Flying Snake was born in Brooklyn, New York.
In the mid 1980s.

I’d migrated there from Dallas, Texas after moving to Dallas from Little Rock, Arkansas. I was living in Brooklyn doing artwork, pasting up Artforum magazine in the city, writing songs. I was doing drawings and sending them to Little Rock and selling them in a gallery. This flying snake appeared from a random group of drawings.

After moving back to Little Rock several years later I begin doing illustrations and cartoons for a local alternative newsweekly. There were many random non-related cartoons that were published but I threw in that flying snake in one. After a few more random cartoons had run, the staff at the paper said “Give us more of that snake.” I was obliged and he reappeared.

He started out very primitive, total nonsense focused on silly. Bad drawings, bad puns, unbearably corny etc.

At first he had the run all to himself, cocky and full of irreverent attitude. And he’d shout while he was flying, “SKREE SCRAW!”

At some point his friend Oyyo came along. Of undetermined origin and specificity. (What exactly is he?) He became his sidekick and foil. Flying Snake became relaxed and confident and things rolled off his back. Oyyo assumed the angst and anxiety. A little rage and half-cocked unpredictabilty was predictable. Reckless ‘doing it my way’ sensibilty.

Flying Snake the ideal, Oyyo, not so. Two sides of the coin.

Portrait of the artist at the time.