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It started with a cheeky little bird.
A great kiskadee, to be precise.
Valley artist Ryan Henry decided to paint the yellow-plumed fowl as though it was perched on the doorway of his art gallery in the South Padre Island arts district.
And if he didn’t exactly get permission for his miniature masterpiece? Well, that’s what asking forgiveness is for.
“I was up there painting, and the property manager walked by and goes, ‘Oh, you got a bird,’” Henry recounted. “I was just hoping it was just a random somebody walking by. I turn around, and I’m like, ‘Oh, I was gonna tell you.’”
Despite getting caught red-handed, Henry wasn’t admonished. Quite the opposite. The property manager asked Henry to take his paints over to her business entryway and put a bird on it.
After Henry posted a photo of the painting on Facebook, his comments were atwitter with support. Within a week, one request for a miniature bird mural had turned into dozens more from across the state.
What started on a lark has taken flight.
The social media excitement prompted Henry, who owns Meridian & Muse Fine Art Gallery, to launch what he’s calling a painted bird trail in Port Isabel and South Padre Island. While Henry may have been winging his first painting, he’s pecking away at a roster of roughly 15 local businesses who want to take part. The flock of local and migratory birds will include a scissor-tail, ibis, sandpiper and various buntings.
“I wasn’t expecting the photo to do much more than get my mom’s attention,” Henry said.
Henry’s feathers haven’t been ruffled by the sudden spike to his workload. He’s unflappable in the face of the work ahead of him, with plans to eventually fill requests for bird murals in cities like Corpus Christi and San Antonio.
The idea grew wings quickly, with Henry’s social media post earning around 250,000 views within a day, drawing comparisons to public art projects like the bird murals of McKinney. Art-lovers from Central Texas were among the first to flock to Henry’s project, and he was invited to paint a bird trail in the Concan-Leakey area just hours after his post went up.
Henry said people are attracted to the idea because birds can be meaningful symbols. A couple from Edinburg vacationing on the island made time to stop by the gallery to see his great kiskadee painting because of their love for the bird. The red-breasted frigatebird Henry painted atop K’s Jewelry & Beads in Port Isabel mirrors a frigatebird tattoo the owner has. The native plant center on the Island wants a brown pelican in honor of one it rescued last year.
“Some of these birds have stories that resonate with the people requesting them,” Henry said. “You can choose the prettiest or biggest bird, but it’s much better when it has a personal meaning to you, as well.”
Henry hopes to get as many as 50 birds on the local painted bird trail, though he doesn’t truly see a limit. The paintings are on a scale that make them more accessible than traditional murals, and some of the proceeds from the micro-murals will go toward the local art incubator and birding center.
“One thing that makes it interesting is that the businesses appear to be supportive of the ecotourism and the art aspect of it, but it’s also in a price range that they can participate,” Henry said, mentioning how quickly businesses in Concan and Leakey snapped up bird trail spots for his pending visit to the area. “A typical mural takes so much planning and space that it’s not for everyone.
“It wasn’t until we introduced the bird trail as an option that we started to get, within hours, sold out from businesses that are now able to participate in a community project and be included in this art festival.”
Henry doesn’t foresee having trouble getting future participants for the painted bird trail, and he would like to eventually create a guide to the paintings or a bingo-like game where visitors can catalogue their mural sightings.
However, the main challenge throughout the micro-mural project, which involves getting atop ladders and rooftops, might be his fear of heights.