DAVIS COUNTY -- For anyone who might be tired of calendars full of puppies or nature scenes, a group of local artists are more than happy to usher you through 2008. For the second year in a row, First National Bank has titled their original calendar "Artists of Utah," devoting the space within to hand-selected art created by local painters such as Lester Lee, Simon Winegar, Richard A. Miles, Diane Turner, and others.

"There's a lot of really talented people out there," said Dawn Brandvold, Vice President of Advertising and Public Relations for the bank. Dawn is the major force behind selecting the art for each calendar. "It's pretty difficult to narrow it down to the ones we choose, but I love it." Once again, representatives from First National worked with Bountiful's Apple Frame Gallery to select the art for the 2008 calendar.

The gallery has an immense database containing most of the art that has been or is currently being shown at the gallery, and Brandvold and others simply browsed through the collection to find the paintings they felt best suited each month. Brandvold tries to find a balance between male and female artists, as well as between more impressionistic and realistic work.

"I try to find work that would translate well to a calendar and also appeal to a broad range of people," said Brandvold. "Unfortunately, it does sometimes get commercial. I'll find a great painting, but it'll be like 'I'm sorry, but do you have anything with pumpkins on it?"

According to Debbie Winder, the gallery representative who worked with First National on both the 2007 and the 2008 calendars, the repeat experience gave Brandvold much more confidence in making her own selections.

"I just made a few suggestions," said Winder. "Initially, they'd chosen a close-up of pumpkins for October, but I remembered they had something very similar in last year's calendar. Instead, I pointed them towards an autumn piece I had seen of Lester Lee's."

The images that went into the final calendar, which were printed late last December, reflect both local images as well as local artists. Kaysville's snow horse went into last year's calendar, and this year Salt Lake City's old Iceberg Drive-In stands above the month of July. The calendar's cover, "Succession of Steel" by Davis County artist Scott Brough, evokes the trains that run through the county.

"I think they wanted something railroad-themed to honor the opening of commuter rail," said Brough, who said he was overwhelmed to be represented in the calendar for a second year. The artists each grant permission before their work is included. "It's a great honor to have my work with all these other artists. I really look up to a lot of them."

Though the bank prints nearly 6,000 of the calendars, they usually vanish quickly to people who begin requesting them as early as August.

"They're a tradition," said Brandvold. "I don't know if we could stop doing them at this point."