publikum calendar posted 27 December 2007
The full story of this project is so complex, it’s hard to know where to start. OK, there’s this Serbian calendar, called the Publikum Calendar, produced by George Mill & Nada Ray, which has become completely famous in Serbia. In the past, designers have taken on the design of the whole thing (2007: Paula Scher, 2006: Andrea Dezsö, 2005: Karlsson Wilker …), but this year a group of people were invited to contribute. Debbie Millman was one of the editors, Sean Adams designed most of it, including the accompanying book, and 12 others were invited to contribute the art for each month, based on a basic template for the size and arrangement of dates.
I am Miss January.
I was asked to consider a theme of Time, and my first thought was to do a series of little paintings showing some action, like a film or cartoon strip, one for each day. I immediately discarded that thought because I didn’t want to paint 31 paintings.
But I was thinking about Time, and about my own past. I grew up on the prairies, and January was our coldest month. So I wanted to do something with frost. But frost is hard to draw, and I had a lot of space to fill (about 22 inches square).
But as I thought about my own frosty past, I remembered how, as kids we went outside to play every day, no matter the temperature, and all of the layers of clothes we had to put on to do this. So I returned to the idea of the little paintings, coercing myself with the thought that I would only have to do 15: for putting the clothes on, and then repeat and reverse the order for taking them off.
But after I started drawing the sketches for a little boy who would get up in the morning and start dressing, I realized we don’t take off our clothes the same way we put them on, and soon resigned myself to the full commitment of 31 little paintings and frost.
In the end, this is a very unusual piece for me, as it is so traditionally illustrative. I don’t usually paint little figures like this, but I was quite happy with the way they turned out.
How do you get a calendar? I’m not sure you can. They are not for sale, and are only given away at cultural events, or in Serbia. If you live in Serbia, your chances of getting one are much higher.
(The cover, designed by Sean Adams)
Hallowe'en 2007 --back |
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