Garth Purkett

wassup it’s the birthday binch 😘 life is good even when shit’s bad. i’m so insanely lucky to have the friends, family, partner, neighbors, and community that i do. my bday gifts were sprinkled throughout the past yearish — mom surviving a *second* round of guillain-barré syndrome (1-3% chance of recurrence), my wonderful sis bringing my amazing nephew into the world, getting to ask Laura and Leland Palmer a question IRL, the Seahawks winning a second lombardi out of nowhere, recording an album i’m so proud of and can’t wait to release, plus so much more. i’ve realized i’m now doing exactly what i was meant to in life: being silly, loving people and making others smile when i can, designing things on and off da computer, and (unironically) rocking the frick out. playing live with my boys in @besottenwithdeath and rippin with other music maniacs makes me feel so extremely alive and human in a way that dipshit AI could never. so does eating greek yogurt with a lot of chopped up fruit and granola and cinnamon and honey. i’m lucky to live in the best neighborhood in portland (imo) that @moorecoffee.co describes as “Sesame Street”, with constant familiar faces and dogs and small businesses around who all care about each other. i love going on long aimless walks around the neighborhood listening to jams, and it makes me feel grateful for my mobility and health every day. speaking of jams, it was @kneecap32 , Immortal, Tears for Fears, @teed , Bolt Thrower, and Masayoshi Takanaka that kept me going this year and at times made me feel like i could do anything. maybe they can for you too!!!! shit’s so crazy but the people in my life make it so good. i love all you bbs, thank you for loving me 💜

We had to say goodbye to our sweet baby Pancake this week, and there are not enough words to describe how incredible of a friend she’ll forever be. It’s a miracle we even met at all — a street dog in Sacramento without enough room at the shelter who flew up to Portland where we met her as ‘Marla’, with scars on her face and a hole through one of her enormous ears. Her huge black bug eyes genuinely gave a little window into her soul and street-dog story, stopping people in their tracks to share a moment with her. She even made our pet store employees weep while grabbing a bone and plopping her butt down in one of the display beds. She loved the vet, she loved her groomers, she loved our neighbors and small businesses — she loved everybody. In early December during a vet visit for nausea, an ultrasound revealed that her spleen was covered in tumors and that she had 4-6 weeks left. As tragic as that news was, we are so lucky to have had more than a month of time after that to appreciate every second with her, celebrate our last Christmas together, and begin to process the gutting emotions gradually instead of an immediate surprise. In the maddening game of guessing when it was ‘time’, she let us know the night before in a small moment of pain while sleeping that it was the right moment to begin the process. What an honor for us to be able to say goodbye to her together at home in the comfort of her little bed, and be there to gently guide her to the next life in peace and without pain. Amidst weeks of rain and darkness, the day she passed was beautiful and sunny, and at the moment we said our final goodbye, her face was bathed in sunshine — her favorite thing in the world. The next day began with one of the most beautiful sunrises I’ve ever seen. We could really feel and see her in that sunrise and it felt like a reassurance we’d be together again in the next life. Thank you to anyone who ever gave her love, pets, smooches, and kind words. I’ll be doing some more Pancake Posting™ in the coming months to help process this and share all of the things about Pancake that made her amazing. PK is forever 🥞💕

pancake says merry christmas :) love you all

SEATTLE tonight! playing a special homecoming show with @besottenwithdeath tonight at @bycseattle to wrap up our tour and i would love to see as many of you cuties as possible even if it’s a quick hello outside the show!!! can’t wait to blow the doors off the place and show you what this current version of Garf is like :)

hello pals! 🤗 i’m touring the Northwest with my death metal band @besottenwithdeath from 10/6 to 10/12, and i would love to see as many of my PNW sweeties as possible! whether it’s at a show, for a quick drink, or a drive-by squeeze! i love you all and i hope i get to see you!! 🖤 ⛓️ 10/6 Portland, OR - High Water Mark ⛓️ 10/7 Tacoma, WA - Overkill Lounge ⛓️ 10/9 Kelso, WA - Erebus ⛓️ 10/10 Spokane, WA - Berserk Bar ⛓️ 10/11 Bellingham, WA - Make.Shift Art Space ⛓️ 10/12 Seattle, WA - Belltown Yacht Club

i’ve received an omen — nay, a blessing — from a football deity, and it whispers… GO HONKS

i’ve decided to become 36 today 🥳👽 i feel like a freakin alien on earf a lot these days, so thank you to all the kind and beautiful people/animals in my life who make me feel at home 🛸💜

🗣️🌲 “Diane — 11:30am, February 24th. Entering the town of Twin Peaks.” happy Twin Peaks Day to all my peaks freaks 😘☕️ made some special shirts for the most perfect character in television. 8-color screen print on cozy Comfort Colors black tees, printed locally in Portland “O-REE-GONNNN!” available on nicetimeonline.bigcartel.com 😊 . . . . . . #twinpeaks #twinpeaksday #twinpeaksday2024 #realtwinpeaks #northbendwa #northbend #northwestisbest #upperleftusa #oregon #washingtonstate #twinpeaksart #twinpeaksgirls #kylemaclachlan #twelverainbowtrout

happy 1st birthday to @jojo.pdx da restaurant!! here’s a special poster i designed as party favors for the soft-open :) feat all of @hintzej ’s beautiful pets — seven, pudding, and spud!!! 🖤 if you don’t eat at jojo when in portland, you’re a certified foo!!!! they’re a wonderful small business with amazing people i’m privileged to work with. TOTAL SUPPORT 🐔🍗🥔🍻

go honks imo :) don’t wanna jinx it but it feels like there’s a lil magic this year! EDIT: the new shirt magic did NOT work lmao. we’ll get em next week ;) thank you @imkellyjohnson for photographing my dork ass in this newly acquired holy grail shirt

i love being Unky Garf, i loved @elijahpotts ’s wedding weekend, and i love our unrefined weird ass family 💜

hi :) long birthday/life update post ahead. i’ve been meaning to write this out for about three years now, but in May 2020 after getting laid off, i spiraled into psychosis that became a very serious manic episode which has completely changed my life, and i am now a bipolar baby. i’ll post the full story when i’m ready, but yeah it’s a wild one.⁣ ⁣ conceptually, life feels like an accumulation of all previous experience and achievements, but this episode and new mental health reality have frankly felt like in a video game when you die and lose all your progress and items. i’ve been Sonic without my rings for a while now.⁣ ⁣ to be completely honest, at 35 I feel like I know myself less than I did 5 or 10 years ago, which is part of why I don’t share much of myself with the world / internet these days like I used to love doing. I feel **really** different now, and it’s felt inauthentic to just pop back into my friends’ and family’s lives as if nothing happened.⁣ ⁣ so here I am! I cry a lot more than I used to. I feel overly self aware around most people now. I communicate soooo much worse and anxiously than I used to. my self confidence hasn’t been this low in a long time.⁣ ⁣ I’ve also learned to keep liking who I am and the things I make even if my brain often tells me otherwise. I know my partner, friends, and family love me even if my brain thinks of a thousand reasons why they wouldn’t or shouldn’t. I know my existence is valuable even if it sometimes feels like a painful waste.⁣ ⁣ I’m using this birthday to start progressively introducing this version of myself to the world in hopes of reconnecting with it, myself, and the people I care about. I love you all and am excited to put myself out there again.⁣ ⁣ thanks for liking me.⁣ ⁣ photo by my wonderful friend @butterdrips 💜