House Wren by Carla Torres

Take heed to the chook on this mural!

Painted: 6/23/2025

In regards to the Mural: On this mural by artist Carla Torres, a Home Wren pops amid vibrant blooms of frequent milkweed. As a part of the Audubon Mural Project—a public-art initiative drawing consideration to birds which are weak to extinction from local weather change—NYC Parks’ Artwork within the Parks program and NYC Parks GreenThumb labored with the Nationwide Audubon Society, Gitler &_____ Gallery, and native artists to design murals in group gardens throughout the town. By means of a collaborative course of between the companions, artist, and backyard group, every mural was designed to function climate-threatened birds in addition to native plants that birds depend on for meals and shelter. By creating vibrant city inexperienced areas, group gardeners present important help for birds and folks. Discover extra murals from the collaboration here.

This mural was created with Lydia’s Magic Garden in East Harlem. The backyard was first established in 1991 by Lydia Roman, who reworked a number of tons within the space into inexperienced areas to help the neighborhood. At this time, backyard members proceed to develop produce for the group and share the worth of outside exercise.

In regards to the Chicken: The Home Wren is a well-known and energetic neighborhood chook with a wealthy effervescent tune, subtly patterned brown plumage, and a brief tail that it typically holds excessive within the air. It’s steadily discovered zipping across the timber to snap up bugs or nesting in nest bins close to human houses. Artist Carla Torres says she wished to function the wren to name consideration to the small and customary species that will get missed. “That’s why I picked the Home Wren, as a result of it’s our pal,” Torres says. “It’s your neighbor chook that at all times chirps.”

Although it’s widespread right this moment, the Home Wren nonetheless faces threats from a altering local weather: If warming continues at its present tempo, the species is ready to lose greater than half of its summer season vary, in response to Audubon’s Survival By Degrees report. Taking motion to restrict warming can assist these neighbors proceed to thrive throughout a wider swath of habitats. In the meantime, sustaining pockets of city inexperienced house like group gardens—and populating them with native vegetation—can ensure the birds have the areas and bug gasoline they want.

In regards to the Artist: Carla Torres is a visible artist who works throughout a number of media together with drawing, portray, illustration, animation, and murals. Initially from Ecuador, she relocated to New York Metropolis in 2006. Since then her work has been exhibited in a number of galleries domestically and internationally together with the Queens Museum and the Noguchi Museum. Her work has additionally been awarded prestigious illustration awards within the US, Canada, and Europe. Torres has been commissioned from varied metropolis organizations, together with the Metropolis of New York Division of Transportation City Artwork Program, the Garment District Alliance, and the New York Well being and Hospitals Arts in Medication Program. 

This backyard mural showcases Torres’s fashion of utilizing a restricted palette of flat colours—knowledgeable by her background as a graphic designer—and of making works that mix harmoniously with their atmosphere. Through the portray course of, she says one of many highlights was interacting with the teams of people that would typically hang around on the road close to the backyard. “I principally made buddies,” Torres says. “I had an viewers for the mural.”