Galendar: Beginnings
May 2021, during the end of my Freshman year of high school, I began a project that revealed itself to be far more ambitious than expected: a calendar. Or, as a Gabe Calendar: The Galendar. 19 months, June to December 2021 to 2022.
The idea of a Galendar extricated me from the mundania of my mass-produced calendars. I've displayed and consistently crossed-off a calendar since 2019. My first being a free product-promotional calendar sent by a company I bought a watch from once (in hindsight, this is the true first watch of my current time-keeper collection). 2020's was a Monet paintings calendar, 2021's a glow-in-the-dark night sky constellation maps.
First, began the designation of calendar month themes. 19 themes to create, 19 original photos: a true Garcissist's dream. Each photo would be me in the same outfit (maybe because they were all shot in the same week), a light brown suit and black shirt; with only a few costume variations.
Galendar: Themes
June - Gabe in a black speedo (worn OVER the suit) in a sensual playbunny pose, satirizing the classic man's calendar.
July - As everyone knows, July is Gabe Pride Month (due to a July 4th birthdate), and the photo pose for the month of Julius is an homage to stonewall, with Gabe in his famous grey Gabe Pride sweater, holding a brick, caught mid-throw.
August - This month featured Gabe with a green adventurer's hat, and a pair of binoculars staring into the viewer's soul. Deemed the "Safari" theme, this photo may also be interpreted as an ode to voyeurism.
September - Dedicated to #BackToSchool, September features Gabe in his red letterman jacket, earned his freshman year for.... filming 2 basketball games. A significant achievement earned through the most subversive of means 2 years earlier than most others, impressive.
October - It's Halloween! And October's theme features Gabe in his favorite Halloween costume: 2020's gold-headed Joseph Beuys imitation. This photo not taken with the rest of the shoot.
November - Coincidentally following Beuys month, November's theme was an homage to Nam June Paik (a mentee of Beuys') and his art, with a mid-action Gabe drowned in red lighting being played on a TV screen.
December - To most accurately represent Gabe, and his fetish for fur(!), December features Gabe in his favorite fur Boone cap and leather fur-lined shoes.
January - To start the new year, January's theme shows Gabe modeling his handmade skeletal corset (seen in the bio photo on the About page).
February - Lover's Month, that which February is, and nobody better to portray Cupid than the man of the hour himself: Gabe. Captured aiming his bow directly between the viewer's eyes.
March - No Gabe calendar is complete without the representation of his pets! and March does not fail to depict the glory of both Gabe's flighted marvelments: Fenchie and Monchie. Two society finches perched neatly in Gabe (lovely brown) hair.
April - Truly reflective of Gabe's socially awkward personality, April features Gabe edited into The Death of Sardanapalus by Eugene Delacroix. Smiling and holding a peace sign towards the camera and completely unaware of the (less-than-clothed) denizens being stabbed and assaulted behind him.
May - This month is significantly lighter-hearted, and this month's theme features the love of Gabe's life: his dog, Zoe. Lovingly gazing into each other's eyes, Zoe sits cradled in Gabe's arms. Perro y Amo. <3
June - Another fun summer theme, June captures Gabe drenched in water, still in his full suit. Soaked clothing, dripping hair and water droplet-covered glasses all adorn Gabe as his melancholic gaze confronts the viewer.
July - The second and final Gabe Pride month on the calendar, July 2022, like the other July before it, was meant to encapsulate Gabe and his diverse background. July brandishes Gabe's bowling ability. With Gabe mid-swing as he lines up his ball for a strike!
August - This month began as an attempted reference to Hank Schmidt, who travels to scenic locations and paints... the pattern on his shirt. Eventually, the theme evolved into Gabe painting the vertical stripe pattern of his photographic backdrop, rather than his shirt, but still ended up featuring Gabe adorned with beret and paintbrush, capturing his vision.
September - A little bit of fun for this month, September makes reference to a classic vine as Gabe takes a selfie with his front facing camera - but the only thing he doesn’t know (which the viewer does) is that he actually has his calculator open on the screen!
October - The next three months all feature references to Gabe's favorite media. October's theme alludes to Alistair Reynolds' short story Zima Blue (also part of Netflix's Love Death + Robots). Showcasing Gabe with a simple blue square over his face.
November - An older reference, November has Gabe disguised as the man on the cover of an edition of ЛЕФ (LEF), the published journal for the Left Front of the Arts in 1920s Russia. Simple yet interesting, the original version and Gabe's rendition have the subject with glasses (a Gabe staple) with their left lens completely concealed by the logo.
December - Last month of the Galendar, and the time for winter holidays, December made reference to Gabe's favorite movie, Static (1985) directed by Mark Romanek, which in fact takes place over Christmas. Dressed as protagonist Ernie Blick and standing behind the heaven-seeing machine from the movie, Gabe does his best to invoke all that he enjoys from the film.
Galendar: Unraveling
Enthralled with the idea of making content for the utilitarian benefit of others, I began Galendar with the goal of having it hang in the homes of all my friends.
I never expected the situation to deteriorate so quickly. Organizing the slides on Inkscape, I did not know how to export as a document (such as a PDF) and exported every page as a low quality PNG that never would've printed to the correct size and quality. Many of the original themes did not work out, and don't even resemble their original idea. Not to mention, at the time of design, my home printer was completely off balance with its ink, and nothing was printing the correct shade. If I had gone through with Galendar, I would've wasted quite a few sheets of printer paper and a whole lot of ink.
Timewise, Galendar was completely photographed, designed and was going to be printed in the last few weeks of school, which gave way for a stressful time element. Bad time management led to me cramming to finish Galendar before the end of the school year, but that simply didn't work out. Although I would see all my friends during the summer, I didn't know that yet, and all my hard work would not have any worth if I had nobody to give it to.
A New Horizon: FaZhion
As previously mentioned, I'd do it all for my dog. "All" which in June meant spending over 100 dollars on small dog outfits. Although criticized for being too masculine, Zoe's new clothes made her look adorable and stylish. I had to do something for this special collection, and thus decided to create FaZhion: a video display of Zoe's new Summer fashion line.
Set to Siekiera's song Nowa Aleksandria, a Polish punk wonder, FaZhion is a quick 2 minute 6-second-long video and features 5 unique outfits - two of which match with my own unique fashion sense of Hawai'ian shirts and Berets, respectively.
For FaZhion, the process was not even close to as stressful as Galendar, and I remember it as a distinctly joyful time. Whenever alone at home, I'd break a few rules and bring Zoe upstairs to watch TV with me, and for the FaZhion shoot, the entire thing was filmed in my (carpeted!) upstairs hallway. During filming, I played a band that I'd recently heard but fell completely in love with: CCCP Fedeli alla Linea, an Italian punk band whose name means Faithful to the line. Although merely soundtrack at the time, this band is something I remember as an important part of my summer.
Summer 2021 was a pure, relaxed, and joyful time. In June I volunteered a lot with my friends; July, I celebrated my birthday, and August featured a trip to Las Vegas. Galendar represented my last stretch, my final stressful project of my freshman year, and inversely, FaZhion was the first fun project of the summer. (I remember working on editing the video during bowling with my friend, someone I wasn't close with yet, but I decided that I wanted to show her my first draft of FaZhion as a diplomatic act).
The stress of school was over, and the layers peeled away for my true creativity, free of others' gaze, to come out.
FaZhion can be seen HERE
