Lisa Call

Dream #1 – Dream #35
©2009 Lisa Call
Textile Paintings (Fabric hand dyed by the artist, cotton batting, cotton thread)

Done!

This morning I finished uploading the images for the South African Impressions project and created a webpage to display them: South African Impressions.

Feels GREAT to have accomplished this task and now comes a very fun part of the project – contacting the folks that pre-purchased some of the artwork so they can select the textile painting they’d like to own. I’m contacting folks in the order they purchased the art so if you bought a piece of art and haven’t heard from me yet, you will soon, so start thinking about which piece you’d like.

If you didn’t prepurchase one and now would like one there will be several available and I’ll let everyone know when prices are posted and paypal buttons are up. I’ve had several inquires – so thank you!

What’s Next

I have a bit of work left attaching the textile paintings to the canvases and anticipate I’ll complete that task in the next day or so. Then there is the shipping and paperwork that goes along with the creation of new artwork.

I have a few hanging sleeves to get on artwork headed to shows soon that I’ll tackle this weekend also.

Then the big studio clean up. I’m going to get the last design walls up, finish up some painting and in 2009 I will declare my new studio COMPELTE (for new readers – I built a new studio this year and the last 6 months I’ve stalled on the last 1% of the work – time to remedy that).

By middle of next week I will have things dusted off and the studio in great shape it’ll be time to start the new artwork for my solo show – which opens in February. Seriously tight deadline but I’m excited to get started.

PS – I’ll also be sending out my studio newsletter saturday or sunday as promised. If you aren’t already on the list you can join here: Studio Newsletter Signup

Dream #23 and Dream #24 (in progress)
6″ x 6″ each
Textile Paintings in South African Impressions Project

The Art That Had to Be

This weekend as I was putting labels on the South African Impressions textile paintings I became overwhelmed with the need to make 2 additional pieces in the series. I had been trying to ignore this desire for a few days but as things were wrapping up it didn’t feel right without a 2 of the house themes in the 6″ size. I had these in my head and they had to be made.

Sometimes art is like that, it simply insists on being made and I can’t ignore it until I’ve created the image that keeps appearing in my head.

I have about an hour of stitching left on these 2 final art quilts and then I’m back to the plan of photographing and up on the website so they can find their new owners.

Newsletter

As I’ve worked in my studio on a fairly consistent basis this past week I have noticed a profound change in my attitude. Much more positive and forward thinking. Things are definitely shifting back to the positive place where I was sitting 6 months ago.

After I get this artwork published on my website and and start contacting the buyers, I’m going to write and email out my final studio newsletter for the year.

If you aren’t a subscriber but would like to be you can subscribe here .

South African Impressions – The Discount

About half of the new Dream textile paintings were prepurchased prior to my trip to South Africa.

I am still offering the discount on prepurchased South African Impressions textile paintings for about another week. The timing of my newsletter will determine the final end date of the sale.

This is a chance to own my artwork at lower prices and with payments spread out over 2 months if desired. For example: my ACEOs (2.5″ x 3.5″ art cards) normally sell for $40. The ACEOs in the Dream series are currently priced at $28. The 6″x6″ paintings (like the 2 above), normally priced at $275 are available for just 2 payments of $85 each.

Details here: South African Impressions Project

Markings #16
©2007 Lisa Call
45" x 68"
Textile Painting (hand dyed fabric, batting, thread)

Still Stitching Stitching

As I mentioned the last few weeks I’m still working towards my big deadline of July 15th. I’m taking tomorrow as a vacation from the day job and intend to spend 15 hours in front of the sewing machine. This will put me on track for finishing the artwork with a few hours to spare.

I delivered my kids to camp today so the house is quiet and I can really stay focused.

All this secret art creation doesn’t lend itself to exciting art related blog posts so things will pick up around here in 10 days or so with photos of new art.

Other Stuff I’m Thinking About

I announced my new solo show in my last studio newsletter (in Boulder, CO in Feb/March 2010) and I’ve been thinking about the art I want to display. I have this vision of making some huge pieces in the Home or Ascending series. I think that would be pretty cool.

I have gone back and forth about what I’ll do about blogging while I’m in South Africa (I leave at the end of this month for a 3+ weeks). I finally decided to stay in touch so I’ve ordered a mini dell netbook to facilitate that decision. Course I might get there and decide I’d rather not bother, but if I feel like it, I’ll have the equipment to post photos.

When I went to New Zealand in 2000-2001 it was pre blogging days (or at least my blogging days) so instead I sent very long and detailed emails to my friends and family during the 5 month adventure. I anticipate having an easier time finding internet this time around. Wireless wasn’t much of an option back then so we carried a cable with us every where.

Speaking of my newsletter I’ll be sending out the July issue this week or next (depends on how well I’m doing on my deadline). This issue will be a celebration of the completion of Structures #100 and I’ll be announcing a fun art project I will be doing in September after my return from Africa.

If you’d like to sign up for that newsletter you can here: Lisa Call’s Studio Newsletter.

MakeBigArt.com

A few weeks back I launched a new website called MakeBigArt. It’s now where I write articles for other artists. This blog is now devoted more to my art and my studio and my life as an artist.

This week on MakeBigArt.com a post about responsibility.

Insalada Caprese
Textile Painting
©2002 Lisa Call
24" x 24"
$600
Purchase Here

Studio Sale

One of the items on my todo list this week is to enter the information for 6 older pieces of art into the artfulhome studio sale coming up in July. When I moved I came across a batch of work from my embellishing days so that’s mostly what will be listed.

The sale is a chance for me to find new homes for some of my older work and for my fans to own some of my work for a smaller initial investment than my normal prices. A win-win all around – I free up some storage space and you get beautiful art for your walls.

In the last studio sale I sold all of the quilts in my Stones series. It’s nice to know they have a new home.

I photographed all the work last weekend and it’s looking pretty good (love my new photo processing skills). It’s quite a bit of work to upload everything at artful home so I’m taking that a little bit at a time.

The above quilt is one I’m going to add and in a bit of avoidance (not in the mood for artful home) and desperation (I wasn’t in the mood for a more thoughtful post tonight) I decided to write about this quilt tonight.

Wed or Thurs I promise promise to write that blog post about the Sandy Skoglund lecture as I finally found my notes and now have no excuse. I did catch up on blog comments so if I didn’t answer a question you had please reask it and I’ll be more on top of thing now.

Insalada Caprese

Although this piece is very closely related to my Structures series, the quilting lines (big red circles that represent big tomatoes) makes it enough different that I don’t think of it as part of that series, and hence a very different pricing structure.

This quilt was included in the invitational traveling exhibit Potluck Quilts: Art Quilts from the Piecemakers and appeared in numerous museum shows around the country.

The requirements to participate in this show were as follows:

* Quilts are to depict some aspect of a potluck meal – food, drink, table decorations, etc.
* Each quilt is to incorporate in it red and white checks representing a tablecloth in some way.
* All quilts are to be 24″ square.
* Please include a recipe of the potluck dish depicted on your quilt to be published in the catalog.

Of the 50+ artists that participated I was one of a small handful to make an abstract piece. My red and checked tablecloth is that series of red and white stripes on the lower left.

My recipe was fresh mozzarella and tomatoes. Not really a recipe that needs much effort (cut up cheese and tomatoes and put on a plate) but it sounds better in Italian. The green is for a bit of fresh basil to make the dish (and art) more interesting. And of course I don’t grow just red tomatoes in my garden but also orange and yellow ones also.

I think not getting to have a garden this year (between the lack of landscaping and being gone for a month while in Africa it just didn’t seem like a good idea) also inspired my renewed happiness with this quilt. Reminds me of all those lovely tomatoes I used to grow. Next year – yep – they’ll be back.

Insalata Caprese

4-5 large ripe red and yellow tomatoes
1 pound fresh mozzarella cheese
1/3 cup fresh basil leaves
extra virgin olive oil
salt
fresh ground black pepper

Slice tomatoes and mozzarella, about ¼” thick. Arrange on large platter with basil leaves. Drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

June Studio Newsletter

I’m working on my June Studio Newsletter so look for that in your inbox later this week or early next week. You’ll be one of the first people to see Structures #73 and the new format for my newsletter.

I’m moving to a monthly newsletter because I find when I do things on a schedule it’s easier. Only writing one 4 times a year made it seem like a huge chore. I’m putting a lot of work into creating systems around my art business and this is the first big step in that direction.

If you aren’t a subscriber you can join over 500 of my other supporters and sign up here: Lisa Call’s Studio Newsletter.