Strange Like Me

Gavin Aung Than is a cartoonist from Melbourne, Australia, who “takes inspirational quotes from famous people and adapts them into cartoons.” Strange Like Me, is based on a quote by Frida Kahlo, the legendary painter and feminist icon.

Gavin was not that familiar with Frida Kahlo until a friend suggested her.
“It was only then that I learnt about her remarkable life, powerful paintings and totally unique personality,” says Gavin.

“The main thing I wanted to capture in the comic is that feeling of seeing a piece of artwork for the first time that completely stops you in your tracks and grabs you by the soul, as if the artist is speaking directly to you from a different time and place.”

Added Bonus: Gavin includes a mini-biography with each of his cartoons
so you can get to know the person behind the featured quote.

“I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone,
because I am the person I know best.” ~ Frida Kahlo

Her portraits were deeply personal and haunting. Although her style is described as surrealist, Frida stated “They thought I was a Surrealist, but I wasn’t. I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality.” Her portraits were raw emotion on canvas, depicting the unfiltered thoughts and feelings of its creator which were more often than not, pain and anguish. Despite a lifetime of pain and turmoil, Frida still led an exciting life, mingling with famous revolutionaries and artists. And she had a force of personality and soaring spirit that seemed to make her irresistible to nearly everyone she met.

In creating this art (see whole piece here), Gavin shares an invaluable women’s history lesson, while delivering a beautiful message to the rest of us.

Love that!

According to Women You Should Know, Frida is just one of
many extraordinary women in Gavin’s Zen Pencils blog:

Other quotable women include Helen Keller, Aung San Suu Kyi, Malala Yousafzai, Anne Frank, Marie Curie, J.K. Rowling, Sylvia Plath, Eleanor Roosevelt, Maya Angelou, and Amy Poehler. There are lots of men featured, as well, from “poets to Presidents, comedians to colonels,” just about anyone, who Gavin says, “inspires me, challenges my way of thinking, wakes me up or just makes me laugh.”