Lisa Call

ACEO #23
©2008
2.5" x 3.5"
$25

Because That’s What I Buy

It’s taken me several years to come around to the idea of making affordable art. My first love is to make big expansive artwork. Given the time and materials involved in that process I can’t afford to sell my large textile paintings for only a few hundred dollars, which prices me right out of most people’s budget, including my own.

I started seriously buying art a few years ago and find that most of the art I purchase is under $200. I see a lot of other people buying art in this price range also. While I have saved my money and bought a few pieces in the $500-$1000 range that it doesn’t happen very often yet.

When I made the decision this year to actively look to sell my artwork I decided that this was a market that I wanted to participate in. I know that I very much appreciate the artists that make work at price points that fit my budget and it feels right to be able to do this.

Small Art Showcase

The impetus for creating my small artwork for sale webpage was to participate in an online small art showcase my friend Jeanne Williamson organized. (Thank you Jeanne!)

The website is now live and in addition to my work you can find small art work by 11 other artists working in a variety of mediums. The work ranges from $25-$500. Check out the website Jeanne created and get some holiday shopping done: Small Art Showcase .

I here there might be more artists coming soon so check back often.

ACEOs

Until this month I was selling my ACEOs for $21 including shipping. They are now $26 with shipping as I realized I wasn’t making much of a profit on them, between paypal fees, postage, materials and my time (to both make the ACEO, then photograph iand list on my website). While I want to make small art that is affordable, I also want to make some money while doing it.

Each of my aceos is created the same way I create my larger artwork. Each piece is cut individually (I never strip piece - for those that know what this means). Each cut I make and each color change in the work was made with deliberately.

On a very rare occasion I will have scraps leftover from a piece and will use those to make my aceos (I think this has happened twice), otherwise the pieces are made with intention, just like my larger textile paintings. The result is these are rather time consuming and if I want to keep making them it needs to make financial sense.

ACEO #23, above, was inspired by Markings #3, as was my small piece Markings #25. It is available for purchasefor $25 on my small artwork for sale webpage (near the bottom of the page).

A Series of Posts

I have much to say on the topic of affordable art so I’ve decided to write a series of posts so look for more thought on the topic over the next week or so.

Construction Progress

No post these days is complete without some construction progress. I think tomorrow I’ll have studio walls. Today they got one built:

Construction Photos - Wednesday - November 19
Construction Photos - Thursday - November 20

Lines #1 - Lines #5

On Canvas

I am happy to report that I really like how these small 3" x 3" small textile paintings look on canvas. It gives them nice substance. I’m also very happy to report that 4 of them sold yesterday. Only Lines #2 is still available (my art for sale page).

I painted the canvases with acrylic paint to coordinate with the textile paintings then I stitched the paintings onto the canvas along the edge of the wood stretches of the canvas. I makes for a really nice flat surface. I only ordered 5 of these little 3" x 3" canvases from Dick Blick but will be buying more.

I bought some other sizes and have a 6" square piece also mounted on a canvas which I’ll show next week.

I put a label on the back of the textile painting itself, similar to the labels I attached to my aceos, but it doesn’t show. So I’ve also signed and labeled the back of the canvases. So if anyone every removes the little guys from their canvas they are complete works of art as is also.

Remodel Update

I now have a laundry room floor. See photos here: Nov 12 Construction Photos.

As I head out the door this morning for my retreat with Christine Kane my furniture is in the middle of all the rooms. They start demolition inside the house while I’m gone. I’m creating one big open room for my dining room/living room/kitchen so walls have to come down. Monday I should have some fun new photos to share.

New Work

This is a collection of the new small textile paintings I’ve complete the last few months. I’ve never had so many small pieces around at the same time and thought it would be fun to take a family portrait.

I’ll be processing these images tonight and get them on my new ”art for sale’ webpage’. They are all under $500 and most are under $50. Time for holiday shopping.

I will be mounting 6 of these pieces onto stretched canvas tonight also. I painted the canvases this morning. Pretty fun that painting thing.

Construction Update

The remodel has been at a slow point the last few days as things like waterproofing the foundation are being done. This morning the wood arrived and they are in the back yard figuring out where stuff is supposed to go. I expect some framing to begin tomorrow. The last of the asbestos siding will be taken off today also. So there will be things to take pictures of again soon.

Structures #10    ©2004    35" x 52"

Depth and Breadth: Six Quiltmakers in the 21st Century

The preview party for this invitational museum show, curated by Mary Lou Alexander, is Saturday, October 11 from 5-7pm at the Butler Institute of American Art/Trumbull. I will be in attendance so if you can make it to the opening please come introduce yourself. We won’t be doing artist talks but all artists except Jen will be in attendance and happy to talk about their work.

About the show, from the invitation (which I failed to send in mailing labels for - big oops cause they are nice invites):

This exhibit explores a variety of approaches to fine art quiltmaking today. The show features six accomplished, well established artists:

Bob Adams, Lafayette, Indiana
Lisa Call, Denver, Colorado
Jan Myers-Newbury, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
June O’Neil, Cleveland Heights, Ohio
Jen Swearington, Asheville, North Carolina
Kathleen Loomis, Louisville, Kentucky

Each artist will display works that illustrate the depth and variety of her/his work. Each artist approaches quiltmaking in a singular way, and each brings superb craftsmanship and distinctive imagery to her/his work. This exhibition was organized by the Butler and curated by Mary Lou Alexander.

Museum Contact Information:
9350 East Market Street
Howland Township, Ohio
330-609-9900

The show runs from October 12, 2008 - January 4, 2009.

My Artwork

I’m beside myself with excitement for having this first chance to exhibit a nice selection of my work in a museum setting. One of my big dream visions for my career is to have my work in permanent museum collections and this feels like a first good step in that direction.

I’ll have 6 large textile paintings in the show, including the 2 shown in this post, with work from both the Structures series and the Markings series.

I’ve rarely shown Structures #10 in public and until this year it hasn’t really been for sale. I’ve now decided it’s time for it to find a new home. This is probably one my best pieces and certainly a personal favorite. The quilt is about personal growth and my divorce and was started only a few months after my ex-husband moved out of the house and not completed for a couple of years. Much healing went into this piece of artwork. My hope is for the textile painting to find a home with someone that will love it.

Structures #33 was made during my days as a runner, training for a half marathon. These are the colors I would see each morning - gray sidewalks, blue sky and mountains, green trees and bushes and the pink sky of dawn. I no longer run but every time I look at this piece I think of my favorite spot on my running path through some willows.

Structures #33    ©2006    53" x 67"

 
Time to get packing and then to the studio

Structures #97 (In Progress)    ©2008

Structures #97

I spent a few hours this evening moving the lines and changing colors on this new textile painting. I see a few minor things I’ll tweak now that I see the photo on the screen then it’s done and time to start sewing the composition together.

Shelia made an interesting observation on a previous post about the colors of this work being all cool colors and wondered if it was a reaction to the hot weather. She’s definitely right, cool greens and browns and almost definitely a result of the current environment, not by design but by influence.

I think a lot of my color choices are a result of my mood and my environment. Often I can tell how I’m feeling based on the colors I’m using.

Tonight I added a few warmer colors but once it’s sewn together they will be much less noticeable. This is definitely some art to cool you off on a hot day.

Handdyed Fabric

This morning I finished ironing and folding the fabric I dyed over the weekend - 72 yards of beautiful colors. All told I spent about 15 hours doing the dyeing, washing, etc. At least I think that’s about how long it took. I’m curious so next time I’ll try to figure out how much time I do spend. I’m engineer, I like numbers.

I love having this fabric stacked up on my cutting table to look at for a while. I see some color combinations in there that are really great and might make their way into a new piece.

And check out the middle stack of fabric - more very cool colors. Although I’m happy to report I was actually cold for about 20 minutes on sunday as it rained a bit during my hike/walk up in the foothills. It was the best feeling.

Twitter

I’ve been watching twitter for a while. Wasn’t sure I’d ever do anything with it but signed up quite a while back. I started posting (I refuse to say tweeting - that’s just not a word in my vocabulary yet) a few days back. If it takes a ton of time I might not keep up or maybe I’ll get addicted. We’ll see how it goes. It’s kinda funny.

You can see my profile here if you want to follow me: Lisa Call’s Twitter Profile.

For those of you not familiar with twitter - think about a mini blog - what would you write if you could only type 140 characters? Not a lot. The idea is to answer the questions "What are you doing?" several times a day. Each post is called a tweet. Makes me feel like a yellow bird to say that so I stick with "post".

Maybe it falls under the too much information category. Or maybe it doesn’t. We will see. I think there could be some real value there, I’m not sure what it is yet but I think over time my twitter participation will need to evolve into something a bit more than a few posts about my life and a public conversation with others. Or then again, maybe not.

If you are already following me you will know I bought a new laptop computer. Actually 3 of them as the kids each got one. More in my next post as to why and what and how happy I am about owning an orange computer.

Structures #97 (In Progress)    ©2008

Making Art

The mornings are cool enough to turn on my iron and work on my latest textile painting. This week I finalized on the basic structure of this piece as can be seen in the photo above.

Next step is to select colors and approximate placement of my lines. It takes quite a while to do this. I cut the 7/8" wide strips freehand, using my rotary cutter (like a pizza cutter for fabric), without any rulers or guildlines. Years of practice results in pretty straight cuts, but not too perfect. They still have that hand cut feel to them.

I then pin the strips to the background shapes. Below is the current state of the piece on my design wall. It’s cool this morning so I hope to make more progress before heading to work.

Summer Reading List

In the afternoons it’s not so cool in the house. It’s been sunny and still hot so even with the swamp cooler we are moving slow. As a result we’ve been playing a lot of boardgames and doing a lot of reading. My daughter read all 5 books needed for the library’s summer reading program in a week and last night got her prize - a free pass to Elitches (a six flags amusement park here in Denver).

A couple noteworthy books I’ve read this summer (there is also long list of light summer reads that I can’t remember at the moment):

Savvy by Ingrid Law. This is a children’s book (along the lines of Harry Potter) by a friend of mine. Ingrid used to belong to one of my artist support groups many years back. She’s now a published first time author with a big contract for her second book and getting rave reviews. I think they’ve optioned a movie from this first book also. The success couldn’t have come to a better person. My 12 year old daughter loved this book and couldn’t put it down. I definitely recommend it.

Happy For No Reason by Marci Shimoff. I haven’t actually finished this book. I had to return it to my old library and am waiting to get to the top of the hold list at the Denver Public Library. What I did read, I found quite interesting . There has been a lot of research into happiness lately and Marci has interviewed people she identified as truly happy and reports her findings in this book. Definitely worth finishing.

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. I listened to this as a book on tape last summer and it changed my life. It’s what lead me to attend the retreat by Christine Kane last December and really think about where I wanted my life to go and the person I want to be and the people I want to spend time with. My move to Denver is part of this chain of events and I know I’m on the right path. I decided to read it in print this summer and very much enjoyed it again.

The Appeal by John Grisham, about a fictional town with contaminated underground water and all the big business and political craziness that might surround such an event. Typical Grisham, always a fun light read.

A Bit of Fiction Reflects Life

Turns out the house I bought is in an area with contaminated underground water, so reading the Grisham book was quite intriguing. Fortunately we drink Denver city water from pipes and not the stuff under us.

They are in the process of cleaning up the mess left by a rifle scope manufacturer that dumped all their solvents into the ground. The affected houses have mitigation systems for the fumes from the solvents, pretty much like radon mitigation systems. From everything I read there is little to no threat the my health over this and even without mitigation I’d never be able to smell the fumes, it’s just annoying.

Before I moved in, home owners tried to sue, they lost. Supposedly the bad water does not effect real estate prices (I saw no signs of it) and when I build my addition the company responsible will pay to modify/extend my mitigation system if needed and I hear they are fairly easy to work with.

The Whole House

Add to this asbestos siding, lead paint, more electrical problems than I mentioned yesterday (the main line to the house is woven through the gorgeous crab apple in the back yard and the fuse box is faulty and built by a company that was successfully sued and now out of business), a cracked clay sewer pipe and also a nasty mold problem in the back of garage that has to be torn out. It’s fun!

It’s definitely in the fixer-upper category. It was a rental for 10 years and the owners lived in texas and ignored it. The grass looks like it hasn’t been watered in years and it’s mostly weeds and dirt. My house is definitely the ugly step child of the street at the present moment but I still love it and know when the remodel is done it’s going to be gorgeous. Plus I got it at a good price and have a big chunk of money in escrow from the sellers to pay for most of the stuff listed above.