the coping calendar
The inspiration to create a calendar came about in the Spring of this past year, while I was traveling in pursuit of my research on improvisation. Soaking up the dewy fog and inspired by my charming creative friends in Glasgow, Scotland, I had finally fallen into a reliable and healthy artistic practice of drawing, writing, and stretching daily, clowning and dancing twice a week, and constantly geeking out about projects and ideas with fellow artists. At the same time, my body had fallen into quite an uncooperative mood – I seemed to acquire new injuries every few weeks, and the emotional rollercoaster of trying to live out huge dreams in a small fragile body was (and continues to be) intense. But as is so often the case, the ethereal pull-and-tug of being a human in relation to other humans has a magical way of holding me up. In Glasgow many of my dearest friends were also ill or disabled artists or fantastic allys. So it seems fitting that I developed a calendar project that would feature rad ill/disabled artists and activists and celebrate disability pride and self-care. That is a project I still really want to do.
However, that is not the project that happened. Fast-forward from my Glasgow Spring to my Santa Cruz Fall, which, I guess unsurprisingly, has been totally different. It turns out that coming home from a 14-month adventure abroad without a plan or a reliable home-space or any semblance of structure or a disability community when you are disabled comes with a little anxiety, especially if you are already a fairly anxious human to begin with. So this season has been a fairly high-strung, internal one. I have been thinking a lot about loss and anxiety and how I want to live and how the fuck to break things down into smaller portions in order to be more present and less overwhelmed by life.
I'm embarrassed to admit that this season has been hard. Because in so many ways, my life is ridiculously, unbelievably good. But even unbelievably lucky lives are hard sometimes and that is just how it is; hey? Despite the difficulty of this moment, I have also noticed its exquisite beauty. In my struggle to calm myself down, I have swum in the ocean and camped in the redwoods. I have spent time alone and I have snuggled with family and friends who have known me since I was teeny. I have found comfort in the tiny, ordinary joys – in the prism that dangles from my rear-view mirror and explodes me with rainbows while I'm driving, in the whimsical way a kid looks in the mirror after I've painted their face, in the extraordinary goodness of a cup of coffee in the morning (in drinking coffee again after I swore it off for a few months …).
For a month and a half I was heavily procrastinating on my calendar project and couldn't figure out exactly why it was so stressful for me (this was something I had chosen myself and had been so excited about!). When I finally sat down to work, what came up was entirely different from what I had planned, and that was so disappointing at first. You'd think I'd be more used to it, having studied improv for a freaking year! But the drawings came and they came fast and intensely and so I accepted them. Unlike the radical, well-researched, educational calendar I had planned, the drawings that emerged were simple and mellow. They were personal and small and honest. In their quiet glowing bluesy voice, they just asked me to be gentle with myself.
[a line-drawing of a human snuggled up in bed, blanket-to-the-nose and hair tied up in a messy bun. The colors are mellow blues and purples and there is handwritten text that reads "Sleep Solves Everything" on the top and "*Not quite but it does feel damn good" on the bottom.]
So here is a little preview of what I am working on, which I am sharing for the sake of sharing but also to update people who expressed interest in having one. Please know that I will absolutely not be bothered if you don't want one anymore; the calendar you expressed an initial interest in is not the calendar I ended up making this year. Maybe next year.
Its working title is the coping calendar. These are its details:
simple black ink line-drawings with watercolor pencil
mostly blue-purple color palate
hand-drawn text like “Your Body, Your Rules” “Maybe It's Time For A Treat” “Fuck the Haters, Do Your Thing,” and “It Is Totally Okay To Ask For Help.”
12-month 8.5x11” flip-calendar with image page on top and the hand-drawn calendar page on the bottom
includes lunar phases but not holidays
a few extra pages of notes, influences/acknowledgements, and resources
The cost will depend on how many I print, (which will depend on your feedback), but based on my initial research, similar products are in the $15-$30 range, excluding shipping costs. I'm obviously gonna do my best to make it affordable without losing money on it if possible. If enough people are interested in specific images but don't want to commit to a calendar, I'd be excited to create individual prints and/or packs of postcards as well – so let me know if that's your jam!
The previews are simple scans of the originals without touch-ups. Because I'm new to illustrator, they will hopefully be smudge-free but will otherwise retain their imperfect flavor. ;)
Whew, thanks for reading all of this! If you've read this far, seen the preview, and still want a calendar, please shoot me an email with the subject "Calendar" so I can get a sense for numbers. If you would like a poster or postcards, please email with that too/instead. If you have advice about printing or editing calendars please email me. If you don't want anything but just wanna say hi, cool go for it. If you wanna share this, go for it and thank you so much!
Finally, I just want to say a HUGE HEARTY THANK YOU! Receiving so much love and support is much of the reason why I am able to share and make art, despite being so often terrified about it. : ) Loving you all and hoping that you find creative ways to be gentle with yourselves this season.
