Project Overview
The I Love Memphis mural series expresses the pride we have for our City in a series of designs by local artists. All murals in the series feature the I Love Memphis motto and appear throughout the area. Michael Roy painted the seventh I Love Memphis mural with the help of artist friends in summer 2014. The artist took some artistic license with the title, adapting his text to read I LOVE MEM{PHISH}. His humorous mural creature is composed of a series of several aquatic characters that crowd in front of a bespectacled humanoid. Vivaciously, they float along the wall in hues of blue with green and white accents.
Michael Roy writes about his inspiration for the mural that “I had lived in Memphis for all of my adult life before going to Korea for the last four. Memphis is very well known internationally and I took a lot of pride in telling people I was from here. Whether in Japan or Germany, everyone I met knew the significance Memphis has had in American music history. This mural was inspired by the pride I have had in being able to say “Memphis” when people would ask me where I’m from, where I learned to paint, and where I call home."
“Memphis is very well known internationally and I took a lot of pride in telling people I was from here”
"Stylistically, this piece is a patchwork of patterns and shapes from the countries I have traveled amalgamated into the form of a friendly roaming creature returning finally to Memphis, Tennessee. The piece should be thought of as a representation of the love felt for Memphis on an international level. Memphis is loved in Asia, and I’m indebted to the city for making my travels easier because of this quick conversational connector.“
The 10-foot high and 36-foot long mural is painted on the side of a small commercial building at 2813 Broad Avenue, at the corner of Scott Street in Binghampton. The work was funded by the Memphis Convention and Visitors Bureau, an ArtsMemphis Mosaic grant, and the Tennessee Arts Commission.
About the Artist
Michael Roy (Birdcap)
Michael Roy, perhaps better known by Birdcap, is a graduate of the studio arts program at Memphis College of Art. After receiving his Bachelor of Arts in 2009, the artist traveled, lived, and worked in South Korea, Thailand, Japan, and Germany for four years. He returned to Memphis in summer 2014 to paint the seventh I Love Memphis mural at the corner of Broad Avenue and Scott Street before resuming his journeys. In 2013 and 2014, he completed a number of mural commissions, sited at Gwangju University in South Korea, the 3 Howw Hostel in Bangkok, Thailand and at private residences. His performances and solo and group exhibitions took place at galleries and alternative venues in Bangkok and Hua Hun, Thailand as well as in Seoul, South Korea. From 2011 to 2012, Michael Roy was an art instructor at Gwangju University in South Korea.
