Lisa Call

Home #59
©2010 Lisa Call
3.5" x 2.5"
Textile Painting (Fabric hand dyed and painted by the artist, cotton batting, cotton thread)
$40 + shipping
Purchase Here

Studio

Today has been a fabulous studio day, designing 2 new large textile paintings in my Structures series (these will be #113 and #114). They feel like the first step forward in this series in a while so it was very exciting.

I can’t show images of them as I might enter them into Quilt National (a big juried art quilt show) and they have a zillion rules about pre-publication of the artwork. It’s easier to just not show the artwork than to read and understand the rules.

Last week I made a few new black and white mini textile paintings with my hand stamped and painted fabric to include in my July studio newsletter. The above piece is one of them. I’ve got some wonderful ideas on where to take these black and white pieces in the future.

In fact I have a zillion ideas of directions to go, my brain is over flowing with inspiration. Making art kinda does this – it inspires more art.

Newsletter

As I mentioned, I emailed my July studio newsletter yesterday. It was a lot of fun to write and pull together.

The topic of my essay was transition – as there is a lot of that at my house these days with my son heading off to college any minute now (although please please, can he finish cleaning his room before he goes).

If you aren’t a subscriber you can view it online here: Lisa Call’s July Studio Newsletter.

If you want to subscribe go here.

Color Improvisations Catalog

The first 10 catalogs from Color Improvisations arrived from Germany this week and I’ve packaged them up and will take them to the post office on monday. I’ve sold 40 catalogs this week and of this writing there are only 10 remaining for sale.

This could be the end of them. It’s a lot of work to track the orders and pack them up. It’s been a labor of love to share this beautiful art with everyone. If there is still a huge demand after these last 10 are gone, I might reconsider. Or not – I want to make art!

Anyway, if you don’t have one yet but want one – the webpage to order is here: Color Improvisation Catalogs

A few images of the packaging event earlier today:

The catalogs. The colors of the books aren’t exactly in this photo (the orange is the most off on my screen) – but it gives you an idea. The hardcover book is 10″x10″.

 

The boxes. I spent some time investigating how best to package the books so they were 1) cheap to mail and 2) wouldn’t get ruined in the process. In the end boxes were the best option – they cost a bit more but I think the books will survive their travels through the US mail better this way. I order 50 boxes from uline and they arrived in just 2 days. With shipping I think they cost around $1 each.

 

The packaging. I’m reusing bubble wrap from my past. Good thing I’m a packrat and never through this stuff out. I am likely to run out so I will put an email in at work tomorrow and hope some coworkers have some in their basement they want to share. Plan B is the use all those plastic grocery bags in my closet. They make for good cheap packaging all crinkled up.

Structures #111
©2009 Lisa Call
77″ x 76″
Textile Painting (Fabric hand dyed by the artist, cotton batting, cotton thread)

Color Improvisations

This last weekend Color Improvisations opened in Stuttgart, Germany. Two of my textile paintings were included in the exhibit, one of them being Structures #111 shown above.

I have heard the show is fabulous and I’m bummed things didn’t work out for me to attend the opening and am looking forward to hearing reports for those that were able to attend.

See here for a list of participating artists. I’m honored to be included with these fabulous artists.

Exhibit Details

Color Improvisations
July 11-August 25, 2010
Haus der Wirtschaft, Stuttgart, Germany
Grand opening: July 11, 2010 | 2 pm

This exhibition, curated by Nancy Crow, and organized by both Ginie Curzte and Nancy Crow, includes artists who are committed machine piecers, who have studied consistently with Nancy over the past 15 years, and who have developed very individual voices; the exhibition will showcase approximately 50 very large works that are masterful in color usage, composition and are technically, beautifully machine-quilted. The exhibition will travel throughout 2010-2012.

A gorgeous catalogue of all works will be available after July 12, 2010. When I get details on how you can purchased a catalog I’ll let everyone know.

Structures #112 (in progress)
©2010 Lisa Call
~38″ x ~38″
Textile Painting (Fabric hand dyed by the artist, cotton batting, cotton thread)

Fear

The last 3 and a half months I’ve not created much art. I tried a few times to start new artwork and selected fabrics for a few pieces.

And then I would lose steam and wander out of the studio.

While I lacked energy due to the depression, I also had a lot of fear.

After a period of time goes by without creating new artwork, I find this happens to me. I think “what if I have forgotten how to make art?”, “what if I have no ideas left?”, “what if I’m not really an artist?” etc etc.

These thoughts can keep me out of my studio for days, weeks and this time months. I was starting to think “why did I build this huge studio in my house if I’m not an artist anymore”. It was not fun.

Moving Beyond

It was with those negative thoughts floating about my brain, that I turned to my studio on monday, determined to move forward.

With the work I’ve done to move beyond my depression, it was time to move beyond the fear in the studio also.

A few days prior, I had selected a stack of brown and red fabrics to start a new textile painting, which I had abandoned. I’d done this a handful of times over the past few months. Selecting a stack of colors and then abandoning it.

Monday I had enough of myself and with no ideas on where to start (or even which series I wanted to work in) I was determined to make some artwork.

Creating Structures #112

And so I did – I picked up the first fabric and started ironing it. Hoping an idea would pop into my head.

Not much there. So I went to the second. And ideas slowly came to mind.

Structures, it’s my favorite series, I needed to return to it.

And slowly as I moved through the stack of fabrics I had the start of an idea.

I cut and pinned the background browns up on the wall (see photo #1 above) and then spent 30 minutes pondering what I would do for the lines. Red seemed boring so I tried some green, then blue, then purple. Nothing really worked and the negative thoughts were creeping back in.

I almost walked out of the studio to return at another time, defeated.

Something stopped me (myself, really, I was sick of the excuses). So I returned to my original idea of using reds and browns and selected the accents (again see the photo above). It worked and I left the studio with a sense of satisfaction.

Finishing the Design

On tues & wed I was able to cut the strips for the lines with only positive thoughts in my head. How quickly the negative voices disappeared when I gave them no power.

The result (below) was something that had potential and I was looking forward to creating the composition by sewing it together.

 
 
Thursday morning was exhilarating as I stitched the first few sections together and the design came alive with energy. Dozens of ideas for new directions, colors, lines to try out are now floating in my head.

I knew this was how it worked. All I had to do was ‘do it’ and I’d be back making art as it is what I love to do.

Fear always loses to love, when we are willing to trust ourselves.

Structures #100
©2009 Lisa Call
Textile Painting (Hand dyed fabric, batting, thread)
22″ x 50″

WooHoo!!

Structures #100 is finished and I’ve reached a huge milestone: 100 textile paintings completed in my first major series!

Detail

Structures #100
 
 

A comparison to the first piece in the series:

Structures #1
©2005 Lisa Call
Textile Painting (Hand dyed and commercial fabric, batting, thread)
74" x 38"

[Post updated 7/29]

Structures #59
©2006 Lisa Call
70" x 56"
Textile Painting
 

The Brain

I’m currently reading A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future by Daniel Pink and am finding it quite interesting.

I’m not too far into it yet but being a software engineer I can definitely relate to the outsourcing of the left brain software jobs. The people remaining in the US doing software tend to be more right brain software architect types. And managers.

There was a discussion in the book about chess and why computers do it better than humans and it made me think of my textile painting Structures #59 above (a definite right brain association). This quilt has always looked like a chess board to me. In a rather abstract kind of way.

Busy

With the new position as scrum master at work (ie project manager kinda) and the 160 hours slated for my studio work over the next month, and driving kids about town I’ve had really busy. Little time for chatting or focusing on the art business.

I figure that’s okay as it’s all an ebb and flow. I’ll come around to super busy art business stuff again here soon.

Tonight was the final lecture at the Denver Art Museum in this series of the Logan lecture series. Beverly Semmes gave an interesting talk about her work. The big purple robes in Denver were her first sale to a museum, and in fact her first sale of any kind of her art. What an awesome piece of news that must have been to receive.

Structures #57
©2006 Lisa Call
33" x 66"
Textile Painting (hand dyed fabric, batting, thread)

Art For Dad

Today I took my son (a teenager – but really any age will work) to the Denver Art Student’s League annual Summer Art Fair. We had 2 purposes – first was to
enjoy the art and the second was to buy his dad a father’s day present. My daughter had previous pool party plans so was excused from the outing.

All around it was a successful event and we had a great time, saw a bunch of art and my son picked a nice abstract painting for his dad. At first he just wanted to go home but once he got into it he wanted to walk by all the booths to make sure he saw all his options first. Very cool he got into it eventually.

I bought a little ceramic house to add to my collection of houses. It’s now a collection because this is the second one I’ve bought.

Collectors in the Making

My goal, besides spending time with my son and seeing art, is to create a future art collector. As an artist I have a vested interest in there being a lot of these out there.

In addition to taking the kids to museums, art shows, galleries and other art events I also occasionally buy them art for their rooms. And of course we make art together.

I’ve now added in the element of having them buy art. Unless wildly inappropriate, I believe we will focus on purchasing art for all our future gift giving needs this year.

Support an artist – buy art for your friends and family!

Hm. That just might be a bumper sticker I need.

Progress

In addition to the art fair, I also had my second photo lesson today. The above image is another attempt at photographing Structures #57. This version is too dark because it’s now too dark in my house to process photos appropriately. But I’m on the right track as think it looks better than this version: Previous post with Structures #57.

Ironically that post is also about progress in my art career and it’s great advice based on a blog post by Seth Godin. I really recommend you click that link above and read my old post if you feel like you are never making forward progress. Seth is a smart guy.

Here’s one of his quotes from my article:

Add up enough urgencies and you don’t get a fire, you get a career. A career putting out fires never leads to the goal you had in mind all along.

It’s about making sure the things we are doing move us forward.

Today I put out a slow smoldering fire that has been blocking me for at least 6 months. I turned the website work I have done over to my builder and can now refocus on my career.

To that end look for the very first bit of content to come from makebigart.com later this week. I’m excited. Moving forward!

 
PS – If you are looking for some art to buy as a gift, I group together small pieces here: Affordable Art for Sale.

Structures #73 – In Progress
Textile Painting
©2009 Lisa Call
Detail

Holiday Weekend

This 3 day weekend I work in my studio 16 hours. It was the first weekend it felt like home again. I’ve loved having the space but hadn’t really felt it was broken in yet. Now it does.

I’m most thankful it rained all weekend, so I relieved myself of all responsibility for pulling the nearly 2 foot tall weeds in the landscape free yard. The day will come when I’ll have to deal with that issue, but with the rain I was free to just make art.

I’m nearly finished putting the surface stitching (quilting) on Structures #73 and started some new ACEOs. The first ones of the year.

I also made big progress on Structures #100. I decided to make it the first new larger piece I designed in my new studio and it went together well. The composition is done so now I need to get it basted so I can start quilting it also.

Planning

It feels great to be motivated to make art again. Seems like it’s been a long time.

After my post a few days about about adding some more structure to my studio time, I decided to set some specific goals for the year to keep me motivated.

For 2009 my studio goals:

- 550 or more hours of studio time (~10 hrs a week)
- 256 or more days making art (70% of the days in the year)

As of today I’ve put in 126 hours in the studio and made art 68 days this year. To make my goals I’m going to have to make art pretty much every day for the rest of the year and put in at least 15 hours a week.

I’m be in South Africa for nearly a month later this summer, so I’ve factored in that time away from the studio also.

As a point of reference, in 2007 I put in 870 hours in my studio. The year I had a very clearly defined goal of 20 hours a week in my studio.

In 2008 it was 446 hours in the studio. A year with the laid back “let’s not set specific goals” plan. I also sold my house, moved into a house with no studio and started a major construction project – so to be fair I was a bit busier also.

Next up is going to be doing some planning and setting specific goals for the business side of art. I’ve been very reluctant to do that in the past and I think it’s time to get more serious about tracking the hours I spend on the business and keeping a better schedule.

I have big ideas of things I’d like to accomplish – specific goals will help me get there.

Structures #109 – In Progress
Lisa Call
Textile Painting
©2009
~80" x 80" (unfinished)

More Art Made During Construction

Structures #109 is another textile painting that I designed and constructed in my temporary 10′x12′ bedroom/studio while my house was under construction.

I love working with brown. It’s always the first color of fabric I run out of during the winter when I don’t do any fabric dyeing.

My fence motif got a bit more chopped up in this piece as I was playing around with the square shapes that resulted from some doodling I was doing.

Studio Lighting

My posts on studio lighting will return tomorrow. I spent my weekend up in Estes Park helping Alyson Stanfield with her Art Marketing online class.

Between that and getting sick last week my plan for the week pretty much went out the window, but I’m back on track this week and ready to make lots of forward progress.

Structures #1
Textile Painting
74" x 38"
©2005 Lisa Call
$12,000

Snow and Building

I was going to write a blog post about social media last night, and then today, but I decided nope, time to take a bit of a break from doing stuff. So that will have to wait. I need to spend some time chilling out as the construction comes to a close. Basically I’m tired. Need to get my energy back.

Only 1 more week and I think it’ll be done – or done enough that I will be moved in and just have minor things here and there to fix. The major stuff will be done. Tomorrow and Saturday carpet and maybe my studio closet then next week paint. I need some studio furniture built, put up some design walls and then I’m in business.

The weather did it’s best to put the brakes on the project but it didn’t win. They finished moving my studio closet door to a more discrete location then did the drywalling and texturing just as the storm was at it’s peak. Then the blizzard kinda gave up and it’s just regular kinda snowing out there now – no more blowing horizontally – which is always interesting.

The First

I’m uploading images of my artwork to facebook so thought I’d share what I wrote over there here also:

Structures #1 is the first textile painting/quilt I made in the Structures series. I started the painting in 2000 in a workshop in Ghost Ranch, New Mexico.

When starting a new series the first thing I do is make sketches and since I work in fabric my sketches are also constructed with fabric, usually black and white. So after that I was ready to jump into a lot of color. I love the richness of my handdyed fabrics.

This artwork, along with all of my textile paintings, is heavily textured with stitched lines less than 1/4″ apart across the entire surface. The tactile nature of this type of detail makes them nearly irresistible to touch.

Detail:

Structures #41
Textile Painting
©2004
44" x 31"
Private Collection

Create Denver Expo

Yesterday was an excellent day at the Create Denver Expo. I attended some interesting workshops, got my portfolio reviewed and my presentation on social media went well.

After the event many of the artists attended a city sponsored happy hour at a local bar where I connected with some fun and interesting artists. Its such an awesome thing to connect with other artists and talk about life and art.

It reminds me that on the deepest level my Structures series is more about connections than boundaries. We all put up our barriers to protect ourselves but what most all of us really crave is a real connection with others. We have to knock down the walls first but when we take the risk and really connect, it’s very rewarding.

Yesterday was one of those perfect days where all went well and I am very excited about my art and the direction my career is going.

Studio Lights and Closet Door

Which is all great because I got home to discover the studio lights that were supposed to be hung while I was gone, were not. Due to a mixup there was no way for them to get into the house (it’s a mystery where the lock box key has gone off to).

So try #3 and still no studio lights. Amazing – but really just funny. They are going to try again tomorrow.

By friday the house passed all inspections (electrical/plumbing/mechanical) and they did a pre-inspection for the final building inspection on friday and everything got a thumbs up. Yay! This doesn’t mean the house is done but it means we are very very close.

I was a bit bummed the crazy door high up on the wall over the stairs for my studio closet passed inspection cause I don’t really like where it is. I was hoping the city would force us to move it. They didn’t.

So now I’m going to move it anyway. It’s going around the corner so it can’t be seen from the rest of the house. It will make the closet easier to get into, be much safer, and the house will look much much better. Not sure what it will cost me but it’s the right thing to do.

Too bad I didn’t think of this plan before they did the drywall. But no big deal – I can fix it now and a year from now I will be very very happy I didn’t settle from something that isn’t what I want.

This means I’ve pushed the carpet back to friday/saturday of this week. The house should be done by then. I am most most excited. Just imagine – I’ll get to make art again – in a real studio! Woohoo!

Social Media

If you’d like a copy of the handout from my social media talk you can find it here: Social Media: Marketing Miracle or Waste of Time?. To jump to the punch line – it’s neither (although it has the potential to be a waste of time if you let it).

I’m thinking about expanding the outline and include all the content from the presentation in the write up and create an ebook on social media for artists. Other things are a higher priority but it’s a thought. Would you be interested in reading something like that?