I was all set last week to email my studio newsletter on tuesday.

And then a family emergency came up that was more important than writing and polishing off the newsletter.

I considered emailing the August newsletter late, but it would have hit people’s inboxes right before Labor day (a 3 day weekend in the United States that marks the end of summer as all the pools tend to close this weekend).

That timing seemed suboptimal, so I’ve decided to skip the August newsletter and I’ll be sending out the September newsletter next week. I’ve been wanting to change my newsletter to the beginning of the month so this is my opportunity to make that switch.

If you aren’t on my mailing list you can join it here: Lisa Call’s Studio Newsletter

Catalogs

Due to the less than stellar delivery by the US post office and a double shipment, I now have in my possession 20 additional Color Improvisation catalogs.

Color Improvisations is an invitational show current on exhibit in Germany. I have 2 quilts in the show, which is a huge honor, as the work in this show is spectacular.

I had no plans to sell more catalogs but decided that since everyone else is selling these catalogs for more $ than I am, I would offer these last ones for sale through Sept 10th. Any catalogs left at that time will be sent to SAQA – where they are selling them for $49 (my price is $43).

If you wanted a catalog but didn’t get a chance to order one last month – you still can here: Color Improvisation Catalogs.

I have the catalogs in hand, so they will be shipped as soon as I receive your payment.

Vases

I have a new obsession in art buying – metal pipe vases by PaulaArt. They are absolutely fabulous. I love the energy in these recycled functional art pieces.

Honestly – I’m a bit obsessed about them. But look at this photo – it’s pretty hard to resist:

Just fabulous.

I’ve written about purchasing art from Paula before (like here and here) and still love my gutter pencil holders also.

This year, I think everyone on my holiday shopping list should get vases. So very cool.

Wall Art

I recently combined some new art purchases with some previous ones to create this grouping in my bedroom. I love the orange on purple.

This artwork is by
Robert Rickard (a find at the Cherry Creek Art Festival this year)

Tracy Helgeson and Tina Mammoser

Nicole Hyde

I couldn’t find a good spot in my house to put the top piece by Robert Rickard with the orange pipe vases by Paula Mccullough, which is too bad, as they look fabulous together.

 
Buying art is a joyful thing. Having it on my walls to enjoy for years to come is even better.

Four Word Self Help

Quick exciting post for today – my artwork has been published again – yay!

This time in a book by Patti Digh (the author of Life is a Verb) and award winning blogger over at 37days.com.

Her new book is titled Four-Word Self-Help: Simple Wisdom for Complex Lives and it contains short essays a on a variety of topics, all introduced with a 4 word statement.

My artwork is published on page 22 with the words “Embrace Solitude, Not Loneliness” – the artwork included is Home #30 (pictured below). The book didn’t capture the bright pink the best but the quilting lines look great.

A big thank you to Patti for including my artwork in her book.

Exercise

Between my vacation my and my son leaving for college another of the things that dropped of my todo list for a couple of weeks was yoga and running.

Yesterday I went back to yoga after the break and this morning I ran.

As Patti says: Eat Less, Move More

So now I’m off to yoga again. Then a simple dinner of fruit from whole foods.

Home #30 – Embrace Solitude, Not Loneliness
©2010 Lisa Call
6″ x 9″
Textile Painting (Fabric hand dyed by the artist, cotton batting, cotton thread)
$190

College

On tuesday I delivered my son to his dorm room. It’s exciting but also a big adjustment. Although, I suspect that adjustment is mostly on my part, as he has been chomping at the bit to be on his own.

The first few days were really hard. Fortunately it seems much easier now, just 5 days later. I figure he’ll do great. Plus facebook is an excellent invention!

Between my New Mexico vacation, preparation for the college move and the post kid-is-gone change, I haven’t been doing much with my art the last 2 weeks. I’m a bit surprised to see August is almost over. Hm…

I went to see Eat, Pray, Love last tuesday, thinking it would be the perfect movie to see after the short 3 hour round-trip adventure to take my son to college.

Unfortunately I thought the movie was awful. I’ve listened to the book twice on CD and read it once, so I had pretty high expectations, of which they met none of them. Oh well. It was a mindless way to spend a few hours when I wasn’t in the mood to do anything else.

While I haven’t been doing much art, I have been cleaning my house. Or at least parts of it. My son’s room is now clean (ick is about the only thing to say about that). I’ve cleaned out my closet, my basement and the laundry room. Even my refrigerator is clean.

And I’ve painted my walls, finally, after a year. All the spots that needed a bit of touch up are done.

So while it’s an adjustment to have my son off to college, my house is definitely benefiting from the change. Wonder if this is some kind of reverse-nesting instinct.

Color Improvisation Catalogs

The Color Improvisation catalogs finally arrived from Germany last week (it took much longer than anticipated). Most of them have been mailed with the last batch heading to the post office tomorrow morning.

If you are awaiting a book, it should be there soon. Sorry for the delay, my prediction of early August was a bit optimistic, but everyone should have their books by September.

I don’t believe I will be selling any more as it takes a big chunk of time to deal with them and I’d rather do other things for now. If that changes, I’ll let people know.

You can purchase it directly from Germany via ebay if you’d still like a book and didn’t get one.

Quilt National

The deadline for the juried exhibit, Quilt National, is coming up soon. I have 3 new quilts that need quilting that I would like to submit for jurying. But first I need to quilt them.

I think I’ll need about 70-80 hours of time in front of the sewing machine to get them finished. There is a chance that I can get this done. A pretty good chance if I focus.

So – I will find the focus to stay in my studio and I will get these done and I will submit them to Quilt National.

The Photos

I’ve uploaded my Santa Fe vacation photos to smugmug – you can see them all here: Northern New Mexico 2010. I’ve added a few to this post to entice you.

I love Northern New Mexico and having grown up there, I think it is the most beautiful place on earth.

The Activities

In addition to eating a lot and working and spending time reading and relaxing in our hotel room we also did some of the tradition Santa Fe things:

- A visit to the Georgia O’Keeffe museum
- Viewing the art at the New Mexico Museum of art (2 galleries were close and a 3rd had an exhibit I saw last May, so this was a short visit).
- A lovely walk along an arroyo in southern Santa Fe
- A beautiful drive up along the high road to taos
- Hanging out at the plaza
- Visiting galleries at the Railyard
- Hanging out at the park
- A shopping trip to Trader Joes (we don’t have them in Colorado)
- Thrift store shopping

The Food

These are the places where we ate this trip. All excellent restaurants and highly recommended:

- Maria’s New Mexican Kitchen
- Tuneup Cafe
- Blue Corn Cafe & Brewery
- Baskin and Robbins
- Pantry Restaurant (twice – because it was too late to have lunch at the Shed – bummer)
- Il Vicino Wood Oven Pizza
- Chocolate Maven Bakery & Cafe
- Jambo Cafe
- Dunkin Donuts (for nostalgic purposes)
- The French Pastry Shop
- Rancho de Chimayo

Near the Plaza in Santa Fe
 

Camel Rock
 

The badlands in Northern New Mexico
 

Truchas Peaks

I’ve been writing about this process on my other blog: MakeBigArt.

MakeBigArt is about

Empowering artists…

…to think big about their art
…to think big about their marketing
…to think big about their lives

With encouragement, tools and practical tips on Mindsets, Marketing, Motivation and Management.

To date there are 4 articles about completion with more to come:

1. The Magic of Completion
2. A Quest for Completion – introducing a plan on how to get there
3. Creating an Incomplete Project List – it was harder than expected
4. More on the Incomplete Project List – categorizing, prioritizing and more (new today)

Working Vacation

Today is the last day of my working vacation in Santa Fe. I’ve had a fabulous time with my kids and I’ve gotten a lot done.

Being in a hotel room, with no distractions, is a great way to make forward progress. I’m not tempted to go cook something, or run to the store, or hang out with friends. Every morning I’ve spend 3-5 hours working on my art business and on my personal todo list.

I then spend the afternoon and evening doing the vacation thing. My todo list is mostly checked off complete and I’ve eaten a ton of green chile, soaked in the beautiful scenery of Santa Fe and seen some fabulous art. It’s been an excellent arrangement and I think I’ll do this again soon.

I say yes too much. I agree to do things that I don’t want to do because I don’t know how to say no. And then I have much less time to make art than I would desire.

It seems like saying no isn’t something we are taught how to do. Upon reflection it isn’t something I’ve taught my kids how to do.

We are taught to say yes.

To be nice. To avoid conflict.

Often the result is we aren’t nice to ourselves. We don’t keep our best interests in mind and hence we don’t do what we want to do and often what we need to do.

Art is a priority in my life. To keep it a priority, I need to learn to say No better to opportunities and offers that distract me from my artwork.

Positive No

I recently listened to the book The Power of the Positive No: How to Say No and Still Get to Yes and found the information invaluable in learning how to phrase a no in a more positive way.

The idea is to state no in 3 parts:

1) Yes – say yes to what you want
2) No – say no to what you don’t want
3) Yes – suggest an alternative

While I need much practice in using this formula, the few times I’ve tried it (with varying degrees of skill, as it is a skill I need to practice) I have found the experience to be more positive than negative.

While I listened to this book on CD borrowed from the library, I’ve also bought the book as I want to refer back to it. It’s only a few dollars used on amazon.

How Do You Want to Spend Your Time

While thinking about saying no, it reminded me of a poem I used to have on the wall in my cube at work a few years back: The Act of Disappearing by Naomi Shihab Nye.

It’s an absolutely fabulous reminder of the value of saying no.

It’s time to put this poem back up on my cube wall.

The Act of Disappearing
by Naomi Shihab Nye
from Words Under the Words: Selected Poems. © The Eighth Mountain Press.

When they say Don’t I know you?
say no.

When they invite you to the party
remember what parties are like
before answering.
Someone telling you in a loud voice
they once wrote a poem.
Greasy sausage balls on a paper plate.
Then reply.

If they say we should get together
say why?

It’s not that you don’t love them any more.
You’re trying to remember something
too important to forget.
Trees. The monastery bell at twilight.
Tell them you have a new project.
It will never be finished.

When someone recognizes you in a grocery store
nod briefly and become a cabbage.
When someone you haven’t seen in ten years
appears at the door,
don’t start singing him all your new songs.
You will never catch up.

Walk around feeling like a leaf.
Know you could tumble any second.
Then decide what to do with your time.

 
You can listen to Namoi reading the poem here:

Home #58
©2010 Lisa Call
3" x 3"
Textile Painting (Fabric hand dyed and painted by the artist, cotton batting, cotton thread)
$55 + shipping
Purchase Here

New Mexico

I’m taking a few days off work and headed to New Mexico for a much needed vacation.

This is the annual trek to Santa Fe with my kids to eat as much green chile as possible. We then hang out and do very little of anything else.

This year they said “No museums” so I’ll be hitting the Georgia O’Keeffe and Folk Art museum alone I suppose. They didn’t say no galleries and the new galleries down by the rail yard are fabulous so we’ll definitely be going there.

It’s also a working vacation. I’m going to do much planning for my art business, prioritizing future projects and catching up on some paperwork.

Getting away from the house and holing up in a hotel room with my fabulous kids is a great way to focus on this type of work. They’ll watch TV (something we don’t have at home – we’ll other than hulu which is essentially the same thing I suppose). I’ll work.

Last year I spent the working part of my Santa Fe vacation cleaning up my blog as my web hosting account said it was taking up too much bandwidth. I learned a lot about optimizing a wordpress blog over that weekend.

Home #56
©2010 Lisa Call
4" x 4"
Textile Painting (Fabric hand dyed and painted by the artist, cotton batting, cotton thread)
$90 + shipping
Purchase Here

Respect

Today at work we had a meeting with an executive that came into town for a day. It was demoralizing. The voice of the individual contributor (that’s what they call us) was not heard. Our managers did not speak up. Including me – I should have said something. I may not be a manager but do lead a team of developers.

I suspect many of my coworkers would think this is an overreaction. Which is probably why I don’t belong in the corporate world.

No job is worth sacrificing our self respect and the respect of those we work with.

As I was working in my studio I was getting frustrated about the situation, pondering how to proceed, I decided the best option was to go for a run.

So I did. And now I feel better. And will head back the studio with a clear head. Focusing on my art, creating streams of income that will replace the corporate income, that is how I move my life forward.

So onward making art!

 
PS – only 2 Color Improvisation catalogs remaining: Color Improvisation Catalogs. I won’t be ordering any more catalogs for at least a month (they come from Germany). And this might be it if I get on to other project by mid september, which is certainly what I have in mind.

Home #57
©2010 Lisa Call
2.5" x 3.5"
Textile Painting (Fabric hand dyed and painted by the artist, cotton batting, cotton thread)
$40 + shipping
Purchase Here

Transition

In my studio newsletter last week, I wrote about my life in transition. I wrote about learning to let go and enjoy the process.

There 2 big changes in my life at the moment: my landscaping project, which is rolling along, and my son leaving for college.

Much activity cleaning his bedroom, packing and buying all the fun stuff needed to make dorm life livable. Like sheets for mattresses that are weird sizes. And baby refrigerators, etc. Not to mention the joy of understanding the tuition bill and manifesting a pile of money to pay for it.

It’s all very fun and I’m excited to see him move on to the next stage of his life, yet it also takes an emotional toll. During the downtime, driving in my car, relaxing at home, quiet moments in my studio, the reality of my son leaving makes me sad. It’s like being pregnant again and crying for no apparent reason (interesting how life cycles back like this).

I’m definitely going to miss him. He’s a wonderful kid. Fortunately I know he will do great out on his own.

Happily this is not the start of the empty-nest, as my daughter will still be home for 4 more years. I’m looking forward to having just 1 kid home (the one that knows how to clean the kitchen) and seeing her blossom through high school.
 

Yesterday, I got home from work late, was very hungry, tired and feeling drained. The work day had been difficult with my technical lead giving his notice and the weekend had be a challenge with a fight with my boyfriend. What I wanted to do was eat bad food and watch bad tv and sleep.

Instead I went to yoga. After the class the instructor (the studio owner) said “You’ve been coming to yoga 2, 3 and 4 times a week for a couple months now. What is the biggest change you notice as a result?”

I thought about my answer for a while and finally said: Happiness.

With all the stress, change and emotional upheavals, yoga helps keeps me grounded, centered and happy.

Notes from The Universe

Yesterday morning I posted the following status update on facebook:

Love my notes from the universe:

Young souls learn to accept responsibility for their actions.
Mature souls learn to accept responsibility for their thoughts.
And old souls, Lisa, learn to accept responsibility for their happiness.

Weeeeeeee, The Universe (No one cares what time it is in paradise, Lisa, huh? )

Feels good to take responsibility. Even with all the transition in my life and unhappiness with my boyfriend – I am at the core HAPPY.

It’s now time to take my happy self off to my studio for an hour, without beating myself for getting in no studio time yesterday. Yay!

You can sign up to gets these wonderful emails yourself at Thoughts from the Universe. I highly recommend them as they are both funny and extremely helpful.

 
PS – only 6 Color Improvisation catalogs remaining: Color Improvisation Catalogs