Structures #60 ©2006 Lisa Call
33" x 89"
Textile Painting
(Fabric hand dyed by the artist, cotton batting, cotton thread)
I'm a visual artist that creates abstract contemporary textile paintings composed of my richly colored hand dyed fabric. My award winning artwork is exhibited internationally and included in numerous private and public collections.
I just built a new state of the art textile art studio and am always happy to schedule a studio visit if you would like a tour or to see my artwork.
I'm the creator and author of
MakeBigArt - a website and blog to empower artists - to think big about their art, their marketing and their lives.
I am also a full time software engineer working in social CRM (customer relationship management) for Oracle. I'm a single mother to 2 wonderful teenagers and fill my free hours with yoga, hiking, gardening, cooking and reading.
My more formal bio:
Lisa Call creates bold geometric contemporary textile paintings composed of her richly colored hand dyed fabric. Her work is abstract but draws elements from many places: her love of the colors and geological forms of the southwest, repetition, pattern, and an attraction to human-made structures for containment such as fences and stone walls.
Call’s award winning work has been shown in solo and group exhibits throughout the United States and Europe including Craft Forms at the Wayne Art Center, National Crafts, Fiber Art International, and Layers of Meaning at the Contemporary Crafts Museum in Portland, Oregon. Her piece, Structures #11, was selected for the cover of the Quilt National 2003 catalog. Structures #5 is included in the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum's permanent collection Rooted in Tradition: Art Quilts of the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum. Her work is included in the University Hospitals in Cleveland, Town of Parker and Broomfield's College Hill Library public collections and private collections across the country.
A self taught artist, Call began making contemporary textile art in 1993. In 1997 Call founded The Fiber Connection, a successful online artist support group. She received a Master of Science in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin – Madison (1987) and a Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science from the University of California at Berkeley (1985). She was born in Tucson, Arizona in 1963. Having grown up in New Mexico, she returned to the southwest in 1994 and settled in the Denver, Colorado area.
Artist's Statement: My abstract textile paintings are informed by many elements: my love of the colors and geological forms of the southwest, repetition, pattern, and an attraction to human-made structures for containment such as fences and stone walls. I work in series, exploring themes of interest in depth. Color is of primary importance and is combined, intuitively, in unexpected ways, employing a unique palette of cotton fabrics I hand dye.
I am drawn to textiles by the tactile nature of the medium and intrigued by the flexibility of woven fabric in contrast to its underlying rigid grid construction. I manipulate sections of preconstructed color, verses applying pigment in small brush strokes, to create a composition. Individual elements are freehand cut and placed onto a flannel-covered studio wall, where I work improvisationally, designing, constructing and refining the lines and shapes in the piece. Extensive stitching on the surface adds rich texture to the finished work.
The Structures series, which investigates the boundaries we use to divide our world, originated in 2001 as an exploration of human-made structures for containment such as fences and stone walls. Lines of posts, negative space created between odd shaped stones, and uniform rows of bricks were all of interest.
As the series matures, focus has shifted to the psychological barriers humans use to protect themselves emotionally, exploring how we hide our true thoughts and feelings with these imaged roadblocks. Some question that inform the work:
• Do we put up walls to keep others out or to keep ourselves in?
• Do these imagined boundaries really keep us safe?
• Are we hiding from ourselves or from the outside?
• What are the risks and benefits of exposure should the walls come down?
The work continues to reference the physical fences and walls that initial caught my attention, but as the series progresses these constructs often become more abstract.
Location: Denver, Colorado, USA
Online shops:
Memberships:
Owner and Founder of MakeBigArt
Founder of The Fiber Connection
Member of Surface Design Association
Languages spoken: English
Structures #99 ©2008 Lisa Call
33" x 39"
Textile Painting
(Fabric hand dyed by the artist, cotton batting, cotton thread)
Tags: textile painting, quilt, aceo, abstract, structures, markings, dwelling, pieced, award winning, color
