Posted by Drittens; text by Pinky.
Bunny and I began working on The Pinky Show in 2005, starting with sketches of what we wanted our website to look like, a list of things we wanted to talk about in our first videos, and also a few ideas about how to announce our new project to the world. To get into the spirit of things, one of the first things we wanted for ourselves was Pinky Show t-shirts. All our favorite bands had their own t-shirts, so we wanted that too! And since Bunny was first to take a stab at designing a t-shirt, the first one was (of course) just her face, really big:
shirt #1: early Bunny head (2005)
This first attempt to make a PINKY SHOW t-shirt was a big disappointment. Firstly, we found out right away that we didn’t know how to draw cartoon cats! Also, there were technical problems; i.e., the colors came out really dull printed over the black fabric. But most importantly, Bunny and I were both unhappy with how "clean" and boring-looking our design had come out. We admired t-shirt designs from bands like Bikini Kill and Sonic Youth - so how'd we came up with… THIS?? Funny thing, though, after thinking about it for a while, we eventually decided that an austere, almost bleak visual style was actually a better fit for the content and objectives of our educational project. So even though this kind of "simple" aesthetic felt far away from what we initially thought we wanted, we agreed to continue using it.
I think we only made a couple of these shirts because they came out so bad. (The technology for applying digital output to black t-shirts wasn’t good at the time.) Why is why PS shirt #2 was a “Pinky on a white background” design, and we pretty much kept to that formula for most of our shirt designs until fairly recently, when direct-to-garment printing on all kinds of colors finally started to look good.
standing Pinky (2006)
A little better. At least by this time you can see that we had figured out how we wanted to draw faces!
This is a drawing that we made for one of the first Pinky Show videos (a trailer). It was only on-screen for a few seconds but we’ve reused this image a million times since then, for all kinds of things. We like to spend as much time as possible doing research, writing, thinking, and teaching, so we decided early on that we’d recycle images AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE - no guilty feelings - in order to be efficient with the limited amount of time we have here on Earth.
This “standing Pinky” design on a white/black raglan shirt with 3/4 sleeves is still one of my favorites. I’m pretty sure it was the first Pinky Show object that we sold to raise money to fund our project.
Bunny with a gun (2007)
This is probably the closest we ever got to having a “controversial” t-shirt design. Over the years we’ve had a lot of people ask us why we - a social justice project - would create a t-shirt of Bunny holding an AK-47, and also another t-shirt that says “CATS AGAINST WAR.” We actually have lots to say about that, but in one sentence, I'll usually just reply with something like, “We are anti-war, but we also accept the legitimacy of self-defense and resistance.”
LOST (2007)
Starting out, we didn’t have any money to spend on advertising. So instead, one of the ways we tried to let people know about our existence was to put “resources” on our website that visitors would hopefully download and put to use, which in turn would be seen by others (hopefully). This t-shirt and the flier that went along with it are examples of that kind of cashless marketing. Actually, we still don’t have a marketing budget.
Cats Against War (2007)
Over the years this t-shirt has consistently been our most popular design. I’m not sure why - maybe because the message is direct and easy to get behind? My personal favorite thing about it is actually how you can kind of see how large and impressive Bunny is compared to the rest of us. Also, Mimi and Kim are holding hands because they are sisters from the same litter.
settler Kim (2007)
“Just because Kim is holding a balloon doesn’t mean that she is not a settler.”
Please read the interview with Patrick Wolfe on the subject of settler colonialism.
ask me about my homophobia (2007)
While most of the t-shirts designs we’ve created have been for fundraising, these text-only shirts were made as part of an informal “experiment” that lasted a few years. Basically we were looking for ways to start up conversations about things that need to be discussed more. For example, wearing this shirt:
Person, looking at your shirt: “Okay… how’s your homophobia?”
You, wearing this shirt: “Oh it’s fine, thank you. How’s yours?”
[ Conversation continues, maybe. ]
Something like that. These shirts were surprisingly effective, so we made a bunch more with different subjects. I never heard of anyone wearing these shirts getting into an awful, uncontrollable argument, but who knows if the reaction would be different nowadays.
isolated in a self-serving fantasy (2007)
I can’t remember where this quote came from. Neither Bunny or I wrote it. I want to say it’s by “Ann Carver” (?) but I can no longer find my notes pertaining to this quote. If you’re the author of this quote, please contact me! I just remember the thought I had when I first read it, “Ah, what a perfect, succinct summary of the problem we all face…”
settler (2007)
This is mostly just a simpler version of the Kim-with-balloon t-shirt. But to me it’s also a little different - the balloon shirt labels Kim as a settler (which she is, because she lives here in the United States), whereas this shirt labels the wearer of the shirt as a settler (which is most likely what you are, if you’re not Native).
I wish I had a photograph of, say, a busy street scene in New York City, in which hundreds of people can be seen walking around, going about their daily lives. And all the settlers would be wearing this shirt. Chances are that’d be mostly everybody in the photo.
I don’t think we can begin to address the reality of what it means for the U.S. to be a settler state until we can recognize how enormously overwhelmed - demographically and otherwise - Native peoples continue to be in their ancestral homelands.
armchair radical (2007)
Armchair revolutionaries. Verbalism. Slacktivists. Virtue signaling. Doesn’t it seem like the internet is full of labels that describe how easy it is to NOT change the world?
We made this shirt as an invitation to talk about why some people decide to take action for positive change, while others do not.
Our guess is that most people would actually spend way more time working to make things better if the question “why not?” were asked more often.
rabid consumer (2007)
We made this design after seeing a poll in which Americans were asked what labels they most self-identified with. The answers were pretty unsurprising:
“American”
”Christian”
”(their profession)”
”Democrat”
etc.
The most striking omission, in our eyes, was the absence of the label “consumer.” Which makes sense, but come on. We added the word “rabid” just because the word “consumer” all by itself seemed to lack the energy of how deeply we think people experience the world through this lens.
Abolish Nuclear Weapons (2007)
Post-9/11, with so much attention focused on America's so-called "War on Terror," it was easy to forget that nuclear weapons hadn't magically disappeared as a threat to planetary survival. We started The Pinky Show in 2005, and one of the main points of focus for The Pinky Show at the time was to keep showing everyone how the "War on Terror" was not just a response to a certain terrorist attack; it could actually be much better understood within a broader historical framework of U.S. imperialism going back over a hundred years. According to cats, IF imperialism is your personality type, AND you happen to have nuclear weapons in your back pocket, the possibility of SUDDEN AND TOTAL ANNIHILATION is always right around the corner.
In 2006-07, a lot of our work was putting together materials to help educators and activists talk about these kinds of issues in their communities. This t-shirt happens to be one of the leftover artifacts that came out of that work (along with the video 27,000 Holocausts : an interview with John Burroughs). The picture depicts a scene from a nightmare - the moment I look up and see the fire in the sky that obliterates me and all my friends.
Ride Your Bike (2007)
To my surprise this turned out to be a pretty popular shirt, even though it looks like I took two minutes to draw it. It's very rough, and I don't see how Bunny could use the pedals. But whatevers. Originally I drew it as kind of like a joke, because Bunny's the only one here that doesn't know how to ride a bicycle.
cross stitch Pinky (2007)
We're really into yarn (and string in general). Cross stitch, crochet, knitting, sewing - we like all of it. And not just because we're cats; there's something about the slow tempo and comfy vibe of these activities that I think help us deal with the darker aspects of our work. You can't just be thinking about imperialism and genocide all day - it's unhealthy.
Pinky + PINKY SHOW logo
This design is pretty basic - just me and a big "PINKY SHOW" logo. The backstory is not interesting but I'll share it anyway. For the first several years of our project, Mimi used to take care of all the finances. It really frustrated her that none of us (Bunny, Kim, me) seemed to care much about money, even though of course projects have lots of expenses. Just one example - it really upset her that neither Bunny or I would ever include our project logo on any of our t-shirts. We'd always say things like, "This design looks better without an advertisement stuck to it...", to which Mimi would always say, "HOW ARE WE GOING TO PAY OUR BILLS IF NO ONE EVER FINDS OUT WE EXIST???" So anyway finally Bunny made this design to make Mimi shut up. :-P Eventually Mimi kind of just gave up trying to teach us about how money works.
Cluster Bombs! (2008)
This is a design we made in 2008 and "unfortunately" it is still relevant today:
Non-signatory the United States (US) has not taken any steps to join the Convention on Cluster Munitions, as it sees military utility in cluster munitions. The US has never participated in a meeting of the convention, even as an observer. The US abstained from voting on a key United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution promoting the convention in December 2022.
- summary from the Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor, 2024 update.
Kim: I drink my coffee now thank you (2008)
For some reason most of us Pinky Show cats exhibit obsessive behavior. Bunny was an extreme workaholic. Mimi spends many hours every day exercising. If Drittens isn't in the workshop playing with lenses or sawdust, he's at his desk reading arcane histories about 3rd-tier 19th century Eugenics pseudoscientists. I walk thousands of miles every year.
Kim is probably the only one that lives a fairly balanced life. She has several hobbies, she naps a lot, she works sometimes, she has friends she likes to visit. Her only "addiction" is coffee. If she stopped drinking coffee today she'd probably be dead within 3 days.
Bunny Wants To Punch Your Face (2009)
We only made this t-shirt very briefly, to promote our book I Want To Punch Your Face. (We eventually figured out you don't need to do "promotions" when you're giving away your book for free.)
Related story: One time Bunny and I had a booth at a big craft fair. (Sometimes we'd do craft fairs as a fundraiser for our project, even though 100% of the attendees don't know and wouldn't care what the Pinky Show is.) Well I remember there was a girl - maybe 12 or 13 years old - that came up to our booth with her mother, and she came across one of these Bunny "I Want To Punch Your Face" t-shirts. I remember she was looking at it and looking at it, and finally asked her mom if she'd buy it for her. The mom glanced at it, said something dismissive - can't remember exactly what - and made a grumpy-angry disapproving face, then pulled the girl away from our display. I don't know why that girl wanted the shirt so badly, but she looked so sad. Even now I still regret that I didn't run after them and just give that girl the shirt.
Pinky got punched in the face by Bunny (2009)
I'm not very good at drawing pictures, but once in a while I draw something that I really like. (I think over the past 20 years or so I've made maybe three or four good drawings.) This is one of my favorites, even though it's a picture of me with a mouth injury. Every time I look at it I think it's funny. It's one of the pictures from I Want To Punch Your Face, and is one of the "consequences" pictures, depicting me taking care of my bloody mouth after Bunny punched me. (It's educational fiction - Bunny has never punched me in real life.)
floating Pinky (2009)
People would laugh if I told them that this drawing was really challenging for me to do. I made it as one of the paintings for our Class Treason Stories installation at the University of Winnipeg. I wanted to make an image of me kind of floating, levitating, with the caption "isolated in a self-serving fantasy" underneath it. But not having a background in cartoons or animation, I didn't really know how to draw myself from any angle other than straight-on. It took me a lot of sketches to get this worked out, but I think it came out okay in the end.
Later, when we were installing the finished painting in the gallery, I remember Siya, the woman who was doing the hanging, casually remarking, "Oh, astral projection…" I was shocked because I had been reading about astral projection while we were working on these paintings, and the idea that a viewer could make that connection just by glancing at it briefly honestly really took me by surprise.
the consequences are terrifying (2009)
This is another painting from the Class Treason Stories series. When we were making sketches for the images we'd make, we already knew the installation site would be in the art gallery at the University of Winnipeg. We'd been wanting to do a project about the concept of class treason for a while, but the university setting led us to focus on using signs and rituals from the process of schooling to make our critique. We assumed most of the visitors would be students and faculty from the University, so we were hoping that using those connections would resonate with the viewers' very personal memories of their experiences in schools and classrooms, making the overtly political concept of class treason easier to relate to for everyone. Like, who can't recall the feelings of dread or anxiety you felt in school when you were a kitten? Who hasn't bought into the idea - at least a little bit! - that success in school would eventually bring more privilege and comfort into your life?
Kim: giant shrimp (2009)
Sometimes we'll make a design that has absolutely no educational value whatsoever. Like this one - it has no meaning other than "Kim loves shrimp."
Pinky meets the colonizer (2010)
This is a drawing that I actually kind of like, but none of my friends like it. One of my best friends said it's "very unpleasant to look at." Another friend said it's "cursed." I drew it after reading some Fanon. It's not about "double consciousness," but rather how (I imagine) there must be related psychological processes of "cleaving" taking place in the minds of settlers and other agents of colonialism that arise in order to justify their denial of the humanity of those they oppress. Anyway, it's just a very literal illustration that I made to help me think through a certain set of questions - a process that I find very useful.
"give me your land, give me your children" (2010)
Kim made this design:
I rarely design or draw anything around here, but here’s a shirt design I put together that I actually like a lot. (Drittens wears his all the time!) I made this one as part of our Dreams & Nightmares of Empire project, which happened to feature a lot of octopi (octopuses? octopodes?). It’s not popular - over the years I think we’ve sold less than 5 of these things? P.S. In response to a question about the googly eyes - the eyes are not actual googly eyes pasted onto a shirt; the eyes are pictures of googly eyes. Thanks!
~kim
fulfill your obligations II (2010)
When I was younger I very rarely thought of death, but now that I'm older and many of my friends have died, I think about it and live in it all the time. We're only here on this beautiful planet for a very short time. I made this drawing as a reminder for myself to not waste any time. Of course I still waste a lot of time.
Additional note: Even though I don't use amulets or spells myself, I absolutely believe that certain objects, words, or images can bring about positive changes in ourselves, or the way we experience the world "around us." I made this image with the specific hope that it would have that kind of power.
Drittens (2022)
I guess this is basically a promotional t-shirt for Drittens? Even though he's been an essential part of The Pinky Show for a long time, we've only recently shoved him out front to face the public on behalf of our project.
Bunny & Pinky eating ice cream (2022)
Many of the themes we often work on are heavy and dark. Which leads many people to assume that doing social justice work is nothing but an unrelenting, giant downer. Not true! Working together with friends to improve things may be difficult, but it can also be fun and sometimes even joyous. We made this t-shirt to remind people that the foundation of change-work is togetherness and love. (I can hear you cynics gagging.) This image is from our book I Want To Punch Your Face.
Trivia: Bunny's favorite ice cream flavor is strawberry, mine is green tea or pistachio, both of which are green! 🙂
Kim: too busy to think (2022)
Another image from the Class Treason Stories series. While it seems like this image may be popular among the "That's me! I feel like that!" crowd (Would you like a coffee mug with this design on it for your office desk?), a more exciting reaction might be something more like a question - for example, "How do I stop participating in exploitative, dehumanizing relationships?" Google: wage slavery.
Pinky’s on the telephone (2024)
This drawing of me using a telephone was made for the Pinky Show episode The American War: The U.S. in Vietnam. It's probably my favorite drawing that I've done for this project so far. I like the way the telephone came out, especially the cord. An inside joke around here is that Bunny's attributes (sacred, ritual implements) are a flaming sword and an AK-47; mine's a telephone.
Greetings from Jornada del Muerto! (2024)
Drittens and I were reading about The Manhattan Project when we came across a photo of the first atomic bomb test in the New Mexico desert in 1945. Taken 16 milliseconds after detonation, the photo captured the enormous, rapidly-expanding bubble of fire that seconds later would become the world’s first mushroom cloud - forefather of all subsequent nuclear weapon-fueled nightmares.
Drittens on the design of this shirt:
“I like ‘stupid gestures.’ For example this t-shirt - putting googly eyes on a historical photo is pretty stupid, right? A not-so-smart cat with no talent made this, but I think it’s okay for me to create this kind of silliness. Now if I were a highly-educated genius working with other scientists to create monsters capable of murdering the entire planet, that’s not a defensible activity.”
FRIENDS LET FRIENDS COMMIT GENOCIDE (2024)
Genocide never merely “happens” - it needs people to carry it out, and it also needs support, which comes in many forms.
Trivia: As far as we know, the phrase “Friends don’t let friends…” originated in a nation-wide PSA campaign by the Ad Council and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) that ran during the 1980s and 1990s. The most famous phrase used in that campaign was “Friends don’t let friends drive drunk” - we just inverted it so that it’d make sense, regarding the United States’ historical relationship to genocide.
By the way, this is not a design we use to do fundraising for the Pinky Show. If you want to use this design to print on your own t-shirt (or whatever), contact Drittens for the print file.
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