Andy
Over the past couple of weeks, Brad ‘Grum Reapur’ Rumble has been teasing the anticipated releases, now get your shades one as Brad hits you with the all-new Ravurs and Reapurs! seven releases which include Berry Blast, Purps Ravur, Yelle Ravur and Ghoulden Soul. Like we said last month, Grum Reapur’s journey never ends, together the journey continues! fighting the demons by expressing Brad’s feelings through art. Yesterday during his Facebook live stream, Brad unleashed “I burned my thumb making this Grum” and Slihk Reapur, the darkest oilest ooze a couple of weeks back. Missed out? not to worry as there’s still a chance to own one of Brad’s Orignal Grum Reapur’s as well as the DIY so you can express your own self and have a go using Brad’s platform. Brad gives a backstory with each release making them that little bit extra special.
The Grum Reapur is death through an alternative lens, a cute take on one of the darker subjects that haunts humanity.
Once an ordinary man, the Grum Reapur battled with depression, often contemplating the meaning of existence, haunted by an existential dread, being lead to believe there was no meaning to life, driving him ever deeper into the depths of Mount Gloom. This adventure lead him to discover new life in those lost to the world and within them the very meaning he was searching for.
He found his fellow humans to be full of quite laughable, loveable quirks because Grum himself shared their insecurities, hopes, dreams and fears. “If only we could embrace these feelings” He said “to realise the fragility of life, learning to enjoy each moment we have for the beauty it inspires, the art, poetry and music. That is meaning”. With this new outlook he was able to overcome his depression and with it a new sense of duty. “Who am I to deprive others of the stories and creations that could inspire them to defeat their own demons and find meaning?”
And so the Grum Reapur was born.
Grum deals with the nature of overcoming the darkness of depression, anxiety and his own battles with borderline personality disorder. In learning to overcome or integrate these behaviours he helps those who may be walking this pathway themselves in hopes to show that the darkness that befalls us doesn’t have to be a life sentence.
At the end of the tunnel is a light and it’s easy to think the path through the shadows is a permanent one, but what happens when you reach the light? For Grum this meant finding the joy in dancing, raving, the philosophy of absurdism and finding his tribe of weirdos.
These Grums represent that finding of the light, the Ravurs have a neon paint job to both showcases the psychedelic world that revolves around the dance and raves culture as well as the use of materials that react to UV light as a means to highlight how shifting perspective, looking at something under a different light, can mean seeing things in ways we haven’t before.
The Berry Blast is a nod to his childhood, whilst riddled with trauma it also contains the very facets in which he lives now, to see the world as full of wonder and delight, to be ever-evolving around this childlike wonder and to have fun where fun can be had, in this instance getting covered in his own paint every day and representing this with a Grum that reflects a juice box exploding in his face.
The Ghoulden soul is for his tribe, the ones who showed him that it’s more than ok to be weird, that we don’t have to fit the mold of the world we were raised in, that these Golden souls showed him a pathway he didn’t know was there.
Ghoulden Soul Big’n – £70 – LE of 15
This drop of new colourways is all about moving forward from the darkness, that there comes a time when all the shadow work can come to a conclusion and that conclusion is to enjoy what we can in life, from friends to music and dance, art and embracing that sense of childlike wonder that so many of us forget to embrace in this modern crazy world.
Purps Ravur Big’n – £60 – LE of 15
To quote his favourite philosopher Alan Watts “When we dance, the journey itself is the point, as when we play music the playing itself is the point” so dance, create and play.
Yelle Ravur Big’n – £60 – LE of 15
WHEN: 2nd April 2021
WHERE: https://www.grumreapur.com
I am the Grum Reapur, allow me to speak from the heart! – Brad a.k.a Grum Reapur
I have been through the struggles of despair, depression and emotional hardship due to my condition, BPD (Borderline Personality Disorder), and once found myself drawn to pits of gloom. I suffered because I lived in an unkind world, full of uncaring people whilst I was full of compassion for my fellow human, crying at moments of both beauty and tragedy, laughing incredibly hard at the smallest things and for a long time was I ashamed that I was this sensitive soul and with that shame came even more suffering.
All that suffering was not in vain however!
I discovered something about myself that would change my outlook on life forever. I found that the mind was like a canvas or block of clay. Until this point in my life I had allowed others to sculpt or paint what they thought of me on the canvas or clay, people who had not equipped themselves with the tools, brushes, skills or materials necessary to create something amazing. I also had not equipped myself with these tools, but there were writers, speakers, artists and creators who had and it was up to me to equip myself with the same skills and materials as these people.
I suffered for a little while longer as I shifted my mindset from the old way to the new, realising more things I did not like about myself that I wanted to change, that I needed to change, in order to be the person I wanted to be, never taking my mind off the idea that I was creating a masterpiece over the span of a lifetime. The more I learnt about the human condition, through anthropology, psychology, sociology, philosophy etc, the more I realised that people were out of touch with their emotions. I found myself thinking that the most punk and rebellious thing to do was to be open about how I feel, what I have been through and sharing my vulnerability with those who care to listen, not in the hopes of gaining sympathy, but more to be the change I want to see in the world.
When I first started sharing my feelings so openly I was terrified of how people would react, but as time passed I saw that nobody judged me in these moments, in fact the complete opposite would happen, people would open up about their own struggles, their own conditions and suffering and how they overcame them, we’d often have a little cry and hug it out at the end because they’ve never been able to be so open, even with their own family and loved ones. This became my mission in life, to help people open up and feel more connected and happy and the only way I knew how to start was to do the things I enjoyed, drawing, sculpting and painting.
I sculpted the first Grum Reapur in the midst of my transformation as a totem to represent enjoying each and every moment in life as we never know when we might dance with the reaper. I created copies in resin and began customising them for fun, they just happened to be loved by those who saw them and played with them. That is when the Grum Reapur and my mission in life became intertwined and a fire grew within me like never before. What if I could use this platform to share my vulnerability with you, so you can see that you are not alone in how you feel and that most people try to mask their feelings through fear of being judged? What if I could reassure you that however low you may be it is only a moment in time? What if there was a way for me to present my own discoveries in a way that touches the soul?
I don’t have definitive answers and I may get it wrong from time to time, but I will always be trying my hardest to help the individual and the collective, that is why I donate a percentage of my annual income from the Grum Reapur to mental health charities and organisations throughout the UK to give back a little to the people that helped me, in particular the therapy centre that helped me piece my life back together.
Brad a.k.a Grum Reapur
Find Brad via Instagram and Facebook and Grum Reapur FB group HERE.
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