Lisa Call

 
Just 3 more nights and my incredible trip to South Africa will wrap up and I’ll head back to the US. I haven’t had the desire to do much blogging while here as my head is swimming with all we have seen – arts & crafts plus much culture and politics and landscape and history.

It’s all fabulous and much to process.

We just got back from visiting a project where they are doing potato stamping on fabrics and making cushions and other household items. We pretty much cleaned them out of stock, which is generally the story everywhere we go. They said it was their lucky day. Ours also.

Photos will be posted some day, after I’m home and sort through them all.

In the meantime, the photo above is of some rock art paintings we saw a few weeks back in the Drakensburg. Beautiful.

The Travel

At 5am on Wednesday, July 28th I left my home in Denver, Colorado. At 9pm on Thursday, July 29th my plane landed in Johannesburg, South Africa, a mere 32 hours later.

The flights were fairly uneventful except the 4 hours sitting on the tarmac in Washington DC due to some thunderstorms that closed the air space. I ended up on the South African airplane for a total of 21 hours without getting off; we stopped in Dakar but weren’t allowed off the plane. That is a lot of hours sitting in a dark tin can.

At least it was a big tin can with a lot of food and air conditioning and heat and I had a window seat. Although they had us keep the window shades closed so I didn’t see a heck of a lot out of that window so it was mostly handy for leaning against to sleep.

Passage through passport control was a breeze and within a minute of clearing customs, which involved doing absolutely nothing, I found the wonderful woman that offered to house and entertain me for the handful of days before the tour started.

I met Laetitia through my blog and via facebook and we didn’t exchange a lot of email so I was more than thrilled to see her after our airplane arrived 4 hours late as I had no way to notify her of the delay (when will we have internet on all flights?)

I wasn’t really sure I had a plan had she not been there but it all worked out perfectly.

Day 1

After some very delicious juice, we headed to Laetitia’s house in Pretoria. Around 11pm or midnight (which is 3-4pm Denver time) I went to bed and fell asleep within minutes. I’m not sure when I woke up again but it wasn’t until 5pm when I emerged well rested from my room. There are advantages to not checking a clock. I haven’t sleep that long in years and years.

After a interesting and educational walk around Pretoria with her husband, Rian, we returned to a lovely dinner with her entire family. very delicious and very fun.

As we had plans to get up early the next morning to visit an animal preserve it was right back to bed, which, as expected, didn’t work out so well. I slept about 1 1/2 hours and was up again at 7am to head out to the Bushveld.

The official tour starts tomorrow and I must be up early again so the Bushveld will have to wait until I write again. Although for a sneak peak you can check out a few photos on my facebook page here. (they are viewable by the public)

South Africa is amazing. This is clearly going to be a fabulous adventure and will have some amazing impact on my art, I can tell already.

For details on my art plans and south africa see here: South African Impressions. I didn’t count but with the new sales while I was traveling, I think only 1/2 of the ACEOs are remaining, or maybe it’s a bit more, but it’s close. Thank you to everyone for your support!

An Artful Weekend

Travel Diary, Saturday, April 5th:

1. Stayed up past midnight chatting and laughing with Pam. Notable topic of conversation was powdered sugar donuts, a favorite of Pam’s on road trips and her aliens (see her comments on her blog). Surprisingly we hear little noise from the high schoolers sharing the hotel with us as the evening goes on.
2. Earplugs in I sleep until 8am. Unfortunately the high school kids played a round of volleyball in the bathroom next door so Pam enjoyed the early morning taking great photos of the sculpture at the International Quilt Study Center.
3. After a yummy breakfast it’s off to galleries to see an exhibit of Michael James new work at Modern Arts Midwest. This work seems more saturated to me than some previous pieces. Could be my memory but I liked these richer colors better. My favorite was from 2006 and is not on either the gallery or artist’s website.
4. Next we went over to the brand new International Quilt Study Center and Museum to see a show of Nancy Crow’s work. It was good to see a collection of her work from over the years.



5. The building for the Quilt Center had some cool architectural features. Including a large reception area with very cool windows.



 


6. They also had a really cool mesh screen on wheels. Love the feet.


 

7. It’s my daughter’s birthday so I pack up and head back to Colorado for a 6:30 dinner reservation. The sharks are ready to hit the road.



8. Looking for something to do I phone up my friend Kelly and we have a 2+ hour chat as I drive down I-80. In addition to fabric dyeing the topic of powdered sugar donuts comes up as we were huge donut fans growing up. My car is in need of a gas so at a bargain $3.69 I fill up the tank and go inside in search of some fine pastries. I’m shocked and dismayed to discover there are no donuts and not even a twinkie in the entire convenience store.
9. Fortunately this is America so I drive over to the next store and find exactly what I’m looking for. I have a hard time deciding between the powdered sugar and those yummy plastic chocolate coated ones so select a package of both and head to the counter. The worker guy has just hit some magic button and the register is spitting out a very long tape of recent purchases and I’m told I’ll have to wait 5 minutes. Not wanting to look desperate I opted to walk out of the store empty handed.
10. All is well until I hit I-76, a stretch of road that makes driving across Nebraska seem exciting. It’s just me and a bunch of huge trucks and some tumble weeds. Realizing I’m darn close to falling asleep I stop and buy myself some sunflower seeds. Not being a caffeine drinker, food that requires effort to eat seemed like the next best option for staying awake. And really, why not, a pack of powdered sugar donuts ends up in my hands also.
11. The universe was clearly trying to send me a signal as there was a huge line at the cash register (in the middle of nowhere eastern colorado) – yes – it’s shift change and mr. manager is counting the pennies. I can hide my desperation no longer, I ignore the universe, and I stand there a good 10 minutes to purchase a pack of stale donuts. Happily I was in good company. It was kinda funny watching us. We’d look at what we wanted to buy. Look at the line. You can hear the wheels spinning "am I really standing in line to buy this?" Then we’d realize noone we know is watching – so yep – sure enough we did.



12. Yummy!
13. I was 20 minutes late picking up my daughter for our sushi dinner date. I blame it on the traffic.

May all your art adventures be inspiring and fun. And enjoy the donuts on the drive home.

An Artful Weekend

Travel Diary, Friday, April 4th:

1. Awake at 5:30am to pack and print out maps.
2. Have daughter help load car. Apparently BAHO and BDHO will be joining me on the road. I insist on driving. BAHO cries but finally moves over. BAHO = Bite Alex’s (brother) Head Off. BDHO = Bite Dad’s Head Off (pronounced Baa-ho and Bid-ho). To date there is no BMHO. Mom rocks (and is in charge of shark shopping).



3. As I back out of driveway I notice brake light warning is on. Frantically flip through car manual as I drop ACEOs off at post office. Discover it means my brake light is out (clever how the warning is called that). Relax, no need to fix before leaving, car is running fine, who needs brake lights anyway.
4. On the road at 7:45am. I thought it was 6 hours to Lincoln as a quick scan of mapquest said it was six hours a few weeks ago. Apparently I should have looked at the details – it said 6 hours and 56 minutes. Oops. Good thing the car goes faster without brake lights.
5. Arrive in Lincoln 6 hours and 30 minutes later. I was right about the brake lights.
6. Stop by hotel procured via Priceline. It was cheap – the large number of high school students loitering in the lobby and in front of the hotel gives me warm fuzzy feelings (translation – I’m glad I packed my earplugs).
7. Quick change of clothes and I arrive at the brand spanking new International Quilt Study Center to say hello to Nancy Crow who is teaching a class.
8. Nancy asks me to give a quick talk about how I can focus on my work while also a fulltime cube worker and single mom. I have no idea what to say but once I start I don’t shut up. Rambling might be a good word to insert here.
9. I head over to the Lux Center to check out the show and take some photos before the crowds arrive.



 

Overview from front entrance (both shows are in one room)

 

Overview from front entrance (Two pieces of Deidre’s work is on the wall behind me in both of these pictures, my work is in the back left corner.)

 
Distinctive Directions

 

Deidre Adams and Joanie San Chirico

 

Deidre Adams

 

Jeanne Williamson

 

Pam RuBert

 
Fencing In or Keeping Out – Lisa Call


Structures #42

 

Structures #95 and Structures #59

 

Structures #39

 

Structures #96

 

10. It’s 4:40 – time to prepare my gallery talk. I think I should have done this earlier. Good thing I printed out notes on the artists in Distinctive Directions.
11. It’s 5pm – show time. The next 2 hours are a blur. I talk, Pam RuBert talks. We had a great turnout. (Deidre Adams, Joanie San Chirico and Jeanne Williamson are in Philadelphia at the Art Quilt Elements Opening.)
12. Dinner with my Aunt Myrna from Omaha, which is apparently quite close to Lincoln. Who knew!
13. And finally back to the hotel to chat with Pam.

 

The sharks have settled in

Tomorrow – gallery hopping with Pam, the drive home, donuts and high school kids.