The annual Peter Simon calendar, arriving each spring, has been a rite of passage since 1988. But when Mr. Simon died last November many assumed the calendars, after 32 consecutive years, were over. For a moment his wife Ronni thought so, too. Then she reconsidered.
“I went back to the gallery in December and people’s reaction to his death and his work hit me,” she said recently while seated in the living room of her Chilmark home looking over proofs for the Peter Simon 2020 calendar.
But it was their son Willie who gave the final push.
“He said, ‘Mom, we should do this.’ He was the driving force.”
Ronni and Peter shared everything, she said, except for working on the calendars and so the project was daunting. She reached out to Charlie Utz, Peter’s longtime collaborator on his books and calendars.
“He said anything you want, anything you need, I’m here.”
A few photos had already been chosen by Peter, but Ronni decided to widen the choices to Vineyard photographs he had taken over his whole career rather than just images shot during that year alone. For the quotes at the top of each month, which are usually solicited from a variety of people, she used Peter’s words, combing through his many books for appropriate passages. Journeying through the calendar is like having a conversation with Mr. Simon, both visually and literally.
Ronni did a lot of the work while in Texas visiting her family. Her sister had saved every calendar and so Ronni could sort through them all to make sure she did not repeat any photographs used over the years.
“That took a lot of cross-referencing,” she said.
It was also an emotional journey. “I miss him so much,” Ronni said. “This probably made me miss him even more.”
In addition to photographs and quotes by Peter, the days are marked with important events, from road races and town picnics on the Island to the Agricultural Fair and Illumination. Peter and Ronni’s anniversary appears on July 9 as it has from the beginning, although Ronni said it took her years to notice it. They were married in Gay Head in 1977.
The finished calendars arrive this weekend and will be for sale all over the Island, including the Simon Gallery in Vineyard Haven.
“I feel like it came together effortlessly,” Ronni said. “It was as if Peter was guiding me.”
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