MIAMI (WSVN) - The artist of a mural of Netflix’s hit docuseries “Tiger King” in Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood has added more to the mural to pay tribute to frontline healthcare workers.
Muralist Kyle Holbrook’s inspiration for starting the work on Northwest Fifth Avenue and 36th Street will be pretty relatable to some people in South Florida.
“It’s 16 feet high initially, when it was just the ‘Tiger King.’ We added another 10 feet, so now it’s 26 feet high,” he said. “Like us all, I have been home. I was bored.”
Holbrook normally paints themes of a more serious nature, such as stopping gun violence, domestic violence and autism awareness.
However, this time, he said, because the world is so serious, he just wanted to distract people a bit.
“I wanted to do something that was just fun and could be lighthearted, that people could look at it and just smile,” Holbrook said.
He also saw an opportunity, on the side of the Pinnacle affordable housing community, to send a clear message about our healthcare workers and first responders.
“I wanted to use that leverage from the ‘Tiger King’ to memorize the real heroes,” Holbrook said. “We’re all indebted to what they’re doing.”
Joseph Maldonado-Passage, also known as Joe Exotic, has become a cult hero of sorts. He was sentenced to 22 years in prison for what included killing five tigers and trying to hire a hit man on a rival, but Holbrook said fans of the series see him more as a character study.
“It’s really difficult to come up with a character that has that many angles and is that multifaceted, and I think as humans, we all are,” Holbrook said.
Holbrook added that the mural and all of his other works are meant to inspire and pick up the neighborhoods around them.
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