I first came across Effin’ Birds on Twitter when I was complaining about inspirational quotes. One of my Twitter buddies said that she preferred to look at this account @EffinBirds for inspiration. I took a look at the account and I was not prepared for what I found. There were a series of pictures of elegantly drawn birds dropping the F-bomb in the appropriate contexts. I went into a vortex where I was searching for every single image I could find on this account and laughing my ass off. Then I became friends with Aaron Reynolds, the creator, and I asked him if I could interview him. He is so nice and Canadian that he said yes! Here’s more from Aaron:
1. What is Effin’ Birds?
Effin’ Birds is my frustrated inner monologue paired with beautiful vintage woodcuts and paintings of birds.
2. How did you come up with the idea?
I was trying to figure out two things at the same. My Twitter account Swear Trek had been gaining popularity, and therefore taking up larger and larger chunks of my life. People were constantly asking me for merchandise from it, which was problematic for a couple of reasons: first, the account is all GIFs. You can’t put GIFs in a book or on a t-shirt. And second, I clearly don’t own Star Trek or a license to make Star Trek merchandise. So I started thinking about what parts of what makes Swear Trek great would be transferable somewhere else. I hit on two: my relatable feelings, and the shock of juxtaposition between something profane and something non-profane. I decided to take those two elements and put them together with content that I could use with no rights issues. After a lot of wandering around design websites, I came across a set of vintage design elements for sale from Tom Chalky. The birds were in the public domain, and Tom had done a great job of digitizing them and cleaning them up. Just the other day I found out that they are all woodcuts by a gentleman named Thomas Bewick, from his guide to British birds. His printing blocks are well-preserved, and the National Trust in the UK will ink one and send you a fresh print in exchange for a donation.
The second thing I was trying to work out was how to prove my Twitter bonafides to a potential client. I figured making a new project and trying to make it a hit would let them see the process and my working methods and hopefully show them some kind of success.
3. What is your artistic background?
I always doodled and drew little cartoons. My parents got me a bunch of those “how to draw Bugs Bunny” and “how to draw Batman” books when I was young, and my Bugs Bunnies and Batmen always came out demented and weird, so I embraced it. My schooling was in photography, and that was how I made my living for a number of years.
4. Why do you love Canada?
The stereotypical Canadian response to this is to explain what is bad about Canada, but I’m going to try to avoid that. I love our stupid weather, our public broadcaster, our preserved wildernesses, our more-than-two-party political system, and especially our endless need to make fun of ourselves while embracing what we are ridiculing.
5. What do you hope people will take away from Effin’ Birds?
I hope it gives them a chance to express their feelings in a different way, or to at a minimum show them that other people feel exactly like they do. 2017 has been hard for a lot of people, and I’ve been gifted this very public coping strategy for myself.
6. Where can we find out more about Effin’ Birds.
the Effin’ Birds store at effinbirds.com
Feminism is for everyone, dipshit.