Lisa Call

Lines #25
Textile Painting – Mounted on stretched canvas
©2009
3" x 3"
Sold

Motivation

Today I asked my friends and followers on facebook and twitter “Why do you buy art?”

I received about 25 responses and then summarized them on a page for everyone to read. It’s here: Buying Art.

As an artist looking to sell my artwork, this information is quite interesting and very helpful. Most of the people that responded are artists so the larger art buying population might have a different take on things, or maybe not.

My hope is that over time a larger group of people will find that page and more information can be gathered (you can add your response to the page and vote for the comments you like). If this is interesting to you, please pass the link along to your audience and we’ll see how it goes.

Connection

My answer isn’t on there but there are some close ones. The feeding my soul one comes close. And the obvious – I buy art I love – art I’ll want to look at for years.

I buy art mostly from people that I know something about, many that I was introduced to online and have had conversations with. The story behind the art is part of the compelling reason to buy someone’s art. Owning someone’s art is a connection to the artist and part of the appeal.

Hugh McLeod has been talking alot about art being social objects. Interesting thoughts. He’s posts about considering collectors as art users are definitely something to think about.

 
Why do you buy art?

 
PS : The newest buzzword from gapingvoid is cube grenades. My small 3″ textile paintings, like the one above, would make excellent cube grenade. Want to start a conversation at the office? Hang a textile painting on the wall! [Update - the piece above sold a few minutes after I posted my blog entry but there are more available here: Affordable Art For Sale.]

Quick post tonight as I cook dinner and head out the door to an artist lecture at the Denver Art Museum by Sandy Skoglund.

One of the things I love about twitter are the quotes people post on occasion. Here are a few that resonated with me today:

Failure

“People fail in direct proportion to their willingness to accept socially acceptable excuses for failure.”

Tweeted by Sandra Martini

This is so relevant to what I wrote about yesterday about not making goals because I wanted to be the free-spirited artist type. It’s socially acceptable to not get stuff done cause I’m an artist and schedules are stifling.

Well – forget that – I’m not going to fail and my art career is not going to fail cause it’s cool to just float about unrestrained by structure.

Preparation

“The will to win is worthless if you do not have the will to prepare.” – Thane Yost

Tweeted by Jane Button

I read this and immediately equated ‘prepare’ with ’setting goals’. Some other day I might have read it differently but today it dove tails nicely with my intent to get back to structure.

Bathing

“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.” ~ Zig Ziglar

Tweeted byValery Satterwhite

Love this. I journal every morning and most mornings I set and intent for the day. When I can’t think of something specific it is often something along the lines of ‘live the day focused on the tasks I want to get done.’ Staying in the moment helps me stay motivated for the current task.

Bumper Sticker

My tweet for the day:

"Want to get new bumper stickers for my car – anyone have some good art ones? Any pointers to sources for art related bumper stickers?"

Didn’t get any pointers. So how about you blog readers? Do you have any art related bumper stickers on your car? What do they say?

If you don’t have one but wanted one – what might you put on it? Anyone have resources for some funny pre-made ones?

Aspens #1
Textile Painting with hand stitched texture
©2002
16" x 13"
Private Collection

Sleep

Probably the most important habit I try to keep is sleeping 8 hours a night. I know that when I start slacking off and thinking I can get by with less sleep I really start to feel it. Generally I skip sleep because I think I can get more done if I stay up late. The reality is that the opposite generally results.

When I’m tired my brain stops working as well and I can’t focus on tasks as easily. The result is I am significantly less productive, which for me generally means surfing the internet reading art blogs and playing around on twitter and facebook.

Like right now, I got about 4 hours of sleep last night. Just now I thought, hey I should link to my twitter profile in that sentence. So I opened twitter and had to write a tweet about my son’s musical taste (he’s listening to the Beach Boys of all things) and then I thought I should add twitter to my sidebar so opened my dashboard for wordpress and saw they were doing a survey for features for 2.8. I started doing that when I realized. Wait – I’m writing a blog post.

I can go on like that for hours if I get tired enough. Clearly skipping sleep does not make me more productive nor does it give me more time to get things done. It just give me time to waste doing useless things.

Because I always seem to wake up at 5 or 5:30 and am a morning person, it is really important for me to be in bed by 9:30. So this is the first habit I’m going to concentrate on for 2009. I haven’t sleep super good the last 3 or 3 months and I need to get back into that habit. I think tackling everything else will be a lot easier if I’m well rested.

[hm got sidetracked again, but did get twitter and facebook in my sidebar, and updated my status on facebook while I was at it.]

The Hand Stitch

People have been commenting positively on my posts with the hand stitched work so here’s another one. I wrote a post about Aspens #1 a few years back that includes more information about what inspired the textile painting (a backpacking trip) and it includes a detail shot of the stitching. In this instance I didn’t add a second design over the top of the Aspens but instead echoed the shapes with my stitching.

I love doing hand stitching but it is hard on my hands so can’t do as much as I used to. I haven’t given it up but I haven’t done any in maybe a year. In the past I haven’t devoted much time to it but I really want to get back to it more. I have the idea to do a couple hand stitched Home pieces in the next month as I’m going to get kicked out of my studio soon so construction can progress.

I also have a heavily hand beaded piece that is a few hours away from completion. I’d love to get that done and show it to you all in the next couple of weeks.

But first – it’s time to catch up on some sleep! I’ll catch up on comments tomorrow. Thanks everyone for the positive responses the last couple days.

Joy

I didn’t blog last night because I didn’t feel like writing about non-art stuff, and that was all I had to say. Spent my evening enjoying my son’s high school elective showcase (where else in the world can one watch a light saber yoga performance, complete with star wars music, than at an expeditionary learning school?) and my daughter’s gymnastics class – she’s getting closer to a back handspring – yay!

Today was a more challenging day on the Joy front. I haven’t been feeling 100% lately so went to the dr and got some antibiotics and hope that improves things and I get some sleep cause being tired is not super conducive to celebrating joy.

Fortunately the day turned around after I got home from work and ran some errands with my daughter. While waiting around walgreens for my prescription she decided to buy presents for her friends from the 90% off aisle. We had much fun looking through the stuff for $.50. Twelve year olds can be quite entertaining when they want to be.

Art (Business) Related Content

I’m headed to the studio soon and hope to wrap up Lines #10 and #11 tonight so will post them tomorrow. In the meantime I recently read an interesting article by Seth Godin I wanted to pass along: The Internet is Almost Full

Ten years ago, you had a shot of at least being aware of everything that mattered. Five years ago, you had to be really selective about what you took in, but at least it was possible to know what you didn’t know. Today, it’s impossible. Today, you can’t even read every article on a thin slice of a thin topic.

You can’t keep up with the status of your friends on the social networks. No way. You can’t read every important blog… you can’t even read all the blogs that tell you what the important blogs are saying.

I absolutely agree. There are more art blogs out there that I want to read than I can possibly ever have time to read.

So the question is – what do I do about it?

Blogs

My solution was to decrease the number of blogs I wanted to keep up with. This frees up a bit of time so I’ve been checking out the blogs of my readers on occasion. I miss many of the blogs I’ve dropped but I don’t miss feeling like I was behind.

So increasing both depth and breadth and just letting it be than thinking I need to know everything everyone says every minute of the day. I’m enjoying this more relaxed approach to reading blogs quite a bit.

Keep Email Effective

My inbox is hovering around 80 unreplied to messages right now. I had it down to 10 not long ago. Sigh. I have yet to figure out how to keep up with it. For those of you awaiting an answer – sorry – and hopefully soon I will catch up.

I’ve decided to start scheduling email answering time because it is important and it takes a bunch of time. No more pretending I can just fit it in here and there.

Last year I reduced the amount of email I get by filtering anything not art related or personal related to another email address. I then diverted all art related newsletters to another email address. I almost never check the junk email address and occasionally will check the other.

There are a couple of exceptions to this – the top one being Alyson Stanfield. Her newsletter is the best and I look forward to it every monday morning right in my main email inbox. Tis a rare monday I don’t read it.

If you don’t already have it, check out Alyson’s book I’d Rather Be in The Studio, it’s awesome (and not just cause there is a quote from me int there). If I didn’t already have it, this book would be on my christmas list.

Another thing I’ve done to reduce interuptions is to turn off all email notifications from twitter and facebook. I can catch up with those things when I go to the sites. I don’t need inbox filled with friend requests when I get a notification on facebook also.

Thank You

As a blog writer, I appreciate that you have way more choices for reading than about art than ever before and I want to, again, thank all of you for choosing to spend a bit of that time reading my blog, tweets and status updates on facebook.

How do you keep up (or not) with the internet?

Structures #43
©2005
21"x 22"
$2500

Talking about Twitter on Facebook

I said a while back I’d write about how I use twitter. Today 3 things happened that made it clear today was the day to do that.

First I had the following conversation on facebook after I clicked to become a fan of twitter:

Friend: Hi Lisa, I should get this, but thanks to old age, I don’t. What do you use twitter for? Is it more than just another facebook-like status? What am I missing?

Me: As an artist (this tech thing for 40 hours a week where I see you is just a hobby) I find twitter more useful in terms of resources. Not sure about the marketing side of stuff but I have a good group of followers that are quick to help me out. Today I asked for pointers to paper sources to print thank you cards with my art and got great comments.

Lots of artists on twitter. Maybe a bunch of geeks stuff over there also but I’m mostly interacting with artists.

Some people auto publish their tweets to their facebook status – I don’t – I view them as different conversations. There is some overlap in audience but facebook is more of everyone I know – most of them in person, but not all. Twitter – I don’t know many of those folks in real life. So I write about different things.

Twitter is more everyday mundane stuff and I update many times a day. Facebook isn’t quite as interactive – so I only update it every couple days as people don’t seem to check it as often.

Friend: That makes sense: different communities, different granularity. Thanks for the explanation!

How I use Twitter

So that kind of explains how I view twitter. I view it as walking into a room full of friends and joining a conversation for a bit then leaving again. I come back throughout the day and the conversation shifts and flows as the day progresses.

It takes a while to get the hang of twitter. The @replies, which aren’t obvious, are a big part of it. Once one gets that figured out I think twitter makes a bunch more sense. An @reply is like a comment on a blog post. I write a tweet, if someone responds it puts and @lisacall in the front of their tweet back and I get to see all of those on another tab. That is how twitter becomes a conversation.

I have twitter set up so that I see @replies from people I follow to other people that I follow – which expands the conversation beyond just me and 1 person. I’ve had several multi-person conversations as a result of this. I don’t get all @replies (so I don’t see replies from people I follow to people I don’t follow) as that seems like too much to me. Setting it to see no @replies at all didn’t feel as much of a conversation. Each person can decide how many @replies they want to see.

Twitter is a never ending conversation. We all need a break from that at times. So for me the key to not letting it overwhelm me is that I don’t worry about what was said in my absence. Sometimes I go back and read stuff (like during lunch at work) but mostly I just let it slide. Although I always respond to @replies directed to me.

But again – twitter makes no sense at all to some people. Not a big deal – there are thousands of way to communicate with other people – twitter isn’t required or even necessary. Some of just find it highly entertaining.

If you want to follow me my profile is here: Lisa Call’s Twitter Profile. Or you can just go take a peek and see what I’m saying today. At some point I’ll put my most recent tweets into my sidebar. It’s on my todo list.

Twitter Articles

The other 2 interesting things that happened today were people tweeted pointers to some really great "how to use twitter effectively" articles. These said things that I might have written in this post, and now I don’t have to repeat. The articles are excellent:

How not to be annoying on twitter

What to write about on twitter

I really like that first article. I’ve stopped following some people that don’t seem to understand this.

Not everyone loves Twitter

For a fair and balanced view, I also read this blog article about twitter today:

Is Twitter Too Good?

That doesn’t paint twitter in such great light. It was written in March 2007 by Kathy Sierra, who no longer blogs. Although, ironically, you can follow her on twitter now. Hm…

Construction

I didn’t get home from work until 5:30 tonight – way too dark for photos. But it’s way cool in the backyard – the forms are down and I can see the walls. Photos will have to wait til tomorrow.

Structures #43

I’m building a webpage for a holiday art sale. Turns out it’s supposed to be for art $500 or less. Oops – I thought it was $1000. So now I have to pull a bunch of my stuff off. My fault for not reading the info again before starting.

Anyway, came across this piece while doing the page and remembered how much I love this piece. It’s over $500 (it’s $750) so it’ll have to come off the page, but decided it needed to appear on the blog today instead.

Structures #66    ©2007    22" x 31"

Hello Darkness My Old Friend

Today was the first day of work after the clocks went back an hour (good bye daylight savings time until March) so as I was headed home at 5 it was already getting dark and by 5:30 it was all over. I had big plans to do tons of stuff tonight but found myself wandering aimlessly about the house for a while a bit disoriented.

I usually find this darker time to be a great period of motivation. I’m getting tons of sleep and it’s too cold out to want to wander about so my studio is the perfect place to be.

This year it feels odd. Probably the weather. Usually it’s fairly cold when this happens so it feels natural but this year it’s been in the 70s. It’s too warm for the days to be getting shorter! Which is really quite good in terms of pouring cement for the foundation of my new studio – I truly am very grateful the weather is on my side on this one.

Twitter to the Rescue

So after a bit of pacing and greeting the cats I naturally found myself in front of the computer instead of the sewing machine. No new email to distract me so off to twitter. I started to write something that felt whiny then realized I really don’t want to be that person.

So instead I found myself writing: First day home after dark from work. It’s going to take some serious energy to get me to that studio. Okay – no whining – off I go.

and headed to my studio for a little over 2 hours of art time today along with an hour of work on the website rewrite as I am determined this will be done within the next week.

I just had to decide to do it, and then I did. Thank you twitter for the chance to remind myself of that.

It’s a good day to follow up on my very productive weekend of 12 hours in the studio and 4 hours in the office. Kids are at their dad’s, boyfriend is out of town so no excuses to not stay focused and get stuff done.

Structures #66

I wanted art for the post today so selected a piece with a lot of black. I love this piece (do I say that about all of my work? Sometimes it feels that way, maybe because I rarely show the stuff that I don’t say that about).

I’ve never shown this textile painting in public and it’s pretty much lived in my closet it’s entire life. I need to find it a new home where it can get out of the darkness. I’m going to be putting all of my artwork on my new website over the next month (with prices – this piece is $1200 – which reminds me that I want to do a post about how I price my work) so I trust it will find a lighter place to live once the world knows it exists.

Structures #72 detail

Time in Studio vs Art Career

Last week I wrote about looking for balance between making art and the business side of an art career. I’m still pondering the issues for myself and thought taking an informal poll of other artists would be interesting.

So I asked: "question for artists: On average – per week: 1) how many hours do spend creating new artwork? 2) how many hours spent on your art business?"
on both twitter and facebook. Below is the summary of the answers (art/business).

- 20/20
- Some weeks 40/0, others 0/40
- 25/30
- 10/30
- 10-25 / 20-30+
- 25-30 / too much time promoting and organizing.
- ideally..20/20..lately 5/15
- 5-15 / 15
- 6 / 10-12
- 7-12 / 2
- 30/20
- 2/3
- 0/0
- 1/2

I pulled out just the numbers and deleted the comments, which were quite interesting, but didn’t feel it was appropriate to repost them here. If you go to search.twitter.com and search on @lisacall you can read the full replies to my query on twitter.

The info I glean from this is that the business side of art is a major commitment. Now that I’ve made that commitment it is no wonder I’m feeling the need to readjust.

Thanks to all the twitters and facebookers that answered the question as it was most helpful.

How about you, blog reader? How much time do you spend in the studio vs. the office?

More PFD Fabric for Sale

I sold 220 yards of fabric but have a bit more Prepared for Dye Fabric (PFD) Pimatex Fabric I’d like to sell. I wrote a post about this fabric here: Kaufman PFD Pimatex Fabric . I’m selling this fabric to keep my account at Kaufman open (they have a minimum purchase amount per year to order from them directly – I’m very close to meeting that minimum).

I’m selling the fabric to those with US shipping addresses only for $4.50 a yard + shipping. Total cost for different amounts including shipping:

5 yards – $30
10 yards – $55
20 yards – $100
25 yards – $125

If you’d be interested in purchasing some fabric please send me email the amount you’d like to purchase. I accept checks and paypal.

Structures #73

In addition to a couple hours of art business work, I’ve managed to get in 3 hours in the studio today. The first time in months and months I’ve been so focused on art making on a workday. Woohoo. Course it’s an hour later than I would like to be going to bed but I’m making good progress with the surface stitching on Structures #73. It takes me about an hour per square foot so I have maybe 6 or 7 hours left.

The above photo is another detail show of the textile painting.

Why More on Twitter

Clint Watson offered for me to write a guest post on his blog over at Fine Art Views after my previous post about twitter.

This is that post – I’ve sent it to Clint to post but am also posting it on my blog, which is probably against some blogging etiquette rule but I write best in wordpress after all these years of blogging (I know – kinda weird huh) and it seems silly not to hit publish for my readers, as my experience is few people actually follow links in a post. Although I do recommend Clints blog as he as some interesting opinions about marketing art. So check out his blog here: Clint Watson’s Fine Arts View Blog.

Why Tweet

My top 10 List of reasons I might think writing a tweet for twitter is a better use of my time than creating art in response to Clint’s comment on his blog:

Why ANY artist would think that sending a “Twit” is a better use of their time than creating art is totally beyond me.

My list:

1. As an artist if I made art 24/7 and never marketed it I would eventually run out of room in my house for the art. I spend a full 50% of my time running my art business. I think Clint knows this as he advocates blogging, so I will assume his comment meant "why would an artist tweet vs. doing any other marketing activity".
2. I do not view what I do as "selling" my art. Instead I look to just be me. Authenticity is my goal in marketing myself and therefore my art. For me this means having a conversation, not selling. Making a connection is what I’m interested in, not doing the hard sell. Even if not connecting with a real live collector every minute on twitter, it is all a wonderful opportunity for being authentic and writing openly about myself and my art.
3. Twitter gives me a chance to be authentic in a different way than with my blog. With my blog I put a lot of thought into my posts. They tend to get long and can take a few hours to compose as I edit and re-edit a lot. My tweets are much quicker thoughts dashed off in a few moments. It’s basically me, uncensored. Very authentic.
4. I think with twitter, at least the people that are using it to connect and not sell, you get to see the real person behind the art. It’s a fine line to walk between being boring, giving too much information and too much self promotion. I find myself dropping the feeds that are only about selling – it annoys me and adds zero value to my life. I want a conversation with someone that feels like a real person. I don’t watch tv, I block ads on the web via adblock in firefox, I rarely listen to the radio, read no newspapers and few magazines – my tolerance for advertising is very low – if I feel all I’m getting is an ad – I’ll turn it off.
5. I believe social media could likely become a more effective method of communicating with ones tribe than email. I think we are all completely overloaded with email. There is simply too much of it and we need a more efficient way to communicate. I find myself emailing less and less the more I use twitter. I can’t see into the future but I see the present and I see a lot people not liking email so much. At my day job as a software engineer, email has been rendered virtually useless as noone has time to read it anymore. A very common theme I hear from artists is that email takes up way too much time. I don’t view twitter just as addition to email, but hopefully a way to reduce that email so it takes less time.
6. I’ve been online since 1983. Admittedly I’m a geek. For me, one of the most natural ways for me to communicate is online and I’m very comfortable in public chat type forums. This is absolutely authentic for me. I think some people communicate well this way, others don’t.
7. I can completely relate to Steve Pavlina’s comment on his latest blog post about facebook:
   

   No doubt some people will question how Facebook could help me with my business. The truth is that I don’t really care. My modus operandi is to pursue growth experiences and mold my business around that, not the other way around. So all I’m looking for on Facebook is to make new connections that can lead to interesting growth experiences. I don’t center my life around a profit motive.

   There is more to being an artist than making cash from the art. Connecting with other artists is incredibly valuable on both a personal and professional level. Where will it lead? Let’s find out.

8. I find some really great information on twitter that helps with with my art career. References to articles and tools that other artists are using. While this might not be a direct sale of art to a collector, who’s to say that an opportunity I learn about via twitter doesn’t? It’s networking at it’s finest for only a few minutes a day.
9. My 16 year old son tells me only old people email. Kids text, they use social media. Email is too heavy weight for them. My son assures me I am far from cool, but at least I’m willing to give this new thing a try.
10. I buy art. I’m on twitter. I found art on twitter I liked. I bought it. I do not believe I am the only artist that buys art. And if I am, well so be it. Hopefully someday I’ll buy one of my own pieces and twitter will pay off.

My Thoughts Without Numbers

Okay – truth in advertising here – this isn’t really a top ten list. It’s just a random list of the things I thought of in no particular order and I attached numbers to the paragraphs because I always wanted to write a top 10 list.

I have no idea what the future of twitter might be and what type of value I might get out of it in the long run. And honestly, I don’ really care, which is why it has taken me over a week to finally sit down and write the article I promised Clint.

The short answer on why it is not beyond me to understand why an artist (me) might tweet instead of make art: Making art is a solitary activity. As a full time software engineer and full time artist, my opportunities for getting out are fairly limited. Twitter is a way to connect with my tribe in a very immediate way. It’s a fairly new way for artists to connect and I have no doubt I am making all sorts of "mistakes" that I will cringe or laugh about in the future, which is a large part of the appeal – testing it out and seeing where it will take me.

A final note. This is my experience. I’m not saying other artists should or shouldn’t hop onto the social media bandwagon. I think everyone needs to evaluate it for themselves and determine if it will fit into their art career. I’m happy to see Clint is actively using twitter now and his opinion in the future will be based on experience.

Still More

After writing this I can see I might have another post about twitter in the future. About how I actually use it. I think that might be of help of those that want to try out twitter but aren’t sure what to write about. Look for that post some day in the future. Not sure when.

 
PS – You can follow me on twitter here: Lisa Call’s Twitter Profile.

PSS – You can friend me on facebook here (just note in the request you read my blog): Lisa Call’s Facebook Profile.

PSS – Clint always does a PS so I felt I should follow the tradition for this post.

A Natural Progression

When I thought about being an artist 10-12 years ago, my definition of success was to get my work into some juried quilt shows. It didn’t take long and I was, by my definition, a success.

So I set the bar higher. I decided I needed to get into Quilt National to be a success. That goal was first achieved in 2003. I’ve now been accepted, into what to some is considered by some to be the quintessential art quilt venue, 3 times in a row.

With some success to my name, I decided to looked a little deeper and decided I wanted to focus on finding my artistic voice and this became my definition of success:

- I am the best artist I can be
- I have solo shows in not-for-profit galleries (note that non-profit part)

My focus was almost solely on making art and a bit of time was spent showing my work. My actions were in alignment with my intent and I was content. I spent years completely focused on my art and I feel this was a wise choice. As a result I have a lot of confidence in my art and skills and I had a few solo shows along the way.

Moving On

Each time I near or reach my definition of success I feel it’s time to change it and think bigger. The other option, declaring myself a success and coasting, doesn’t suit me very well. At least not yet.

It’s not that I’ve never had big grandiose ideas about where my art can go. It’s that I never spent the time to think about them in detail, write them down, focus on them and thereby make them my new reality. I don’t think this is a bad thing. Could be it’s a natural progression for many of us – start small and get bigger as the way becomes clearer and the obstacles seem less daunting.

Adding Value

Some of the change in direction I’m now planning came about when I was willing to realize and accept that:

1. It’s okay to sell art
2. I can work to be the best artist I can and market my work at the same time. This involved learning to ignore all the voices that speak to the contrary.
3. Getting money for something I love doing is pretty darn cool

I love Steve Pavlina’s comments on twitter the other day that read:

Becoming a millionaire (through honest means) requires delivering $1 million worth of value to other people. That’s generous, not greedy!

It’s a good reminder that as an artist I am providing value to the world and as such it’s okay to be reimbursed for that value.

Cynthia Guajardo had some interesting thoughts the other day as she was pondering what value she might be adding as a ceramic artist in her blog post about living simply. I was very happy to read that she came to the conclusion that she was adding value and will continue to make her pottery.

I suspect it’s fairly common for artists to question what value they might be adding to universe with their art and craft. I know I have. And I’m happy I also came to the conclusion that we add a lot and it is essential we keep creating. And expecting to be compensated fairly for that value.

My New Definition for Success

So now it’s time to take a deep breath and think big and tell the world all about it.

This is my new definition for what it means to me to be a successful artist:

• I am creating a body of work that I am proud of and that I know is pushing me to become the best artist I can.
• I see growth in my artwork.
• I am authentically marketing my artwork.
• I quit my day job and live comfortably from the proceeds of my creative talents. I want to be very clear about my definition so I have an amount in mind but think specific dollar amounts are a bit too personal for public consumption.
• My work is valued by buyers and collectors, who are willing to pay a good price for my artwork. Again, I have a specific idea of what I want my art to sell for so I am very clear about where this career is headed.
• I create an affordable line of work for those that can not afford my larger pieces.
• My work is included in 4 or more museum collections.
• I publish one or more books about my art and my writing about art. At least one will be a big "coffee table" style book
• I actively participate in a community of mutually supportive artists.
• I am an inspiration and mentor to other artists.
• I continually learn about myself through my art and my writing about art.
• I enjoy all aspects of being an artist.

New House -> New Cards

Today I designed and ordered new business cards. I’m now a Denver person not a Parker person. My old cards had my real street address on them. Decided to just go with phone and online contact information for this version.

I normally do all my online printing of postcards and such with vistaprint but they didn’t have an option to upload an image for the back of a business card, at least that I could find, so I switched to overnightprints.com for this order. Got a tip on twitter that they were good.

 

Front side

 

Back side

 
I did my last business card with a vertical orientation. I won’t be doing that again. Nonstandard isn’t a good idea for something that is rather standard. It didn’t fit into any of the holders when sitting out at shows.

The past 3 or 4 years I’ve used an image of Structures #35 for all of my branding – website, blog, business cards, thank you notes and even all of my avatars online are this textile painting. I guess I’m getting a bit tired of it so I went with something else for the business card. I think Structures #60 is currently one of my favorite pieces.

Depth and Breadth: Quiltmaking in the 21st Century

The Butler Museum of Art has requested business cards for the show Depth and Breadth: Quiltmaking in the 21st Century, which runs October 12, 2008 through January 4, 2009 with an opening reception on the October 13th.

I’ll be at the opening and will be giving a short artist talk. I believe some of the other artists in the show (Bob Adams, Jan Myers-Newbury, June O’Neil, and Jen Swearington) will be speaking also.

Monday I’ll pack up the 6 pieces for the show and get them to UPS. There will be work from both the Markings and the Structures series at the show.

For those that like to prepare early here are the museum details:

Butler Institute of American Art
Trumbull Gallery
9350 East Market Street
Howland, OH 44485