Lisa Call

ACEO #30
©2008
2.5" x 3.5"
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Weekend Joy

I had intended to post every day this month as December is 31 days devoted to Joy, but this weekend I just wasn’t there. I tried to make it happen, force some kind of joy but that’s not generally the best way to go about things.

So I decided to just allow whatever I was feeling and do nothing. Ending a relationship is never fun and time is needed to just let it sink in and stop taking things personally. So I hunted down every episode of Lipstick Jungle (which from what I can tell is the same as Sex and the City with 1 less friend) on nbc.com and spend most of the weekend doing very little.

It was nice. And by mid afternoon sunday I was feeling like myself again and I went back to my studio and put in 5 hours and I didn’t want to stop when bedtime came around. Joy had returned.

Sometimes it’s best to just allow whatever needs to happen to happen and then joy returns.

I did have fun on saturday shopping for lights for my new studio/house remodel. Well, maybe a bit too much fun. Now time to cancel a few of them and go for something a bit more basic so I can afford the porch I want. I will keep the mission style lights for the outside of the house – they are pretty cool and gotta splurge occasionally.

Lime, Fuchsia and Blue

This weekend I worked on some pieces in brighter colors than I normally do. It was quite fun. I was asked to see what I could do in these colors for a collector and this is what I came up with in addition to the ACEO above.

Structures #106
©2008
6"x 6" – Mounted on stretched canvas
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Structures #107
©2008
6"x 6" – Mounted on stretched canvas
Sold

 
This isn’t my best photography work as I don’t normally work in these bright colors. I think some of the problem is my super bright laptop screen. When I check them at work tomorrow they will probably look better.

Structures #98    ©2008    29" x 30"

Quilt National Non-Acceptance

A few days ago I wrote about shaking self doubt and the impact the economic news was having on me. Upon further reflection I realize that evening’s pity party was also precipitated by the rejection letter I received earlier in the week.

I’ve been accepted into Quilt National 3 times in a row (2003-2007). My artwork was selected for the cover the book one year and I sold 2 of the quilts that have been in this show so it’s always been a great show for me. Some consider it THE art quilt show to be accepted into and I might fall into that camp. I think the hardbound book/catalog printed for each of these shows is one of the more prominent histories of the art quilt movement we have and I’ve been happy to included in that history.

Turns out 2009 was not the year for me to be included.

The Artwork I Entered

I wasn’t planning on entering the show this year because I didn’t have any new work for the show. In the past I had brand new, hot off the press, work that had never been seen and that I thought would be excellent for the show.

This year, with my move, I did not. So I entered 3 pieces that were in my solo show in February: Markings #7, Markings #19 and Markings #22. Although this doesn’t break any of their rather strict rules on what can be accepted it definitely pushed the envelope on what they expected in terms of "fresh work". I didn’t have high expectations I’d get in the show for some reason. The previous 3 years I just knew I’d get in and even knew each year which pieces would be accepted.

It Hooked Me – For a Bit

When the ‘thanks no thanks’ email arrived I wasn’t surprised and just kept on going through my day. Then the emails started – lots of congratulations and repeating to everyone that I did not, as expected, get into the show. At the time it didn’t bother me at all and I am thrilled for many friends and acquaintances that were accepted this year. It’s a wonderful accomplishment.

Still, I have no doubt the events contributed to the little meltdown a few days ago. It finally hooked me. This show didn’t come up that evening in all of my negative thoughts but when I looked back on what might have caused it, I remembered how the week went.

I know my artwork is more than good enough for this show, but when they only accept 8% of the art entered a lot of the great work ends up on the cutting room floor. I didn’t take it personally that I didn’t get in. I think mostly I was just bummed cause it is a great show to be part of.

As I said in my last post – I’m way over it. Just writing about it as I thought it was interesting how these things can come together and get us at times and it’s not always obvious what all the thoughts are really about.

Structures #98

I completed this textile painting in August but only a few days ago did I figure out photography in my new house. So here is the completed picture finally. I have a bunch of in process images and want to create a slideshow to put on youtube showing it’s progression but I don’t know how to do that.

Anyone have suggestions? Free software suggestions preferred. I have a Vista PC – no macs here.

Studio Newsletter

I did, as planned and stated here, email the 3rd edition of my studio newsletter tuesday morning. For those that aren’t subscribers you can read it online here: Lisa Call Studio News – October 2008.

Structures #24    ©2003    32" x &23quot;

 
Today I finally get to breaking stories into tasks. [See all posts about here: Scrum and My Art Business.]

Tasks – The How

When I summarized the overall scrum process and sprints in my last post I didn’t give much information about how a team goes about completing the user stories. This post starts to address the nitty gritty on how that works.

A user story is a goal. In software the goal is stated as seen from the point of view of a user of the software. For example a user goal for amazon might be "I want to search for books about a given topic".

This is great for understanding what the software needs to do but it’s not much information for figuring out the day to day things a developer needs to do to make it happen. Developers need more technical details that explain how to go about doing something.

So the missing step that I glossed over in the last post was that during the planning meeting for a sprint the team breaks all of the user stories for the sprint into tasks. Small chunks of work that give the developers step by step tasks for getting the work done.

In simple terms:

A user story tells What and Why.
A task tells How.

From Stories to Tasks

Breaking the user stories down into tasks is not a simple process. In software, much of the design of the system is determined in how the work is broken down. Are there tasks to design a database? If so that must mean there is a database in the system.

The same is true when I think about breaking down my art goals into tasks. The user stories I wrote for my art business are big picture types of goals. They are what I want to get done and just like in softwware they aren’t telling me how to go about doing it.

One of my user stories is "Go Live on My New Website". This only tells me I want to redesign my website. It doesn’t tell me how to actually do it. There are several ways I can approach this – these are both reasonable task lists for this story:

1. Get proposals and bids from 3 website designers for my new site.
2. Select designer.
3. Finalize design with website designer.
4. Approve completed work.
5. Tell the world about my completed website.

or

1. Install wordpress for new website design.
2. Design new template for website.
3. Create portfolio pages for website.
4. Create bio pages for website.
5. Create homepage for website
6. Flip the switch and make new website live.
7. Tell the world about my completed website.

Which tasks are selected to complete a goal determine what type of work is really involved in a user story.

When Do I Have to Know How

There is no reason to know how to actually make a user story happen when it’s written. All I need is a dream or a goal and to write it down. Making it real and making it concrete by putting it in writing.

It’s too easy to forget my brilliant ideas so I try to write them down when I think of them. Now I have a great place to store my art business ideas. In my master list of user stories (which in scrum is called a product backlog, but "list of user stories" works for me). Jotting down ideas and adding them to this list is a great way to keep track of ideas.

When I reprioritize the list I can decide if it’s worth pursuing. The great thing is I don’t have to know how to actually do what I want to do when I write down the goal. I can figure that out later.

It’s only when it’s time to start working on a user story, ie it gets placed into a sprint, that I need to figure out the steps or tasks that will show me how to tackle the project. Than said, I believe spending some quality time working out the tasks is time well spent. A well thought out plan is never a bad idea. I try not to rush this step in planning.

Just Get Started

Some times a story is too large or unknown that I can’t figure out all the tasks. So I break it into pieces and only include the parts I know how to do. I leave the rest as something to figure out later. I might write a task that says: "figure out the rest of the tasks".

As long as I know at least 1 task to get me started that’s enough. The next step will become more obvious when I get the first completed. No knowing how to complete something is no reason not to make it a goal. I really want to quit my job and do art fulltime. To do that I need to sell my artwork.

So I spent some time thinking about the different ways I might want to sell my art and I made a user story around each one to try it out. I don’t know how to do some of them right now but I don’t have to. I can just get started on the ones I understand or at least identify the first step for a big unknown. With Scrum’s adaptive nature I can reevaluate my progress at any point and reprioritize my work.

What is a Good Task?

A few comments on what makes for a good task. In software it is a chunk of work that can be done by a single developer in a day or 2. For an art business it’s maybe not so clear. For me I feel a task needs to be something that I can do in a fairly short amount of time, maybe 3 or 4 hours at most but more often they are 1-2 hour tasks.

If a task is too large I sometimes find myself using it as an excuse not to do it. So I try not to make tasks that are way too big. I also find that tasks that are too small are really not worth writing down so I forget to do them, so I also try not to make things too granular.

I think some of this is personal preference. How much tolerance a person has for doing work without crossing something off a list or getting distracted.

Structures #24

Today I has happy to discover that I had never posted Structures #24 on my blog (or least I couldn’t find it). This made me happy because it gave me an image to include in this post.

This textile painting was the first piece I made after completing the work inspired by the Grand Canyon. While not officially part of that group, it sort of is. It’s maybe a cousin.

 
Next Scrum post will include some task management information.

Structures #62    © 2007    33" x 19"

A Slow Reply

Eight or nine months ago Meagan asked me the following question on one of my posts:

Something a little off topic, but still related: How do you know when your art work is “good enough” to start marketing it? (Obviously this isn’t a problem for you, Lisa, since your art is amazing!) Previous commenters (Ed) have mentioned that in the beginning of their career, they sold stuff that really wasn’t very good. How do you know when your art work has reached that particular level?

I’ve had a draft of this question sitting around waiting for an answer ever since. As I wasn’t up to a dissection of my studio newsletter as promised, I decided to go back and deliver on an older unanswered query.

It’s about Growth

The article I wrote was about selling my artwork (click to read). My thoughts have changed over the years and today I will answer this differently than I might have 3 or 5 or 8 years ago when I was not looking to pursue an income generating career from my art.

Today my answer is: You are ready to start marketing your artwork when you are ready to take that bold step and put yourself out there. It’s a big leap as it comes with many risks but also many rewards.

Sure, five years from now you might look back and think "Oh my gosh, I can’t believe I tried to sell that junk." But that’s the future. What matters is right now, today, this moment. How do you feel about your artwork? Are you happy with it? Do you think it is good? Do you want to market it? Great – go for it.

And I don’t think that’s such a bad future, to be a bit embarrassed about your work from years back, because it means you are growing as an artist. This is a great thing. Maybe something to look forward to.

How Will You Handle Set Backs

Artists are often advised to ask others for opinions about their work. Is it good enough? Will it sell? While this isn’t bad advice I’m not sure I’d recommend that. I suggest just going with your intuition. If you have the desire and resources to market your artwork, then go for it!

What’s the worse thing that could happen? You might fail on first try. The question is, what will you do with that failure? Will you let it destroy your dream? If so maybe you aren’t ready. I think this is probably the single most important question to answer.

Sure you might never face rejection, but chances are good you’ll face more than a few "we aren’t interested" situations. As Christine Kane says:

SWSWSWSW: Some will. Some won’t. So what? Someone’s waiting!

[Read her excellent article about not taking things personally here]

Even if you do face failure you might learn something. You might get better and grow. You might find new ways to do things. You might meet people that want to help you over that hurdle.

When you are ready to fall down and get up and keep on going. That’s when you are ready.

I’m Finally Ready

I’ve been making art that I really love for the past 10 years. Yet I’ve never taken the leap to go after an solid income with my art. I always have an excuse:

• I need to build up cash reserves.
• The kids are only at home for a few short (18) years.
• This work isn’t quite good enough yet.
• No one buys art quilts.
• I could never replace my software engineering salary with an art income.

Well, no more. I’m doing whatever it takes to get rid of the day job and replace it with the art income.

First up on the list of to-dos is to sell the house that requires a really big income. If I wait until I have enough money from my art to pay this mortgage it could be a pretty long wait. So I’m short circuiting that problem and downsizing.

It’s a huge task and when I think of all that needs to be done to get this huge home on the market I freak out, which is the reason I’m still here. I thought about moving 6 years ago after my divorce and then again 3 years ago, but I didn’t have the courage to do it.

Now it’s the year of courage, which gives me the focus needed to work through all that needs done. I don’t think about the huge list of to-dos. I make short lists of easily doable tasks. Things I can accomplish in a few hours. I’m just focusing on each step, one and time, and steady progress is made every day.

In the meantime I’m not ignoring my art. I’m in the 7th day of Artist Breakthrough Program with Alyson Stanfield and it’s fabulous. I’ve made huge strides in getting my new website ready to go. Tomorrow I’ll blog about how I did with my goals this week and what’s up for next week.

And yes – at some point I’ll write about all I learned when doing my studio newsletter. Hopefully you will not have to wait 8-9 months for that answer.

The above image was the one I selected for this post 9 months ago, I can’t tell you why. It’s orange. Maybe that was it.

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 #57    ©2006    33"x 66"

Putting out Fires

In a recent post titled Managing Urgencies Seth Godin writes:

Do you have a plan?

A long or medium term plan for your brand or your blog or your career or your project?

You can have grand visions for remodeling your house or getting in shape, but if there’s a fire in the kitchen, you drop everything and put it out. What choice do you have? The problem, of course, is that most organizations are on fire, most of the time.

In my post a few days ago about getting things done I talked about how excited I was to be making progress on projects that previously were ignored due to lack of urgency of the project.

This had become my default behavior:

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.

Last year I entered a bunch of juried shows instead of working on some bigger projects that require more effort and will take longer to yield results. Juried shows are easy, fill out a form and send off a CD and some money and there is illusion of progress when the acceptance letter arrives.

Stagnating in the Fire

Problem is these shows don’t do much for my career anymore. In the beginning they were great. They were the big goal and they got me what I was after, a resume filled with quality shows to give me the foundation for bigger things.

Thing is I’ve been doing this for 10 years – my resume is plenty long with lots of juried shows – they no longer provide much value and they are starting to look like they are my career and not just the initial step forward.

The past few months I paid the price of having entered all those shows putting out fires of the resulting acceptances. Doing paperwork, packaging and shipping work.

No time was left to work on the bigger projects like completing the redesign of my website, sending out my first studio newsletter (a project that has been on hold for over a year as it is never urgent) or lining up gallery representation. Things I’ve clearly identified as important for moving me forward.

Small Steps to Move Forward

As I said a few days ago. No More!

Basically I’m doing exactly what Seth mentions here:

I guess the trick is to make the long term items even more urgent than today’s emergencies. Break them into steps and give them deadlines.

I’ve identified the big projects that will propel my art career forward in a big way and now I’m defining the next steps that need to be taken to create my new reality. When I look at my next actions list I want to look at actions that are simple and easily doable. Things like:

• Determine List of Newsletter Articles
• Write Introduction to Newsletter
• Select template for new website
• Create header for new website

I don’t put ‘write newsletter’ on the list as that’s just too overwhelming and I won’t ever get to it.

Deadlines

In addition to the small steps I’m also setting deadlines as Seth mentions. Now I’ll make one of those goals public as it’s fast approaching and I’m committed to making that goal.

My first studio newsletter will be sent by March 31. I’ve already made some nice progress on the project and am excited about it. [sneak preview: I'm making 3 new aceos (artist cards) inspired by 3 pieces from my Markings series. These will be available to my subscribers via my newsletter].

To subscribe to my studio newsletter, to be sent 4 times a year, enter your email address below:

 
I will never share or sell your email address and will only use it for the purpose stated above. All emails sent will include a link to unsubscribe should you decide you are no longer interested.

Structures #57

I posted an image of Structures #57 in this post a year+ ago but the color was off. I recently got this piece back from the art center where it was on display and rephotographed it. These are more accurate colors.

I love the blue thread over the red fabric in the surface stitching of this piece. Actually I just love the entire thing. A few years back I said I didn't use much red, now I'm finding I'm using it more and more and really love the results. Maybe Cathy Kleeman's influence, she uses red often and well.

 
Are you putting out fires?

Structures #15    ©2005    12"x 13"

Blogiversary

Today marks the 3 year anniversary of my first blog post, which roughly corresponds to the purchase of my first digital camera. According to wordpress this is my 425th post.

Some numbers (because I like numbers). Assuming an average posting time of 45 minutes, which is probably on the low side, I’ve spent at least 320 hours writing blog posts over the last 3 years. That’s an average of 107 hours per year.

In comparison I spent 865 hours last year in my studio and probably around 1800-1900 hours at the day job and at most 20 hours watching TV shows for the year.
 

What I’ve Learned

After all that time I feel I should have some profound words of wisdom about blogging so I thought I’d make a list of what I think I’ve learned during this process. You can decide if it’s profound.

1. I make a lot of typos.
2. I rarely feel a need to correct typos that are not found within the first hour. I appreciate all my kind readers that gloss over my mistakes.
3. There are 2 types of posts that generate a lot of comments. Those that stirred up controversy and those that were very honest about my work and myself in a way that is somehow universally felt. I prefer the later and have been looking to avoid the former as it causes me to feel unhappy.
4. I’ve learned more about myself and my art through my consistent writing on the topic than through just about any other method. I have no plans to stop anytime soon.
5. I feel I belong to an amazing community of artists as a result of my blog, which makes this an extremely rewarding experience.
6. I change my mind a lot. If you read this entire blog you’ll see at one point I strongly advocated using the term quilt. I now use the term textile painting. The old me would have had an argument with the new me. The new me isn’t concerned with defending my choices nor getting others to agree with them or even like them. The only post I have ever deleted was on this subject because I decided I didn’t need to explain myself and it was generating controversy I had no intention of stirring up.
7. There is too much stuff in my sidebar. It makes me feel claustrophobic. When I redesign my blog very little will remain in the sidebar (much of it will move to separate pages – like the archives). It’s part of my decluttering – it’s invading all parts of my life. Simplify, organize, categorize, only keep what is really serving me and get rid of the noise.
8. My categories and tags are a jumble. They stress me out sometimes thinking about which to pick. This tells me I need to rethink them all. I think simplify, organize and declutter will be the motto here also.
9. My cat likes to sit on my monitor while I blog and she puts her paw down over the screen when she wants attention. Actually, she’s not particular, I don’t have to be blogging for her to do this. She’s just as happy interrupting my reading of random wikipedia articles.
10. Forcing oneself to be profound when writing a blog post doesn’t usually result in a very high quality post.

Structures #15

The above piece was included in my very first post. It’s the one and only Structures piece that has hand sewn surface stitching. The piece sold during the opening night at Quilt National 2005 from the gift shop to the collector that purchased my piece in the show, Structures #31. He had me sign the back of both of them in sharpie marker. Kind of freaked me out.

Check out this detail image of the stitching. I think it turned out totally cool.

 
Tomorrow is the artist reception for my show, Markings: Repetition and Pattern. I’m super excited! I can’t wait to see all the work hanging in the gallery.

Structures #14    ©2003    29"x 35"

Enough Time

Most everyone has heard the story about putting rocks and pebbles and sand in a jar (if not look here). The basic idea is you have to the do the important stuff first or you won’t find time for it. The other stuff will fit in around the big stuff.

This is my version (another of the notes I have posted in my studio):

When I first read this quote years ago it was a good reminder that I really do have time for all the important things in my life. To me this said it was about making the choice to do so.

So I put this quote on my wall to remind me that I chose to believe I have time. My thoughts and attitude about my life create my life. If I believe I have time, I do and I truly believe I have enough time.

I remember showing this to a friend that is always stressed out and saying how busy she is. Doesn’t matter what she’s doing she’s harried and complains about lack of time. She looked at this sign when I put it up and said "that’s not true". Years later she’s still living her life on overdrive saying she never has time for all the stuff she wants.

Maybe she’s busier than me. Or maybe we just view life differently. I know I have time for a full time job, kids, family, friends, home, a garden, laughter and also an art career. I believe it – so it is so.

Priorities

There may not be enough hours in the day for everything I might possibly want to do but there is always time for the stuff I really really care about. That’s the other message I get from this note on my wall. That’s it’s about identifying the important stuff.

If I start feeling overwhelmed I review where I’ve been spending my time. Is it on important things? Generally when I’m feeling stressed I find I’ve been spending my time doing things that aren’t all that important. Like checking email a zillion times a day or writing a blog post when what I really wanted to do was work in my studio. Unconscious behavior like this is a good way to get off track.

When I refocus on the present and get back to the tasks that I currently feel are important my life, goals and intent all just fall into place.

Sifting out the Junk

When I go for days, weeks, month and maybe even years not putting time into something I claim is important, I take this as a sign to reevaluate how important that thing really is to me. If I’m not finding time for it, does that mean I need to let the thing go? Instead of being a priority maybe it’s really an energy drain. Often I find that to be the case.

I have to be careful here, because sometimes I’m not doing what I want for other reasons. Fear often being one of the biggest factors, which will lead me to my next post.

Right now my brain is say Didn’t you say you were going to get Markings #19 finished tonight?  so time to stop writing and get to the studio.

Popsicles

For a few years I had the above photo on the wall right in front of my sewing machine. Some time after completing Structures #14, at the top of this post, I realized I’d finally made my popsicle piece. So I took down the photo and glued it into my sketchbook. It’s funny how inspiration works even though you aren’t consciously aware of it at the moment.

Related Posts

Transitioning and Intent
Holding Intent – Part I
Holding Intent – Part II
Holding Intent – Part III

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.