The Early Years of the Series
Early with the Structures series I was mostly thinking about brick walls, fences and – as you’ll see in this next set of works – even canyon walls. I was mostly just fascinated by the structure of physical barriers. Hence the title of the series.
The meaning of my artwork emerges and evolves as I complete more work in the series. While I was dabbling here and there with the idea of the obstacles we put up when in relation with others, it took while before that was where the series eventually landed.
I suppose after making 200 works in a series it isn’t surprising that the inspiration and meaning shifts.
Grand Canyon Inspiration
Structures #15 – #25 were all inspired by a week I spent backpacking in the Grand Canyon back in October 2002.
I didn’t have digital camera back in those days yet I still managed to take over 500 photos and slides throughout the week. These days I’m not sure where those pictures are located but for many years I had a collage of some of my favorite images in my studio.
This is a rather poor image of the board. You can see rock walls are prominently featured.
Structures #15-#25
Continuing with my review of the entire Structures series.
Lisa Call
Structures #15 (2005)
12×13 inches (30×33 cm)
fabric, dye, thread, cotton
This small piece is hand quilted with embroidery thread using a seed stitch. The only piece in the series that is hand quilted.
The stitching sits directly on top of a single fence motif, creating a secondary pattern, which is built up stitch by stitch over the existing structure.
This was the first work in a subseries influenced by the Grand Canyon. Earlier that year, I had completed a week-long backpacking trip through the canyon, and the experience stayed with me long after I returned home.
The colors, the scale, the layers of rock, and the time it takes to move through that landscape all found their way into these pieces.
Working small allowed me to focus closely on color relationships and surface, almost like taking notes. The seed stitch became a way to slow down and respond to what I had seen and felt rather than trying to describe it outright.
Day 15 of 200
Lisa Call
Structures #16 (2003)
48×35 inches (122×89 cm)
fabric, dye, thread, cotton
This piece is an abstract response to the layers of the Grand Canyon. I wasn’t trying to describe it literally, but to hold onto the feeling of color and depth. The layers echo how the landscape reveals itself over time.
The repetition gives the piece a sense of stability, while the color changes are what keep the surface interesting.
Day 16 of 200
Lisa Call
Structures #17 (2003)
77×31 inches (196×79 cm)
fabric, dye, thread, cotton
In this textile painting, I returned to columns and the brick wall structures I’ve used previously.
I’m also working with gradations of value inspired by Grand Canyon colors.
Day 17 of 200
Day 18 of 200
Lisa Call
Structures #18 (2003)
8×9 inches (20×23 cm)
fabric, dye, thread, cotton
This small piece comes out of thinking about the colors of the Grand Canyon. The soft reds I saw there show up here as a brighter red, pushed forward so the lines feel like they’re floating above the background rather than sitting inside it.
This is the first time single, thin lines appear in the series. At this point, they feel tentative. I was just beginning to explore what they could do and how much space they could hold on their own.
Later on, those lines became more confident and more central to the work. Here, they’re still figuring themselves out.
Day 18 of 200
Lisa Call
Structures #19 (2003)
39×40 inches (99×102 cm)
fabric, dye, thread, cotton
This is one of my favorites from the Grand Canyon group, largely because of its asymmetry. Nothing is evenly balanced, and that imbalance is what gives the piece its energy.
The structure feels a little off-center, but not unstable. My eye keeps moving, adjusting, and reorienting as it travels across the surface.
It feels closer to how I experienced the canyon itself. Not orderly or predictable, but compelling enough to keep looking in all of its irregular beauty.
Day 19 of 200
Lisa Call
Structures #20 (2003)
12×12 inches (30×30 cm)
fabric, dye, thread, cotton
This small textile painting came out of thinking about sunrise in the Grand Canyon. That moment when the light starts to spread and everything slowly shifts in tone.
The colors are warm and held close together, creating a quiet glow rather than strong contrast. It’s less about detail and more about atmosphere.
Day 20 of 200
Lisa Call
Structures #21 (2003)
12×12 inches (30×30 cm)
fabric, dye, thread, cotton
Even though it might not look it at first glance, this textile painting in the Structures series is again part of the Grand Canyon collection.
Which is the point. After a week of walking surrounded by reds and browns, returning back to Denver was a shock.
Suddenly I was surrounded by signs, pavement, buildings, and lots of people. So much color everywhere. This work comes out of that experience, the contrast between the natural landscape and the return to civilization.
The structure still holds onto the experience of the canyon, but the palette reflects that abrupt shift back into a built world.
Day 21 of 200
Lisa Call
Structures #22 (2003)
32×50 inches (81×127 cm)
fabric, dye, thread, cotton
On the last morning in the canyon, I walked the mile and a half from Havasupai Gardens out to Plateau Point to catch the sunrise.
What stayed with me was how quickly the colors shifted across the cliff walls as the light changed. Warm tones slid over cooler ones, and nothing held still for long. This piece comes out of trying to capture that movement, that brief window where everything feels in motion at once.
It’s less about a single moment and more about how quickly one moment turns into the next.
Day 22 of 200
Lisa Call
Structures #23 (2003)
34×28 inches (86×71 cm)
fabric, dye, thread, cotton
This is another sunrise piece, made from paying attention to shadows as much as light. Before the sun fully clears the canyon walls, there are deep, dark areas that hold on a little longer.
The black appears here as a reference to those shadows, cutting through the warmer colors as they begin to show themselves.
The motif of the brick walls is the perfect structure to hold this idea.
Day 23 of 200
Lisa Call
Structures #24 (2003)
32×29 inches (81×74 cm)
fabric, dye, thread, cotton
The shapes in this piece refer to the stacked rock formations throughout the canyon. Blocks sitting atop of one another, sometimes nicely lined up, sometimes not so aligned.
I was thinking about how those stacks feel both solid and temporary at the same time. They’ve been there for ages, yet they still look like they could fall over at any moment.
This work references that tension between order and imbalance.
Lisa Call
Structures #25 (2003)
8×8 inches (20×20 cm)
fabric, dye, thread, cotton
This is the final piece in the Structures series informed by my week long backpacking trip in the Grand Canyon. It’s small, almost like a textile sketch.
Here I was thinking about the pine trees scattered across the mesas and the deep desert blue of the sky above them. After so much time loking down at rock and earth, it was time to shift my gaze upward.
Day 25 of 200