Happy year!

Have cell phones or desktops replaced calendars yet? Maybe, but I still like having days, months, and weeks spread out on a physical page to digest, plan, or reflect on where I am in time. Seeing inspiring artwork doesn't hurt, either. This year, I got some pretty good ones--and I didn't even have to go to a Chinese market for the one with pop stars holding goldfish bowls. When I opened the first one, I thought Kaikai Kiki must have been meant to send it to Eric. Then I remembered that I helped some of Takashi Murakami's staffers get into Comic-Con when Eric had to leave for a day or two.


The 12 artists includes names that you'd expect, such as Aya Takano, Chiho Mori, Chinatsu Ban, Mr., and Murakami himself, with a surprising number of Americans. I was most pleased to see Seonna Hong in the mix. Whoa, we went to the same high school in Orange County and I was classmates with her sister--who probably doesn't even remember me!


This one is from a longtime friend Nikki McClure. Her much-loved artwork is hand cut with an X-acto knife, and features very low-key, personal, and empowering imagery of scenes from her life in Olympia, WA.


January shows her son catching raindrops. Not only is Finn cut out of a single piece of paper, but Nikki has cut water spots as well. Amazing.


Andrew Jeffrey Wright's Labs with Abs calendars are always touching, too, but in a different way. Raw and disturbing, yet funny and impossible to look away from, this is the one I carry around and scribble in. I don't keep a diary, but I do write down events on a calendar that I can look back at.


January is starting to fill up. Better ink in that GR64 deadline... Maybe a manicure, too.