Artist behind SF’s iconic ‘Bird Song’ mural dies at 47

Local artist Joshua Coffy, whose bright, animal-inspired murals adorn homes and buildings around San Francisco, died Dec. 20 from complications related to kidney failure, according to a GoFundMe a colleague posted to support his family. He was 47 years old.

Coffy was a prolific artist and a champion of San Francisco’s arts scene. He produced hundreds of paintings, prints and drawings, many of which he gave away for free. His unique style, which overlaid lifelike animals on abstract designs and collages of textures, was popular among local galleries. He also mentored scores of artists through a program he helped develop at San Francisco nonprofit ArtSpan. 

“His fingerprints are literally all over the arts in San Francisco,” Joen Madonna, executive director of ArtSpan, told SFGATE. 

Coffy grew up in a small town in Ohio. As a child, his grandmother took him birdwatching, a fascination that later carried into his artwork. He was inspired to become an artist by legendary modernist painter Georgia O’Keefe, whom he referred to as his “art auntie,” according to his close friend Lisa Kurt. As an adult, Coffy supported himself by drawing the chalkboard signs at the SoMa Trader Joe’s, before taking a leap of faith in 2012 and turning art into his full-time job. 

“When he was able to quit Trader Joe’s and just do art, he thought he just won the lottery of life,” Madonna said. “He brought that incredible enthusiasm and commitment to everything.”

Coffy painted his first mural, “Bird Song #3,” a few years later. In the mural, which covers the entire side of a building on Market and South Van Ness, a barn swallow perches on a rock, its song spilling out of its beak in swirls of bright color. 

Once going into art full-time, he quickly established himself as a muralist, painting designs of bears, birds and bison on San Francisco homes and inside his son’s elementary school, as well as designing murals for the SF Marathon, a Noise Pop Block Party and the Treasure Island Music Festival. 

As a longtime attendee of Burning Man, Coffy incorporated the principles of the art festival into his daily life, Kurt said. Coffy was especially ardent about the principle of gifting. In 2012, he undertook a yearlong art project, which he called “The Gift Prolific.” Every day, he gave someone a gift, and every night he made a painting about the day’s gift. At that year’s Burning Man, he displayed all of the paintings in a gallery and gave them away for free. 

Five years ago, Coffy’s kidneys began to fail. Dialysis treatments stopped him from returning to Burning Man, but he continued to give away art, according to Madonna, including regularly leaving paintings on park benches for passersby to take home. His giving also extended beyond his art practice: Madonna recalls that whenever she called Coffy to ask for help on an ArtSpan program, he would agree before she even told him what the favor was.

“Every time he could do something for someone, he would,” she said.

Coffy’s wife Theresa Summer said that her husband was “always volunteering” and would go out of his way to help people. “He had a lot of crazy ideas that he just wanted to make happen,” she wrote in an email to SFGATE. “And I would try my best to help!”

Kurt told SFGATE that for years Coffy went from door to door, raising money for charities. “When he believed in something and he believed it was right, he would just do it, and do it, and do it,” Kurt said.

Kurt remembers him as an “ever-giving” man who cared deeply for his wife and son, as well as his many close friends. He was warm, mischievous and, above all, generous, sharing his time, attention and care without hesitation. “If you’re friends with Josh Coffy, it’s like a special club that you’re part of,” she said. 

Coffy is survived by Summer, his wife of 16 years, and his son, Darwin Summer Coffy.