Canberra artist Mick Ashley is gearing up to release his 10th calendar of all things national capital, especially the delicious bits that you have to be a Canberran to understand.
"Yes, the 10th anniversary since the beloved Skywhale graced our skies in 2013 and inspired a genre of B-Film poster culture," he said.
The Mick Ashley calendars have become a collector's item, capturing Canberra-ness and the zeitgeist at once.
"The calendar, as always, covers some Canberra-esque behaviour that is generally amusing to us and baffling to everyone else," Ashley said.
"But over the last few years I have included some generic themes which are felt everywhere. Cost of living and COVID lockdowns being some of them.
"For this edition, there is this bracket creep of technology dominating and changing our lives for the worst such as AI, deep fakes and virtual reality. I wanted to capture how they impact our consciousness as well as how society and social behaviour is about to take the biggest scariest leap since the internet."
And the images are worth holding on to for longer than 12 months.
"Over these past 10 years, I've felt very humbled that people still hunt down my calendars," Ashley said.
"People tell me that they have them hung on their doors, walls and outhouses around Australia and overseas. It is very satisfying.
"The pursuit of doing something you love and making a living off it certainly takes a leap of faith and for me it was defining. Like changing a nappy, you never really feel comfortable at the time but you know it leads to something more important than yourself."
The calendar will be launched in August. Pre-orders will be available on Ashley's website - mickashley.com.au/ - by the end of July.
