’t change the behavior of the people in my life but I can change myself.

I also believe there are no longer people in my life that I feel are unsupportive. I’ve found that as I focus more on the positive and once I got clear in how I wanted to be treated, the people that didn’t share those choices moved on. As I shed my negative thoughts the people that came with those unhealthy patterns also disappeared.

Not To Do List

Many books about getting organized and getting things done talk about the importance of making a not-to-do-list. Here’s mine. If I catch myself doing or thinking these things I change my thoughts and behavior to something more nurturing and positive.

• Negative thinking.
• Getting hooked into other people’s negative thinking.
• Complaining.
• Criticizing.
• Whining.
• Gossiping and Colluding.
• Checking email 4000 times a day.
• Reading blogs more than 1 hour a day.
• Surfing the internet when I could be doing something else (which is pretty much anytime).
• Checking Blog and Website stats more than once every 2 weeks.

To Do List

I’ve also thought a lot about my priorities and where I want to put my time and energy. Here is my short version of my to-do list:

• Being self accepting.
• Being authentic.
• Being honest.
• Being kind.
• Being generous.
• Being gentle.
• Complimenting others.
• Feeling gratitude.
• Living in the present.
• Going for walks.
• Working in my studio with no expectations.
• Hanging out with my kids.
• Spending time with my friends and family.
• Gardening and cooking.
• Living healthy
• Living life effortlessly.

Not Finishing

A final no-to-do – leaving my artwork unfinished. I thought I had Structures #95 and Structures #96 finished but last night as I was packaging them up to mail them off to my solo show at Lux, Fencing In or Keeping Out, (opens April 4 – more on that tomorrow or thursday) I discovered I didn’t have the hanging mechanism (a fabric tube) or labels sewn on to them. Oops!

I’ll chalk this one up to my Getting Things Done approach to stuff starting after I dropped the ball on this work.

 
Do you keep a not-to-do-list?

Square Dance #1    ©1999    14"x 14"

Miscellaneous Stuff in Random Order

• This week I received Alyson Stanfield’s new book in the mail – I’d Rather be in the studio! It’s beautifully designed and full of tons of useful promotion ideas and strategies for artists. I definitely recommend this book, and not just because I’m quoted. I helped Alyson by looking over the chapter about having an online presence and she turned one of my comments into a quote. Okay she had me write a quote in relationship to something I said about blogging. Check out page 112 for my brilliant comment.
• Super talented artist Deidre Adams has started a blog. She photographed some artwork for me and in exchange I showed her how easy wordpress is to use. So now we can all enjoy Deidre’s Blog.
• Today the last of my 450 postcards to promote my solo show Markings: Repetition and Pattern arrived. I order from Vistaprint – in several small orders (it’s the cheapest way) so they’ve been trickling in the last week. Tomorrow I’ll print out labels and stamp them and get them in the mail. I’m very happy we now have self adhesive stamps.

Making Room for the New

I’ve been listening to Cheryl Richardson on CD recently and she reinforces something that Christine Kane talks about in her retreats and eseminars. That of getting rid of things to make way for creativity and passion. I made a detailed list (what a surprise) of all the clutter in my house and I’m slowly tackling each corner, ruthlessly purging piles of stuff that I no longer need or want or that drains my energy.

One thing I’ve decided to do is sell most my older artwork. Much of it is hidden in a closet and serving no purpose. I’d love for it to find a home in this world if it speaks to someone. I hadn’t hit upon how to go about doing this but the other day when photographing artwork for some reason I grabbed this piece and added it in. I think the universe was telling me to just do it and stop thinking I had to have the perfect plan.

Beads

I love all of the work I’ve made in my path as an artist. I used to not feel this way, and hence it’s hiding in the closet. Sure some is better than others but all of it shows my growth,choices and progress. There is nothing to be ashamed of and there are some really cool pieces lurking in there.

I went through a phase where I was obsessed with beads. Bought tons of them. Thought I’d sew them on all my quilts. Instead I made just 2 or 3 embellished pieces. I then moved to the next thing in my development

[side note - the last year or so I got back into some beading work and when I finish the piece I'll post it. I still love the beading - I just love the type of work I do now more. That's a topic for another day - why I choose to narrowly define my focus with my artwork.]

The piece here, Square Dance #1, was started in a workshop with David Walker many years ago. I quilted it and added the beads later, completing the piece in 1999.

Detail of beading:

 
I’ve thought about listing these pieces on ebay or etsy but decided to list them on my website for now. As I work on the redesign to incorporate them I’ll list a few here on the blog.

This artwork is for sale and is $50 Sold. It’s signed Lisa Leutenegger on the front (as are all pieces made before 2001) and I’ve resigned it on the back with my birth name (Lisa Call).

Structures #96    ©2008    16.5"x 28"

The Pulse

Seth Apter, of blog The Altered Page, has posted compilations of artists’ responses to a few of his questions. It was fun to read the answers. I asked to join in after he got going and my answers are posted in the postscript.

Purple and Rothko

Two of my answers (you can read the others on his blog):

If I could take a class from one artist from anytime in history, including today, it would be…Mark Rothko – I love his work and would love to chat with him about his take on abstract expressionism.

Today my favorite color is…Purple – always purple – deep royal purple but any of them will do. Although I don’t use it often in my artwork as I’m drawn more to earthy southwestern colors in my art. Subtle purples creep into these pieces. Maybe I’ll go home tonight and make something purple.

In response to my answers Seth sent me an email with this image (one of Rothko’s amazing paintings):

Structures #96

A few days later I made Structures #96. It will also be part of my solo show at the Lux Art Center, Fencing In or Keeping Out. Hard to miss the influence.

I also had the Structures #35 in mind, the piece recently installed at the medical facility in Cleveland. I didn’t take the idea in that piece very far and now I’m excited about seeing where it leads me.

 
Detail image of surface stitching on my piece:

100

Only 4 more pieces in this series and I’ll hit 100 – woohoo! I might have to plan an event of some sort.

Although I’m switching gears back to my Markings series tonight to finish up a few things for my solo show opening at Macky Auditorium Gallery in Boulder, Colorado in 2 weeks. I won’t get back to Structures pieces until late this month.

Markings Show

The Macky show is titled Markings: Repetition and Pattern. Mark your calendars now for February 23 from 2-4 for the opening if you want to see the show in person. I’m also giving an artist talk at 3pm. I’ll be posting images of all the work in the show on my blog after the show opens.

The gallery isn’t open to the public very often, just Wednesdays from 9-4, as it’s in the lobby of a theater, so I asked for an opening time on the weekend for all us working types. Thousands of people will see the show during performances so it’s an excellent venue, just not very accessible to friends.

Structures #95    ©2008    52"x 34"

New Artwork

Publicity images were due today for my solo show at the Lux Art Center, Fencing In or Keeping Out, so I’m very happy to show this piece, newly completed and photographed. I sent off my resume, artist statement (newly revised), bio and images so I can check yet another item off my todo list.

According to my spreadsheet I started this piece in 2007, although I don’t recall doing much more than select the fabrics. I did most of the design and construction work middle of January. When doing this type of work, the design/creative stuff, I either keep my studio silent or I listen to music. No books on tape because it slows me down and distracts me.

Repetition

I get a bit obsessive at times with the music and I’ll put my CD player (no ipod here – I live in the dark ages) on repeat and listen to the same album over and over again. Or the same song. For this piece I listened to She Don’t Like Roses by Christine Kane, on her Rain & Mud & Wild & Green album, over and over again while constructing the composition. I love this song.

Over and over again, for about 6 hours one day. Repetition – it’s soothing.

When I do this the artwork becomes permanently linked in my head to what I was listening to. This piece will always remind me of this song, and the book A Version of the Truth, which I listened to while doing the surface stitching, a meditative repetitive process itself. The book was fun and felt like it fit the piece, as does the song.
 

Detail image of stitching:

Taxes!

Next up on my to do list are taxes. By end of this week I’ll have the packet in the mail to my account plus have budgets and spreadsheets for 2008 up to date and ready to go, for both business and personal. I actually like doing taxes and the financial stuff. I’m good with money and it’s fun to add up the numbers and see how the year went.