This piece started as a riff on the “become ungovernable” meme— from the Untitled Goose Game, where the goose is wielding a kitchen knife in pure chaotic defiance. I thought it would be fun to localize that idea. Instead of a goose, I drew a mynah bird—one of the loudest, most opinionated, and most common birds in Hawai’i.
The phrase I paired with it is “E hele Kānāwai ‘ole.” It’s a Hawaiian phrase that literally translates to “go without law” or “step without rules.” It carries a much more poetic and playful tone than the way Google Translate butchers it into “to become illegal.” That translation totally misses the spirit—this is more about defiance and playfulness.
I chose the mynah bird specifically because they’re such characters. You see them everywhere in Hawai‘i—strutting, squawking, always up to something. They’re smart, scrappy, and fearless. I once watched a pair of them go after a mongoose. One kept its attention while the other dive-bombed it—like some kind of avian tag-team. I wanted that attitude to come through in the drawing.
I created the image in Procreate, focusing on tight linework and dense crosshatching. I love that optical buzz that happens when you do detailed hatching digitally—it’s one of the few things in digital media that still gives me that tactile satisfaction. For now, it’s black and white, but I might color it if I decide to make stickers out of it. Depends on how I feel.
