Gavin Bird spent weeks in muddy boots amid January’s harsh winter weather, hand-scraping away old paint from a wall along the Longleaf Trace and replacing it with his own. The process required multiple trips, with Bird driving between Jackson and Hattiesburg to work on his mural. Upon applying the final touches, he stepped back one last time to gaze on the completed project and felt a rush of relief.
To the left of the mural, magnolia leaves grow along the wall, illuminated under the blue light of the night sky. A nighthawk looks up to the right at the sparkling stars reminiscent of those within Vincent van Gogh’s famous “The Starry Night.” Further into the mural, a raccoon leans over a pond, washing its paws.
Beside the raccoon is an adult opossum, a baby opossum riding its back. The baby’s mouth is open, perhaps screaming, perhaps cooing at the two nondescript birds that fly overhead. To the left sits a great horned owl and a barn owl, both looking toward the road, a pink and orange afterglow bordering the skyline and stars. Surrounded by leaves, a red fox gazes at the full moon.
The Hattiesburg Alliance for Public Art unveiled Bird’s mural, “We Only Come Out at Night,” on Jan. 28. The artwork is the 69th in Hattiesburg’s quest to become “The City of 100 Murals” and is the first completed for this project in 2026. Bird’s goal was for the mural to spotlight animals across Mississippi that people might see in their own backyards, from those that fly through the night skies he painted to the ones that can be found digging through the trash.
“It’s definitely a mural that is a little bit educational to ecotourism of the state of Mississippi, and I’m just excited that Hattiesburg Alliance for Public Art commissioned me to paint this mural, and that I got to showcase my individual skills and style,” Bird, 29, told the Mississippi Free Press.
A ‘Unicorn’ Proposal
Known for its work in Hattiesburg’s public art scene, HAPA commissioned Bird to paint the mural along the Longleaf Trace. The organization’s only request was for the mural to center around nocturnal animals native to Mississippi.
While the piece itself took about a month and a half to complete, plans for the mural had been in the works for more than a year. Marlo Dorsey, the CEO of Visit Hattiesburg, requested the piece after seeing a similar mural Bird created in Belzona, Mississippi, themed around ecotourism.
During that year, HAPA secured funding through grants, private donations and community support, along with permission from the business owner to use the location. With the financial hurdle surpassed, Bird began working on the project, asking photographer Brent McQuillan to document the process to create a video about the mural’s creation.
HAPA Program Director Kristen Brock explained that the mural was meant to blend two of Hattiesburg’s most appealing features: the outdoors and public arts.
“The Longleaf Trace is all about nature; it’s a converted biking and walking trail, and we have tens of thousands of visitors come in every year and locals to enjoy the Longleaf Trace,” Brock told the Mississippi Free Press. “We knew that we wanted it to be nature-themed, so Gavin was the obvious choice. We knew he had the skill, the talent and the interest to create a wildlife-themed mural.”
Painting mural art comes with many challenges, but one that many people don’t always see is how artists often have to adjust their own designs to fit the expectations of the party commissioning the work. Accommodating his client’s vision, however, does not take away from the fact that the mural embodies his own personal style and artistry.
“It is still my art, but there is nine times out of 10 some manipulation from the client for revisions,” Bird explained. “But this one I just kind of held close to my heart just because this was my initial idea and presentation, and I was just so excited that the design had just worked out so well, and it was just fully approved, and it was ready to go. And it’s just rare that that happens.”
Bird, who was born in Florida, moved to Mississippi at age 9 and currently resides in Jackson. He has always enjoyed painting nature-themed pieces, which he calls his “bread and butter,” as they allow him to be creative with his designs, he said. When it came to the HAPA requesting that he incorporate animals native to Mississippi, it was a straightforward request.
When he showed them his design, he never would have expected that HAPA would allow the mural to move forward without any revisions to his original proposal. He referred to this instance as “a unicorn” because of how rarely it happens within the public-art scene.
“So we were very clear with Gavin (with what) kind of the theme we were looking for and what we wanted this project to accomplish—and that was to showcase our local wildlife, but also inspire runners to just keep on going when they’re running and walking down the Trace,” Brock said. “He came back with exactly what we were envisioning, and he did a great job of making sure that the wildlife that was featured was actually native to Hattiesburg, and it was a beautiful display.”
‘Inspire the Next Generation’
This was not the first time that Bird had worked with HAPA. He has created several murals for the organization in the past. One reason HAPA requested Bird, Brock said, was to showcase how much he has grown as an artist since he first began working with the organization. Furthermore, Brock has seen firsthand how Bird’s murals benefit the community through one he previously painted for HAPA. The mural, “Nature’s Way,” consists of two side-street murals spanning more than 2,000 square feet located near Hawkins Elementary in Hattiesburg.
“We were able to create not just a visually beautiful piece of art, but we were able to give the students who attend and walk in the neighborhood from their homes to the elementary school an interactive, fun way to get to school,” Brock said. “So we are able to inspire the next generation of artists through Gavin’s work by giving them a way to interact with his art each and every day.”
Beyond improving his abilities as an artist, Bird said his goal is to create murals that benefit the community. He hopes that his work will not only beautify an area but also strengthen the identity of the community and the people within the space as well.
“With every single mural that I paint, I try to grow as an artist—with every single one—and I’m always trying to push my boundaries as much as possible as well,” Bird said. “With this one specifically, it was definitely just the level of detail that I was able to achieve with the spray can and then just really experimented with some techniques.”
Once, a man once told Bird that the murals he paints for a living are his own legacy that he creates through public art, he recalled. The comment stayed with the 29-year-old artist and continues to influence the way he approaches his work.
Despite once believing he could never make a living as an artist and knowing that his murals have a limited lifespan, Bird has built a career doing what he loves and made a name for himself. With every mural he creates, he hopes that people will see the effort and care he puts into each design.
“As far as what people just, like, take away from the mural, … I just hope that people appreciate it,” Bird said. “I love doing it, and I really try to pour my heart and soul into each design. So I just hope people appreciate it and enjoy it. And I do hope it helps build a sense of community and pride for where they live, too.”
When Bird first came to Hattiesburg to paint a mural, he was what Brock referred to as an emerging artist, but now he is being commissioned across Mississippi and beyond.
Bird recently completed a project in Louisiana and has some additional upcoming projects planned in Chattanooga, Tennessee. While he still loves Mississippi, Bird hopes to continue to grow as an artist and expand his work into other states. With funding from a fellowship grant the Mississippi Arts Commission awarded him, Bird plans to find a location in which he can create a mural completely his own, without having to change his design to fit someone else’s vision.
The video of Bird painting the mural can be found on his YouTube page.
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