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Duel Diagnosis began with a conversation. In fact, the conversation had nothing to do with clothing or starting a movement. It was just a conversation between Dave and PADHiA, two friends who failed to shave their jagged edges off and fit in somewhere “normal”. And… all the weird, challenging, and also beautiful feelz that go along with that. The isolation, the disconnect, the inspiration, the gratitude, the shame, and the great humor- as our realities are so beyond our own imagination that it requires the injection of at least one familiar human instinct to be comprehendible.
We believe you are one of us.
And there are others like us who will come into the light as we become more visible.
How did it come about? In 2018 Dave Navarro started channeling his activism and creativity into street art. Street art is a massive part of the urban landscape and culture in Los Angeles and a powerful way to put forth messages to inspire thought and social change. As a part of this new circle, Dave began to connect with many artists. He met PADHiA when he saw one of her Love Me Anyways pieces and reached out. People who relate to that phrase become fast friends, which is exactly what happened. But it wasn’t a typical friendship as they both struggle with PTSD and its varietal circus of mental health effects. Despite enduring long periods of isolation, times of complete darkness due to triggers, and the continual struggle to remain upright on the tightrope act that is navigating life under these circumstances…they somehow managed to maintain a bizarre, beautiful, super ultra-connected yet disconnected friendship.
And so, this project was born from a conversation about this very thing. The conversation turned into “We should make a shirt”. Then it turned into we should start a unifying movement for others who feel "different" and use the shirts to spread the message.
For all business inquiries please contact:
Aaron Lloyd Barr
aaron@atrbute {dot} com
www.atrbute.com
Dave is a musician, activist, and street artist and has been working in the creative field for most of his life. As a child, Dave spent his evenings seated by his father, a graphic designer, at the drafting table, where he learned many of his techniques. A one time oil painter, Dave admittedly claims he didn’t have the patience for oils and traded in his visual art medium for the immediacy of the street. A trauma survivor and a sufferer of PTSD, Dave’s motivation has been bringing awareness and normalization surrounding the stigma of mental health issues. Through the art he creates, especially his #traumakids movement , he aims to share strength through the concept of trauma and how we all have had challenges in our lives that connect us more than we are aware. Our deepest darkest fears and feelings are sometimes that which unites us, not matter how great or small.
PADHiA is a Los Angeles-based street artist, designer, and writer. Her work can best be described as psychological commentary. Where most other street artists pull from external themes such as politics, pop culture, and social commentary, PADHiA’s work explores the often undiscovered and obscure aspects of our interior human landscape.
She is the originator of several viral movements including Unfuk Yourself : be who you were before all the stuff happened that dimmed your f*cking shine, and the Love Me Anyways thought initiative, which she has also expanded into fine art and an apparel line. Her first book Unf*K your Shine is anticipated late 2020.
Our characters are a representation of the often obscure, intangible, and nebulous feelz of being human. They are misfits who have trouble living in the world due to trauma, anxiety, and the difficult atmosphere society often creates. They struggle with feelings of isolation and disconnection and belonging. But above all they are lovable! They represent the parts of us that develop defense mechanisms to face life while secretly struggling to cope. They are the parts of us that get in the way, the parts we hide and are ashamed of. Through DD, these shadowy aspects of self they can be seen out in the world having adventures.
It is our hope that through our characters and their stories we can mobilize/ inspire / unite people who have lived paralyzed by shame due to very common human things that they have struggled with in their life. This project is meant to be counter culture to popular beliefs that you are only beautiful if you meet certain societal ideals. By finding beauty and creativity in darkness in a playfully deranged way our characters and their stories convey a truer spectrum of life… A celebration of real humanity, not just what we curate on our surface to be acceptable.
A Being, not unlike most of us- navigating a frightening, triggering, and difficult world feeling isolated, disconnected, insulated in their own protective atmosphere... And still out there trying to make frenz and go on adventures. I is the more mobilized fren.
Also a Being insulated in his own protective atmosphere, he has an additional layer surrounding him- a framework he must stay within that keeps his world even smaller. Despite all of this impediment he too, ultimately just wants to be out in the world making frenz and going on adventures.
LIMITED RUN TEES | HAND PAINTED JACKETS | RARE GOODS | FINE ART | BY ARTISTS PADHiA & DAVE NAVARRO
