Plight of Ybor City’s famous feathered fowl at heart of annual art exhibit

YBOR CITY, Fla. - Lynn Rattray’s passion for painting feathered fowl developed eight years ago when she saw a chicken sitting on the railroad tracks in Ybor City for the first time. “I sat there and started observing him,” Rattray explained. “The sun glinting off its feathers, the iridescence. I became enthralled with its beauty. It grabbed a part of my heart.” 

The retired school principal had just started painting and wanted to capture the essence of the chicken. “I got out my little brush and I painted 12 roosters," she said. "Partially out of my imagination. Partially out of my memory and photographs.”  

Over the years, Rattray gained worldwide attention for her artwork. It was even published in Chickens Magazine, an internationally-circulated periodical. Throughout February, her lively paintings and drawings will be on display at Tre Amici at the Bunker in the chicken’s hometown of Ybor City.

Though Rattray admits she’s been painting some of the same chickens repeatedly over the years, each painting is different. As she explains, “There is a new little spark of their personality that comes out in each painting.”

The paintings are based largely on Maisie Mae, the hen often referred to as the queen mother of the Ybor chickens. Rattray explained, “She was a little hen, tiny as tiny can be, but she ruled this place.” 

Rattray said she speaks with the chickens regularly and sometimes has to distance herself from her feathered friends because losing one of the birds is like losing a pet. She hopes the art exhibit brings awareness to the plight of the Ybor City chickens. “If you drive through Ybor on the streets, put your cellphone down, put your eyes on the road, and if you see a chicken in the middle of it, that chicken owns the right away,” Rattray said.

The annual ‘Chickens and Friends’ art exhibit can be seen for free at Tre Amici at the Bunker, 1907 North 19th Street, Ybor City, from 7 a.m. – 6 p.m.