Askew One

Been a while since I posted a bit of a rant, and despite some of the gloomier stuff in this piece I hope this can be a helpful perspective for all the creatives out there having a hard time.

A painting I made in 2012 for a fundraising show Jos Wheeler and others organised to help support those that got arrested and dragged through the system after the Urewera Raids and “Operation 8”. It’s a long complex story that I won’t do justice in this short post but there are a few thoughts relevant to today. When a government/law enforcement designates a group of people terrorists, regardless of whether that holds weight or results in pardons and an official apology - the burden of fighting an asymmetrical battle through the courts, where the prosecution are infinitely resourced rests on the defendants and that plays a massive role in chilling dissent. Here in the US you’ll see this play out with the Prairieland appeals and despite gross prosecutorial misconduct during the Broadview Six trials, the time, personal stress and expense imposed is prohibitive for many. I believe John Minto ended up buying this piece.

Created this digital work for the BLEACH at BLEACH LA: The Artist Collective show curated by Simon Chin and Jasper Wong . A limited-time exhibition celebrating one of anime’s most influential franchises. Partnering with VIZ, Thinkspace Projects, MerchLabs, and World Wide Walls.

Featuring original works by more than 20 contemporary artists, the exhibition showcases unique interpretations of the BLEACH universe, including new pieces by Audrey Kawasaki, Yoskay Yamamoto, Greg Mike, McFlyy, Simone Legno (Tokidoki), Persue, Tracie Ching, Brendan Monroe, 123Klan, Andrew Hem, kaNO, Lauren YS, Michael Reeder, Tatiana Suarez, Jack Soren, Brolga, Jose Mertz, Gian Galang, Woes, Jason Raish, kaNO, Tatiana Suarez, and Jasper Wong.

Japanese American Cultural & Community Center, Los Angeles
July 1–5, 2026 (during Anime Expo)
Opening hours between 8am to 5pm

Caught some nice final shots of this wall with opasit Jason Kundell & theearwig bronson

Been painting the random parent of two small children hours on this wall. Hope to finish up tomorrow! Shouts to opasit Art Work Rebels Tattoo Studio & theearwig bronson

A few weeks back with bucket_head77 Jason Revok Vizie & theearwig bronson

I recently designed this limited edition can for The Wynwood Walls Shop which is now available on their website. I’ll include the link in my stories or hit the link in their bio.

These are strictly art cans, they don’t have paint in them, which in my opinion is great. Having had a lot of LE cans on my studio shelf over the years, the propellant leaks slowly over time and they start to really smell! I love how this one came out, super happy with my artwork too!

This Friday the 29th may & -reps is hosting this special pop up event featuring & more local guests to be announced this week.

Join us for live art, music and the chance to pick up small works, zines, prints and other offerings from the artists.

2637 NE Martin Luther King Jr Blvd B, Portland, OR 97212 6-9pm

Big thanks to .growers

did such an awesome piece for me last week and while I do feel obligated to paint something new for him, as a placeholder here’s a piece I did for him in Bushwick almost 10 years ago. I didn’t have this Daves in my usual archive folders so was a joy stumbling back over it randomly. Also, can’t believe I’ve almost hit 10 years living abroad and almost 5 years since visiting home!

Periodically I post this wall I did with back in 2008 because sadly, it stays relevant. Every time I look at it and think it’s a simplistic take from a time my understanding of global politics was less informed, events happen that remind me it all really this stupid and tragic.

I used to paint this cartoonish eye of providence a lot and contrary to how a lot of people likely interpreted it, I was trying to say something totally different to what you might think. I had come through a period of going down the popular conspiratorial pipelines and kept being confronted by all the reductive tropes. I’m not a scholarly person, I barely have a genuine high school level education and so the depth of my understanding of history, class and geopolitics was not super informed at that time. Despite my growing sense that there was more complexity to the various power struggles and imbalances in the world I could see the temptation to leaning onto simple catch-all’s for blame was not the answer.

That said, currently it’s hard not to look at the current state of the world and see a relatively small group of ghoulish, power-hungry narcissistic psychopaths prepared to reduce regular human beings to mere collateral. Many are brazenly motivated by greed and self-interest, some are ideologically driven by a religious belief or nationalism. I don’t take sides with any of the war-mongers, authoritarians or zealots. There is no the enemy of my enemy is my friend that is justifiable in my opinion. Regardless of who you are, where you were born, whatever religion you practise, whatever languages you speak, you should have the basic right to exist, to live a dignified life without the fear of having your right to dissent taken, being kidnapped, starved or having a bomb dropped on your head.

I think we are living in a time that is now way beyond “hyper-normalisation”. It’s full on mask off, overwhelming, disorienting and delusional but the prevailing sense is this is a lot of things but “normal”. We have to find our moral clarity, humanity and deep empathy despite the information overload, the sea of takes and talking heads telling you what to think and feel.