Mononymous painter Bruce has carved a lucrative niche on social media with his abstract artworks, crafted entirely from the colourful juices of fruits. He has garnered over 37,000 Instagram followers, and is revelling in a wave of Tumblr fame. His works – vivid, contemporary, bold – have been published across two separate books.
Bruce, age 17, is also a parrot.
The green-and-blue patched parrotlet is one of 10 birds to gain online fame after their owner, Vancouver resident Tina Kirmis, began posting videos and meme-worthy photographs of her feathered friends to Instagram page @follow_the_feathers.
Among them were videos of Bruce in his “berry-eating dome”, a glass structure designed by Kirmis to protect her kitchen walls from the bird’s messy eating habits.
Videos show Bruce demolishing his berries with such gusto that bits splatter around the dome, leaving Jackson Pollock-esque paintings on the sheets of paper she leaves underneath.
People “just can’t get enough” of the videos, says Kirmis, and Bruce, unbeknownst to him, has become a breakout star.
Kirmis, who volunteers with Vancouver’s Greyhaven Exotic Bird Sanctuary and has adopted 17 beaked companions thus far, says she finds it impossible to leave behind a bird in need.
“I’m a sucker for the ones without feathers,” she says, reeling off the 10 winged roommates she currently shares her apartment with.
There are five budgies, two cockatiels, two parrotlets, and a 50-year-old Amazon parrot, named Sonny. They all fly and they all, much to people’s surprise, says Kirmis, have their own personalities.
A budgie named Betty is the feistiest of the lot – “She was so mean, I actually had to wear a jean jacket, a scarf, and safety glasses when I let her out,” Kirmis says – although she’s simmered down in recent years.
Budgies Betty and Barney are in the middle of a blossoming love affair. Mildred, a second parrotlet, is “the boss,” despite her miniature size. Winston, who was adopted as a friend for Willie, prefers human companionship. All he wants to do, says Kirmis, “is snuggle.”
Then, of course, there’s Bruce, the social media influencer. Mukbang star. Artist. Philanthropist. (His books, “Bruce’s Berry Good Art” and “Bruce In His Berry Eating Dome,” raise funds for bird sanctuaries Greyhaven and The Nest.)
“It’s kind of like a soap opera, with so many things going on among all the birds,” Kirmis laughs.
@Follow_The_Feathers follows the antics of Kirmis’ ten mischievous birds. (Courtesy: Tina Kirmis)
Kirmis says she began the social media account in jest to showcase the funny side of bird ownership to close friends, but as the fans accumulated, she saw the opportunity to teach possible pet owners a valuable lesson.
The majority of Kirmis’ flock are rescues and some of them are plagued with significant health issues. Owning a bird – regardless of how small it may be – is no walk in the park, she says.
“I haven’t been on vacation since 2010,” she laughs, “my vet bills last year were literally the same as my rent.”
Bruce, who was adopted into the home eight years ago, has heart and liver issues and cataracts in both eyes. Sonny, who is 50 but still surprisingly young for his species, can no longer fly or perch and is scheduled eight medications a day. He’s still very much content with life however, assures Kirmis, given his regularly exercised hobbies of playing with toys, eating, and receiving head scratches.
“The level of care can be a lot. They’re little family members, so you have to keep them and care for them like the precious little souls that they are,” she says.
The flock requires food once a day and fresh water multiple times a day. Areas of the house have had to be bird-proofed – the legs of a dining room table, victim to one bird’s incessant pecking, now has to wear socks. Even bedtime, she adds, is no longer something of her own.
“They all go to bed at 7:30 p.m., and then I’m kicked out of the living room.”
Kirmis’ blames her fondness for fowl on the first ever bird she owned, a budgie, bought in 2003, named Elvis.
The “smartest, coolest little bird you could ever meet,” she says it was his loveable, animated character that had encouraged her to continue adding to her ever-growing flock.
Twenty-one years and 17 birds later, she ponders, with a laugh, how different her life could have been if she had never adopted that first little fellow. She wouldn’t have Bruce smattering raspberries up her kitchen walls, or the chatter of parrotlets distracting her while she’s working from home. She wouldn’t have to bird-proof her home, or frequent the vets as often.
Her life, she says, wouldn’t have been half as exciting.