LIVING WITH ART BLOG

It was in 1979 that I had my first encounter with an art calendar. At that time Ben Pickard lived in Crown Heights. His gallery was in the basement of his home. I lived close by and would visit him at least once a month, enthralled by the stories he would tell me about his stable of artists and art. So naturally, I turned to him to help me find art to put in my office at the University of Oklahoma, where I had gotten my first job after receiving my Ph.D. Of course, Ben had several paintings and prints I loved, but could not begin to afford. Then he pulled out this large calendar of signed prints of contemporary artists. It was wonderful! The perfect solution. I purchased that calendar and one from the previous year, made my selections, and had them framed. It made me feel as though I had a very sophisticated office. To this day I still have a couple of those prints hanging in the Heritage Property office. 

Since the Bronze Age, people have used calendars to keep time, schedule the planting of crops and to mark religious holidays, special occasions and so much more. The first calendars were based on solar or lunar patterns, the time interval from one new moon to the next. In 45 B.C. Julius Caesar ordered a Roman/Julian calendar consisting of twelve months based on both the lunar and solar year. This calendar, which was designed with the aid of Greek mathematicians and astronomers, used a cycle of three years of 365 days, followed by a leap year of 366 days. In 1582, in order to change the date of Easter, Pope Gregory XIII introduced the Gregorian Calendar which remains the most widely used calendar in the world. There have been many attempts over the years to reform the calendar to make it more scientifically accurate. But so far all of these attempts have failed. The biggest calendar related revolution of my lifetime has been the huge shift in use from paper to digital. When I started my Gallery at The Elms in 2002, computers were an accepted part of life. However, almost everyone still carried a paper calendar of some sort to make new entries.

As you know, galleries exist to showcase art and sell it to the public. There is a lot of planning and work that goes into that effort which includes selecting artists, organizing exhibitions, as well as marketing and promoting both the artists and the art. In 2005, in an effort to attract more people to the Gallery, I decided to create an annual 8 ½” by 11” art calendar that would be printed in full color, have a featured image representative of each month’s exhibit, as well as a photograph, favorite quote and short bio of the featured artist. Our calendars instantly became very popular. They were officially released and distributed at our annual New Year’s Day Brunch, but people would start calling in November asking about their availability. Since we decided not to mail calendars, so that people had to visit the Gallery, others would drive from Dallas, Kansas City, and Tulsa to make sure they received a copy. I always loved discussing with people which calendar images they planned on framing at year’s end.

We published those calendars until 2018 when paper costs became prohibitive and it felt as though more people began to express interest in digital versions. But every year we continue to get requests for our calendar. So, with the advent of 2021, I started to rethink my decision. Since so many people have gone digital, myself included, I reasoned that maybe the Gallery should produce a new digital calendar for a new decade that features our exhibition schedule as well as images of the work to be shown. At the bottom of this email, you will find a link to the first, “JRB Art at The Elms Digital Calendar.” This calendar can also be found on our website. Let me know what you think.

Images:

Calendar Cover Featuring the Artwork of Carol Beesley (2017) and Bob Nunn (2012)

Calendar Cover Featuring the Artwork of Beth Hammack (2015) and Brett Weston (2016)

Calendar Covers Featuring the Artwork of Nick "N.J" Izra (2005) and D.J. Lafon (2007)

Calendar Covers from 2016 and 2021 Featuring the Artwork of Michi Susan