Keeper of the Birds

"Keeper of the Birds" | Bunnie Reiss

Los Angeles, CA

Sponsored by Colectivo, this mural was one of the international features of the 2016 inaugural mural festival at Black Cat Alley. Bunnie Reiss was invited to come here from Los Angeles, where she has made public art professionally for over 20 years. A pioneer of feminine voices in mural-making, Bunnie’s mural “Keeper of the Birds” is over 70 feet high and was designed to work with the palette and textures of the Oriental Theater as she found it in 2016.

Bunnie Reiss was born in Maryland but raised mostly in the wide-blue skies of Colorado. Having come from a large Polish/Russian family, eating, loud talking, and community shaped her life. She was a tiny rebel with a large imagination, knowing at a young age that she quite didn’t fit in and the world was a much bigger place than the quiet suburban landscape that seemed to endlessly surround her. After a small stint in France and a few other areas around the US, Bunnie relocated to Los Angeles several years ago to pursue larger mural and installation-based projects. Her work is heavily influenced by her Eastern European background, with its tradition of folk art, bright colors, and community engagement. Her extensive travels have also added an extra layer of conversation, which makes her creations unique. She has shown extensively in both the United States and around the world, in galleries, alternative spaces, bookstores, abandoned buildings, fields, and forests, or any place that seems to need a little extra magic. Her brightly colored folk murals decorate many countries and can be found all over the world. Los Angeles, Mexico, Italy, Paris, India, the Philippines, Detroit, Milwaukee, New York, San Francisco are just a few places you would likely stumble upon one.