old calendars, new ideas

I love the Nikki McClure calendar that carried me through 2014.  Each month's print had a different word and scene that seemed to parallel my year rather well.  Whether that's confirmation bias, truth, me reading too much into things that don't mean that much or a melange of the three is inconsequential.  The point it I enjoyed the calendar a lot.  So with 2015 rolling around I was at a loss for what to do with it.  How do I honor this piece of art that meant so much to me?  As much as I enjoyed it, I wasn't about to hang the twelve prints on my wall simple out of romantic attachment.  The months were too much a part of each print to make it feel anything but dated and out of context were I to try and do something artistic with it.

Last night I bought a gift for a late in the year friend Secret Santa, and while walking home from dropping sage off at the bus stop an idea struck me.  Use the calendar as wrapping paper.  The idea didn't stop there, as neat as it would be to rip off all twelve months, I wanted more.  Like I said, I wanted to honor the art of the calendar.  At first I thought to write something along the lines of 'Happy new year' on the pages but trying to stretch that into 12 words felt contrived so I decided on a quote instead: Don't tell me the sky is the limit when there are footsteps on the moon. ~ Paul Brandt

I laid out all twelve months and wrote the quote from beginning to end in the order of months, 'Don't' on January...'Brandt' on December.  You can see for yourself.  Then I wrapped the present in reverse order, December to January, so that as my friend unwraps it the quote will play out in the correct order.

Take a gander:

Music Selection:
We Used to Wait - Arcade Fire
When the lights go out - The Black Keys
The High Road - Broken Bells
Bullet and a Target - Citizen Cope
Hang Me Up To Dry - Cold War Kids
Rest My Chemistry - Interpol
The Start of Something - Voxtrot