Magic For His Brain 

April 30, 2026

Photo and Story by Amanda Greene

Kyle works with one color at a time, “Well, I’m gonna go paint some yellow.” Next he grabs “In The Pink” and “Sky Blue,” filling in sections of the mural like a kid would color in a coloring book. When he gets to “Real Red” he paints a red line around a dog’s neck, red stripes on a fox tail, a red bow tie on the elephant, a red bird beak, red mushroom cap, one red horse hoof, red stripes on a horse leg, a red dot on the cheek of a dog-critter, and a red chest and tail of a bird. Some of the colors are “magic” for Kyle’s brain: the red, the dark blue. He says seeing the paint go on the surface soothes him, calms his mind. This job site in downtown Atlanta is the opposite of calm. Construction at Garnet MARTA station involves a wood chipper, chain saws, concrete saws. Atlanta’s pretrial detention center is a block away. But Kyle paints, bringing his scene to life with the addition of each color.

Kyle Brooks describes himself as a street folk artist and goes by the sobriquet BlackCatTips. He looks like Snoopy’s brother Spike, both are tall and slim with distinguished whiskers. Kyle’s work depicts animals with long snoots, pointed tails and ears, sneaky eyes with black lashes. Eyes end up on shapes. Kyle thinks that eyeballs help things come alive so he puts extra eyes here and there. Sometimes the tail of one animal is also the snoot of another. He paints black and white outlines and a distinct style of lettering and says, “You can make one brush do multiple things if you use it right.” He paints on wood scraps, lids of pots and pans, old signs, plywood. His “street poems,” painted strips of wood with words on them, can be seen on power poles around town:

LET GO HARDER

I GOT REAL HUNGRY

SLOPPY POLLENATION

Traffic goes by in surges of police cars, e-bikes and scooters, pedestrians of all sorts. Kyle placed some plastic buckets around his work site and draped orange flagging tape between them, but people still come up uncomfortably close to talk. He gets compliments, questions, requests, and advice. He gives a can of soup to a man, a bottle of water to another, and he doesn’t loan a third man a hammer when asked. A round-shaped man in a raggedy polo shirt approaches Kyle, out of breath and sweating, holding a bunch of happy birthday balloons and one of those edible arrangements. He asks to borrow a bucket. Kyle has a cracked bucket that he lets the guy take. The balloon man leaves the balloons and the edible arrangement with Kyle, as collateral. He never comes back. Kyle abandons the balloons on the sidewalk and decides the arrangement wasn’t edible after all, and tosses it. Cup of paint in one hand, brush in the other, Kyle smooths on more color, more magic, on a wall in downtown Atlanta. 

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Thanks to my friend Amanda Greene for this story and photograph.

See you soon,
Kyle BlackCatTips Brooks