Island Music Company Partners with Shop 53 Custom Tattoo & Art Studio to Recognize La Plata as MD’s First Bird Town

Whether you’re a local or a visitor to Southern Maryland, you’ll notice birding art on display throughout the city. These art projects were created to represent La Plata, Maryland as Maryland’s first bird town! La Plata is recognized as the premier bird town due to its efforts to implement good bird conservation practices by educating the community and improving conditions for birds to thrive there.

Island Music Company and Shop 53 Custom Tattoo and Art Studio were eager to participate in this project! Keith Grasso, owner of Island Music Company, and Shannon Wang, owner of Shop 53 and Bird City Records, designed beautiful illustrations of birds on the sidewalk leading to Island Music Company.

They decided to replicate the same bird art inlay seen on every Paul Reed Smith guitar fingerboard. Paul Reed Smith is Maryland’s most famous guitar company! Grasso says, “This is a unique opportunity to combine the musical designation with La Plata and create a sense of community on the Island Music campus. What a great opportunity to tie it all together! The sidewalk leads to the ‘La Plata Loves Music’ mural and then to our front door. This is our version of “The Yellow Brick Road”.

Shannon Wang was excited to take on this project as it fits perfectly with her business. Wang says, “I’m not just a huge fan of birds, but we were able to tie it all together and use our Shop 53 talent to create the artwork while spreading the story of La Plata and raising awareness of Maryland’s first bird. City!” Wang’s love for the city of La Plata and the birds inspired the name of his record store, Bird City Records.

After Mayor Jeanine James stopped by to see the finished project, she shared more details about the history of Maryland’s first bird town. “We are thrilled to be named Maryland’s premier bird town! It’s such a great opportunity to beautify our city and bring our community together in such a unique way! Mayor James also shared details about the official city bird being the Purple Martin and mentioned that there is more bird art to come. Mayor James said, “Be on the lookout for more unique bird art that will soon appear in the La Plata community!”

What better way is there to bring the beautiful city of La Plata, Maryland together other than with the music, art, birds, common goals and love of their people to make their city beautiful? Be sure to stop by Island Music Company to experience their very own “Yellow Brick Road!”

For more information, contact Island Music Company at 301-392-3960.