Hello you,
In this post I highlight some of my favorites of an old series of leaflets I used to make called PROPER GAHNDA. The last one I made was around ten years ago. I started the Proper fliers in a direct response to the decision to go to WAR with Iraq after the tragedy of September 11, and I left these fliers in all sorts of random places most in my hometown of FRESNO.
At the time I saw the world spiraling towards a war that would never end and sadly I have been yet to be proven wrong. I wanted to communicate and I needed to vent feelings and viewpoints that I wasn’t hearing from the media or even my peers. It was a period where I was growing as a person an artist , like many others in their youth I felt very alone and suffered bouts of depression. When I looked back on the Proper fliers, I thought of them as simply young angst. Now when I revisit these, I see something more than angst, I see a strive for reason in a collective system that was slowly losing it’s mind, although I feel way less doom and gloom in my viewpoints on society today, I do value the attempt my younger self made at connecting with it’s fellow person.
Below is Proper Gahnda numero uno. I had much background story to many of the characters depicted in these fliers and will do my best to give concise explanations throughout this post. The reoccurring figure of the four armed militant skull was named, The General, the General was my mickey mouse, my attempt to stick with an audience by giving them somewhat of a narrator or guide through the free flow thought process the fliers exude, the nature of his menacing visage however is just a reflection of my biting attitude at the time. The first drawing of the General though is very different.
note: if you have trouble reading these click on any flier for larger version
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One of my favorites is the, Robot with a Soul, flier #21. I was pretty poor growing up and started working with a permit by 15 , I have a slight disdain for money and living just to make money , working just to sleep and work more felt like a hollow life, a life everyone said I should live, I life I didn’t want to live, so I had to rethink things.
“Better There Than Here or Anywhere”- Robot
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I was raised in the church and came from a small town. At the time many peers within the church were pro the bombing of another country, I became more critical of the church, as well as sick of feeling guilty for masturbating and feeling any heightened degree of emotion, I felt as if I was in a mental cage from the same whom would advocate destruction.
“Why do I not feel loved from you?”
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This Flier is addressing the subject of sacrifice and non-complacency
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This flier targets Semantics, and how the subtle changing of ones rhetoric has the potential to fool you
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While painting a Mural, an old friend accidentally got a lil overspray on a lawyers car, this lawyer came out and threatened my friend physically and was like twice his age, It breaks my heart to see my senior carry themselves immaturely yo.
“I pray one day a critter like me will be worth more than a toy car”
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The Something Dead series, I love these and it started this lil character with three strands of hair that I kept up throughout the series. These next two target fear and insecurity.
Last night I found SOMETHING dead outside my home. This SOMETHING smelled awful, it was decayed and deformed and sure SOMETHING to see. All around the area was evidence of foul play. Later that evening I overheard two SOMETHING‘s outside my window, they were planning on keeping me quiet about the murder. I found scratches under my doorknob, SOMETHING had been there. I called the police but they were too busy with SOMETHING. I was stuck. I prayed to SOMETHING and asked why would SOMETHING want to kill ANYTHING?
NOTHING answered.
I sit doors locked, windows shut, phone off the hook. I was waiting for SOMETHING. My fear grew, I didn’t go outside for SOMETHING would surely come from me. All around me were signs that SOMETHING had been there, but I couldn’t find ANYTHING. Now here I sit, with no ties to family or friends all things around me shut off. All this time being afraid of SOMETHING…
has made me NOTHING.
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“all while levitating”
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One day my T.V. told a lie
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Losing connection on the Banana phone.
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The background of this one is the apartment I was living in at the time.
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This next one is written by my friend Shaun a.k.a Dreamboat
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2016 was not the only year allot of people died.
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If condoms were in jars the streets would fill with lids.
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Addressing the drastically changing tone the
media took during the bush administration.
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Find your moments of solitude as a wonderful advertising opportunity.
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De-sensitization
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We make bombs.
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I should live my GOD given life with people given opinion.
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A more positive note….kinda
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I just like the imagery of this one.
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Power
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We are the Primates who stare into the reflective pool and haven’t stopped staring since the beginning.
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The last Proper flier.
“When you hold someone you love, breath as much of them in as possible, for they may be gone during the exhale”
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Years later in 2012, I was commissioned to do a piece of art dedicated to the Proper Gahnda series named , Narcissus with Knives for eyes, I was honored and put my heart into it. It highlights the reoccurring figures more than stating an opinion or telling a story thus the title.
Clik on image below to see more.
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Now I have moved on to the, Radiate Here for Now,series which for now is only online , yet I will be working on self publishing a lil book of them later this year.
If you have made it this far, Thanks for checking it out I hope you had a good sit down with the art and hopefully could think of something other than this troubling political climate.
I am happy you are here, whether we agree or not, I am truly happy you are here.
Much love to you and yours
