Today we’d like to introduce you to Sean Monett.
Hi Sean, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I am 30 years old. I am a 3rd generation Southerner and a sufferer of chronic pain and depression/anxiety. I am a single father to a 3-year-old son. I’m obsessed with perfecting my voice in art and writing. Growing up, I idolized Gary Larson, Douglas Adams, and Bill Watterson. I have been striving for many years to live up to the artistic heights of those role models. At 18, I left a Fundamentalist Baptist home and experienced severe financial and social obstacles while attempting to complete a degree in Studio Art. This was the time of my life when I discovered exactly how antagonistic and impossible the American South can be too poor and non-heteronormative folk, especially those of us who struggle with debilitating depression and anxiety. I dropped out of college in debt and despair, but I found my community in a gig as a traveling chef catering for concerts. Through career changes, a pandemic, and a divorce, I have never stopped creating art. I have now written and illustrated multiple works of fiction. I practice my craft with the intensity of a starving, crazed book weasel. I write freelance and do art on commission whenever possible.
Alright, let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I’ve been battling my mind for many years. Let’s put it this way: If you put six small screws in your front pocket and then walk around all day. Eventually, those screws will jostle into a position of stabbing you in the thigh. This is what it’s like to live with bipolar depression. The screws loose in my brain are dangerous thoughts and wild emotional reactions. Art is my way of emptying my mental pockets. Neurodivergence and humor go hand in hand in my work. Humor is a shield against the slings and arrows of life. It’s also a weapon fit only for use against the most powerful and oppressive opponents. Art, to me, is a way to express my reality and, at the same time, reflect the sharp and dangerous screws falling loose from the world around us.
Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am a cartoonist and author from Knoxville, TN. My poetry has been featured in Plum Tree Tavern and Imaginary Gardens. You can find my comics online at Nonsense Poetry Comics. I have been running that webcomic since 2016 and have been making comics for my amusement for my whole life. I currently have two books available for purchase! You can snag the novel “Your Brain Has Fleas” from Wandering Minds Publishing, an aggressively silly book about supernatural brain parasites. In it, a teenage girl named Victory Mission must save her kidnapped father while unraveling a conspiracy in Toad’s Butt, TN.
From Amazon, you can get the comic “A Snail’s Path:.”
“A Snail’s Path” is about a bookish young snail named Kitty who has been living his life by the dictates of a slimy Path in front of him, which nobody else can see. Soon, he’ll come to a fork in his path and make his life’s most difficult decision.
These are books about blazing your path and embracing found family dynamics. The relatable lives of the main characters of both books symbolize the experience of many young people who realize that their gender identity, sexual orientation, or political ideas have placed them outside the established dogmatic bounds of their parents’ worldviews. That can feel lonely, and I wish to be a beacon of hope and understanding for those folks.
The unique blend of family-friendly young adult literature and severe and thought-provoking reality checks all simmered into a soup of foolish fun: my trademark schtick. The drama and trauma of grief are explored heartily but not in a way that overshadows or strangles the spirit of kindness, hospitality, and joie de vivre. I’ve been training my whole life to make impactful art with this distinct flavor, and I’m always exuberant to talk more about it.
What matters most to you?
What matters most to me is family. I love my son with all my heart, and I come from a big family who has always been supportive and helpful in my darkest hours. But I’m not just talking about my family. Every family deserves to be provided with the means for basic survival. That’s why I oppose the monstrously greedy status quo in this country. We as a nation must unite to take action on the many threats to the American family today. We know from exhaustive research that programs like Universal Basic Income can help alleviate the burdens on our poorest citizens. That’s just one example. So many major issues require Americans to embrace activism, advocacy, and solidarity to unprecedented degrees.
Contact Info:
- Website: Seanmonett.com
- Instagram: @yourbrainhasfleas
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SeanBMonett/
- Twitter: @flowerprowler
- Other: https://flowerprowler.substack.com/
Image Credits
All photos and artwork by Sean Monett
