The test posts below will go away

Instead my press releases and press mentions will appear here.

Artist as Quiltmaker XIII
FAVA’ S 13th Biennial Exhibition
of Contemporary Quilts
www.favagallery.org
favagallery@oberlin.net

March 6, 2008

Parker, Colorado artist Lisa Call has been selected to exhibit in the highly competitive national biennial juried exhibition, The Artist as Quiltmaker, now in its 25th year.

Call’s artwork Markings #6 will be shown with forty-two other exceptional artworks. Her work was selected by juror David Walker, a renowned artist, lecturer and workshop instructor.

The exhibition will open on Sunday, May 18th. And will be on view until August 2nd, 2008 at the New Union Center for the Arts gallery in historic Oberlin, Ohio. The opening reception, May 18th, 1 – 4 p.m., will feature a gallery talk by juror David Walker, who will also present the artist awards.

Sponsored by the Firelands Association for the Visual Arts in Oberlin, Ohio, the exhibition is one of the longest running venues for the exhibition of fiber art in the United States. The history of the exhibition was detailed recently in Uncommon Threads: Ohio’s Art Quilt Revolution (Ohio University Press, December 2006.) The exhibition catalog will be available at the opening, but pre-orders are being accepted. Call or email the gallery for more information.

Gayle A. Pritchard, curator, The Artist as Quiltmaker
GAPDesigns@oh.rr.com
CONTACT (440-774-7158)
Executive Director: Betsy Manderen; Gallery Director: Kyle Michalak
Exhibition Curator: Gayle Pritchard

Andrew J. Macky Gallery welcomes artist Lisa Call with her solo show “Markings: Repetition and Pattern,” an exhibition of bold geometric contemporary textile paintings. The show runs February 20-March 19. There is an opening reception Saturday, February 23 from 2-4 p.m. with an artist talk at 3 p.m. The reception and talk are free and open to the public.

Lisa Call is an award-winning, self-taught artist who has been creating contemporary textile paintings since the early 1990s. Her work has twice been featured at Macky Auditorium’s gallery and she returns as one of the most requested artists. Composed of richly colored hand-dyed fabric and extensive stitching, the paintings are abstract but draw elements from many places: the colors and forms of the southwest, repetition, pattern, an interest in human-made structures for containment such as fences and stone walls, and her exploration of her own internal psychological walls and boundaries.

The paintings featured in this show refer to the comfort humans derive from repetition. “We are soothed by the well-known patterns that result from duplication: telephone poles in a line, a grouping of trees in a forest, our unchanging daily routines,” explains the artist. Lisa Call’s work has been shown throughout the U.S. and Europe and is featured in both public and private collections. Call is founder of The Fiber Connection, a successful online artist support. She can be reached at lisa@lisacall.com and www.lisacall.com.

The Andrew J. Macky Gallery is located in Macky Auditorium on the CU-Boulder campus at the corner of 17th Street and University Avenue. The gallery is free and open to the public on Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and to ticketed patrons during performances. For more information call 303-492-8423 or visit www.colorado.edu/macky.

Structures #14    ©2003    29"x 35"
stuff

stuff

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

A glossary definition using dl/dt/dd

Food

The stuff for lunch.

Rock

A really long definition to see how it is indenting the margins. Rocks are not for lunch but maybe for dinner. Tuesday.

fjksdf;js jkfdlasjf jkfdlsjfkl fadjskf l jfkdsljfl jkfdlsj f jkfdsl jkl jfk fjklsd jfkl jsnfj fjkl fjsdkl f fjkl s jfklsdjlk fjs sjf dlsj fsfjklsd fsfjkdsl f jsd jldsk fms kjlfjkdls

Structures #48    ©2007    48" x 64"

Fencing In or Keeping Out
Contemporary Textile Art by Lisa Call

Lux Center for the Arts
Lincoln, Nebraska
April 4 — 26, 2008

In conjunction with the 2008 Quilt Invitational, Denver, Colorado textile artist and curator, Lisa Call, will display her own hand dyed and stitched textile art. 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. Vis

the stuff in an h2

the stuff in an h3

here’s a block quote:

Hi Mom

Isn’t that spiffy

Some words before to see how it is indenting.

1. ordered list
2. I look awseome
3. rerear

Isn’t this really pretty

• unordered list
• I look awseome
• rerear

Studio Time

In my last post I wrote that one of my goals for the upcoming weeks was to continue to spend 5 or more hours a week in my studio while I’m working on some longer term business goals and getting my house on the market.

Laure responded with the following questions:

One question though, how do you define time in the studio? What is included as time in the studio – is it purely making art, is it prepping for making art, or a mixture of this and other stuff?

Great questions. Early this year I wrote a post about the logistics and reasons for tracking my studio time. That post doesn’t address what I define as "studio time"

My Definition

I define time in my studio as time actively making my artwork: dyeing fabric, cutting the fabric to designing compositions and stitching. I don’t do much prep work for my art. I almost never do any sketching (drawn or fabric sketches) and if I do I generally count it as studio time.

I do a lot of photography and hiking and other activities that inspire and inform my artwork. I never count this as studio time. I also don’t count extended cleaning and organizing my studio as studio time either. I view that more as maintenance of my environment. A quick straighting up of my cutting table probably gets counted.

I do count the finish work that is done on my art, such as finishing the edges, attaching sleeves and labels. Probably because I do these steps with needle and thread so it fits into the construction process.

It Doesn’t Have to be Exact

When I first started tracking time in my studio I was rather uptight about it. I tracked it down to accurate 15 minute intervals. This ended up generating unnecessary stress into my studio process. No doubt the engineer part of me taking over (not to mention the meticulous perfectionist side).

I got over the compulsiveness and now it’s just a pretty darn good estimate. The main purpose is to motivate me and spending time worrying if it was 1/4 hour or a 1/2 hour on monday isn’t very inspirational. So now I just make a good guess and call it good.

I think it’s all very personal, the definition of studio time, how accurately one might or might not track it. And even if you track it at all. I like keeping these records as it does help keep me on track and keep me motivated. When I see my studio time slacking off I look around for the cause and see if I need to adjust something in my life.