Lisa Call, Artifacts of Memory
fabric, textile paint, thread, acrylic paint, canvas
18 x 18 inches (46 x 46 cm)
Available at Bluestone Fine Art Gallery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.

Mimbres Pottery and My Memories

Last week I finished my first textile painting for 2018 – Artifacts of Memory.

As I explore pattern and shape in my black and white textiles, fleeting memories cross through my mind. I know these shapes, these patterns.  They are a part of me.

I grew up in New Mexico.  I was surrounded by the images and culture of the Pueblo Indians in Northern New Mexico.  I’m from the part of the world where much famous black pottery comes from – San Ildefonso and Santa Clara Pueblos were just down the road.  I remember girl scout camping trips on their land.

Yet these black and white memories are of Mimbres Pottery – because that is what my mother liked.  The black and white.  We had a few pieces of this style in our house and I saw a lot of this work in museums and stores.

As a kid I spent no time at all looking at or wondering about the patterns.  They were just there – a part of my world.

And now – as my work turns towards mark making and pattern it is no wonder these shapes, these lines, this repetition brings up memories.

This work connects me to my childhood.  Yet these patterns, these marks – they are my story. The repetition and layering that comes from the layers of my life – New Mexico, California, Wisconsin, New York, Virginia, Colorado and now New Zealand.

Artifacts of Memory ( along with Finding Our Way and May I Have This Dance) will soon be available (via the magic of international shipping) at Bluestone Fine Art Gallery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Some detail images of the interplay of the mark making and stitching: