Five Fort Knox gun safes at GameMasters in Quincy are getting a treatment you won't find in a typical sporting goods aisle: hand-painted murals of mallards, pheasants, coyotes, elk and a whitetail buck, applied safe by safe over several days just ahead of deer season. The man behind the brush is Ryan Kirby, a professional wildlife artist who has spent the week turning the shop's bulky metal boxes into one-of-a-kind pieces.
A Live Art Showcase on the Sales Floor
GameMasters is hosting the project as a live art showcase, letting customers watch hand-painted wildlife murals take shape on gun safes right in the store, according to WGEM. Kirby, who has worked as a full-time wildlife artist for 15 years, told the station the appeal is watching the process unfold in person as each safe becomes a unique product rather than a factory-standard unit. The idea came from Trevor, the owner of GameMasters, who reached out to Kirby over the summer about transforming standard safes into unique art pieces, per the same report.
For this project, the canvas isn't drywall — it's steel.
Painting Metal Instead of Canvas
Kirby says the medium itself presents its own puzzle. The safes' shiny, glossy metal behaves nothing like a white canvas with its matte texture and absorbency, the artist explained, per WGEM's report. Colors also shift depending on whether the background underneath is white or dark, forcing him to make adjustments on the fly as he works, he said.
To get ahead of those challenges, Kirby pre-visualized each piece using photos of the safes before ever picking up a brush, according to the station. Some of the safes weigh between 1,000 and 1,500 pounds, he noted.
From an Illinois Farm to Full-Time Wildlife Art
Kirby grew up on a family farm near Hamilton, Illinois, a detail he shares on his own site, where wild animals became his subject early on. He has said he has been drawing and painting wildlife since 1989, and he spent seven years working for the National Wild Turkey Federation before deciding he could do more good for the outdoor community as a painter, according to Mossy Oak. He launched his own venture, Ryan Kirby Art, on May 10, 2012.
His work has drawn attention well beyond Quincy. The Southeastern Wildlife Exposition describes how his subject matter quickly became wild things once he committed to the craft. Kirby also sells prints and original artwork through GameMasters, giving local customers a chance to take home more than just a photo of the finished safes.
Wrapping Up Before the Weekend
The mural series is timed to the calendar: Kirby is working on the safes in-store for several days ahead of the opening of deer season, giving hunters and shoppers a reason to stop by before gearing up. He plans to finish the final whitetail safe Saturday morning, according to WGEM, closing out a week that turned a row of ordinary gun safes into a gallery of mallards, pheasants, coyotes, elk and a whitetail buck.
