Making His Mark

The murals of Michael “Birdcap” Roy reflect a highly personal world.

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Editor's Note: As part of our “Staycation” package this month, readers may enjoy the Birdcap murals featured on these pages. His creations aren’t hard to find; the ones you see here, and others, are located behind Eclectic Eye (242 South Cooper), the Art Center (1636 Union), Barbaro Alley downtown, Crosstown Arts, and the Oaks at La Paloma (2009 Lamar). There are many others around town, but these will introduce you to his remarkable work. We know everyone who can do so is sheltering at home right now, but we hope you'll be able to take an up-close and personal look at the murals soon.

Anyone who ventures down the right streets in Memphis and comes across enough art-adorned walls and buildings is likely to see the work of Michael Roy, more commonly known as Birdcap.

Roy is a mainstay in the Memphis mural scene. People recognize his work when they see it. Rife with larger-than-life creatures and abstract nature scenes, Roy’s work is distinctly lively and interactive with a personality all its own.

“I’m making the shapes up in my head so I’m the only one who knows how it’s supposed to look,” he says. “That leaves a lot of room for creativity.”

Roy’s eyes light up when he talks about his work. His black T-shirt and jeans are splotched with paint. He holds an iPad in his lap, occasionally sketching on the screen as he talks. Behind him stretches a nearly 50-foot-long mural boasting a collage of creatures in a world created somewhere in his mind.

The colorful piece, a freestyle collaboration between Roy and an artist named Rich T., is displayed at Crosstown Arts. Roy, who prefers to plan out and sketch his pieces before putting any paint on the wall, says he was terrified going into the project, but “I was able to grow and step out of my comfort zone.”

Getting Started

Roy created his first mural in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina. He painted it on a wall near his hometown of Escatawpa, Mississippi, on the Gulf Coast.

When his family home was destroyed, Roy says he wanted to use his art to create a tribute honoring the lives that were lost and the damage done by the hurricane.

That same year, he began attending the Memphis College of Art, where he studied oil painting and printmaking. He wasn’t thinking much at the time about becoming a professional muralist. “I’m from a tiny town in Mississippi,” he says. “I didn’t have a big vision of what I could do. Memphis seemed forever away. It was like what someone who lives here might think about New York.”

“My relationship with the city didn’t really begin in earnest until I came back from Korea,” he says. “That’s when I started to think of Memphis as something breathing with its own personality.”

He says he’s always been into art, recalling how he didn’t have art classes in grade school and how he doodled his way through most of his classes. “I think drawing is something every kid does to a certain extent,” he says, “but like me, some people don’t grow up — and they keep doing it and somehow figure out how to pay taxes.”

But after college, Roy says he gave up painting murals for a while and instead focused on graffiti and illustration. “It used to be, like, no jobs; you would have to beg someone to come and let you paint their walls,” Roy says. “Now, everyone wants a mural. It’s very trendy now and I’m not sure how I feel about that.”

Post college, Roy moved to Korea in 2009 where he worked as a teacher and an illustrator. There, he says his interest for street art was piqued when he noticed paintings on soon-to-be demolished buildings during walks through the city. After four years, Roy returned to the States and made Memphis his home.

“My relationship with the city didn’t really begin in earnest until I came back from Korea,” he says. “That’s when I started to think of Memphis as something breathing with its own personality.”

Roy has been a professional full-time muralist for about seven years now. One of the first murals he was commissioned to do in Memphis lives on the walls behind Eclectic Eye in Midtown. “I have a soft spot for the piece behind Eclectic Eye,” he says. “It was one of the first murals I ever got paid for. That one was really important to me because it solidified my thoughts that this could be something that pays bills and keeps me fed.”

One wall of the folklore-inspired two-wall mural features a large-eyed creature submerged underwater with an alligator’s head rising above the surface of the water. The other wall portrays an alligator wrapped in a rope with cartoonish characters looking on.

Playful Style

Roy says his unique style is influenced by graffiti from the 1990s and 2000s. He’s also inspired by mythological and religious themes that tend to bleed into his work. Almost resembling robots or video game subjects, the playful characters often seen in his work are loosely based on cartoon characters from his youth. His style is meant to embrace those viewing his art, playfully pulling them into deeper subject matters.

“I watched cartoons obsessively on Saturday mornings as a kid,” he says. “I like using a cartoonish style because it allows me to talk about things that are traumatic, or on the high-end spectrum of emotions without it feeling as over-dramatic so people don’t tune out.”

Roy says all of his murals have an underlying — often personal — message or theme. “I draw habitually,” he says. “I’m always drawing. I think my work reflects me and what’s on my mind. It’s almost journal-based. It leans toward the narrative of my life. There’s a certain level of selfishness that hopefully connects with people.”

Roy is currently working on a memorial piece about his mom, who recently passed away. “She died really suddenly and I can talk about that through my art. If it’s in this style it’s not as hard or embarrassing. With a silly style, you can talk about really big things for you.”

The artist wants the piece honoring his mom to illustrate her relationship with him and the important role she played in his life.

“I just want her to know how proud I am of her,” he says. “I wish I had gotten the chance to say that to her. It’s too late, but I’m going to tell the whole world now.”

No Metaphors

On first glance one might not automatically associate the six-story mural adorning the side of a South Main parking garage with the style of Roy.

But in 2016 he worked with artist Derrick Dent to create the mural, which depicts black people and civil rights events with ties to Downtown Memphis. Roy says he mostly collaborated with Dent, who developed the concept for the piece.

The mural, a part of the Memphis Heritage Trail, features a timeline of nine different scenes beginning with slave refugee camps on Presidents Island during the Civil War to a modern-day black family. Roy says it’s meant to activate the mural and the person looking at it. “That was Derrick’s idea and I liked it a lot.”

The piece was a challenge to complete, though. “It was possibly the most challenging mural I’ve done,” Roy says. “It was physically, mentally, and emotionally demanding. It was hellacious. It was like 100 degrees and I was on a window scaffolding that broke a couple of times. It was really stressful.”

Once the mural was complete, Roy says he received criticism he wasn’t used to getting. “Usually my work is less confrontational, but doing the civil rights piece, I got some feedback I didn’t like.”

Though the mural has nearly been painted over or modified a couple of times, those efforts have failed and Roy is pleased. “We were taking on a real topic in a direct way,” Roy says. “I wasn’t hiding behind the metaphors or cartoon characters I usually get to. I’m glad I did it. I learned a lot.”

Leaving a Mark

Roy says he enjoys making murals because it reminds him of his roots in street art and graffiti. More importantly, it’s because of the community aspect of the work.

“I like the culture and community of it,” Roy says. “It’s different from painting on a canvas, because a canvas has no real relationship to the community. There’s not a real chance for interaction.”

“It’s something mesmerizing about being able to leave a mark so quickly,” he says. “If I have the right tools, I can make a hand bigger than me in half an hour.”

He also enjoys the relationships he’s able to form with other muralists in the city and beyond.

“I wouldn’t have a career right now if it weren’t for the kindness of artists in other communities inviting me out and finding me spaces to paint,” he says. “It feels important for me to pay that forward and keep the community watered.”

One way Roy pays it forward is through curating the Moonpie Project, a rotating series of murals at Crosstown Concourse. For the project, he invites artists from both Memphis and out of town to create pieces around Crosstown’s campus “with no themes and no rules. I invite the artists out and they do whatever they want.”

The project was started in memory of Roy’s friend and well-known Nashville muralist Brad Wells, who passed away in 2015.

With every mural Roy paints, he aims to paint a picture of his thoughts and emotions, while telling a story he hopes others can relate to. At the end of the day, Roy says he appreciates the opportunity to leave his mark.

“It’s something mesmerizing about being able to leave a mark so quickly,” he says. “If I have the right tools, I can make a hand bigger than me in half an hour.”