A Coal Valley, Illinois zoo was interested in having me paint a mural in their aviary.  It was a large exhibit area being 12’W x 30’L x 10’H; the walls were of cinder blocks.  They kept their flamingoes, ibises, plovers, and other water loving birds in that particular exhibit.  In order to help out the zoo, I found out I could apply for a grant from the Quad City Arts Council to fulfill the zoo director’s wishes.  After filling out paperwork, and waiting for approval from their committee, it was affirmative that I would get the grant.

The zoo provided the acrylic paint.  That type of paint was desirable because of the quick drying ability. Using basic colors, I mixed whatever extra colors I needed. The director was helpful in that he had a couple of the large glass windows in front of the exhibit cage removed so that I could climb in and out of the area easily. The gallon paint cans and brushes were kept on the floor, just outside the cage.    

The scene was to be of the ocean with a small cove and palm trees. The cage was next to another one which included a pair of horn bills, which are large tropical birds with black bodies and big (really big), yellow beaks.  The male was cleverly named, Bill.  One interesting thing about them was that they had such long and lush eyelashes.

For the ocean scene, I discovered that an old watercolor brush that was loose under the metal band that held it, worked great to paint the lacy, foamy look of the sea as it rushed onto the sand.  After coming in to paint at the zoo on the following day, I discovered that the wandering sulfur crested cockatoo, which was allowed to roam freely in the walkway between exhibit cages, had crimped the metal band of the very brush I had been using, thus “fixing” the brush.  I had to improvise my lacy, foamy water the best I could after that.

But wait, there's more.  Part of my routine of working on a mural was that I needed to have rock and roll music playing from my tape/radio player while I painted.  The music kept me company and actually helped me to paint faster.  It was off season so there weren’t any people coming through the aviary to observe the birds.  The zoo keepers, which are the personnel who feed the menagerie, always took off for lunch hour from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. every day.  Sometimes painting murals can be somewhat monotonous so when one of my favorite songs came on the tape, called “Old Time Rock and Roll” by Bob Seger, I danced to the music.  Everyone was at lunch (or so I thought), and the birds were the only witnesses.  Later, toward the end of the day when I finished up and went out to my car, several zoo workers gave me wolf whistles.  That’s when I knew, that someone apparently saw me doing my dance.  I can’t get away with anything!