Bird tends to paint figures from history and popular culture such as Christopher Walken, Chuck Norris, and Abraham Lincoln, in absurd situations. He has also organized four "weird art shows": Law & Order: These Are Their Stories consisted solely of paintings inspired by the TV series Law & Order and featured art by Bird and contemporaries such as Michael Kupperman, Jason Polan, and Kate Beaton, The Norton Anthology was a group of portraits of Edward Norton, the western-themed Days of Boom and Bust: New Art from the Gold Rush, and an earlier Law & Order-themed show, "Artistic Intent" in 2003. On January 20, 2004, Bird's Law & Order-inspired coloring book, Law & Order: An Adventure to Color!, was presented to the show's star, Jerry Orbach, on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Bird's work was featured in a July 2010 Newsweek gallery entitled "Portraits of Celebrity Weirdness", giving an overview of his works and the inspiration behind several of his paintings. He is a regular contributor to The Believer. He has also done work for Las Vegas Weekly. Bird is a longtime friend of California rock band The Aquabats, and has designed many of their T-shirts and promotional material. Most notably, he painted the covers for their 2004 EP Yo! Check Out This Ride! and the "One Year Anniversary Edition" of their 2005 album Charge!!, as well as having illustrated a coloring book entitled "Trouble at the Rodeo". More recently, he has contributed to the band's television series, The Aquabats! Super Show!. His website won a 2005 People's Voice Webby Award under the "Weird" category. He is an associate member of the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. Reviewing his work for tor.com, Bridget McGovern said that "it's really not an exaggeration to say that Brandon Bird has managed to capture the soul of everything fun about pop culture in paint and canvas."
Work
Original works
These are some examples of the work displayed on Bird's website:
Norton by Bird - A miniature Edward Norton on a cherry branch in a Japanese art style
Norton Defiant - A portrait of Edward Norton
Of Bajor - A five-part map-style depiction of the planet Bajor from '. An extrapolation of events past the conclusion of the series, Captain Sisko has returned to life and resides with his new family in the house he promised to build.
A Night Away - A scene of Jerry Orbach and Sam Waterston from Law & Order sitting around a campfire, playing acoustic guitar and singing, for Joy MacCay
Our Last, Best Hope - Another James Woods-central commission for Richard Kyanka, in which five instances of James Woods pose with guns, dressed as members of Stony Man
Yo Guernica! - A parody for Zack Parsons of Pablo Picasso's Guernica featuring an attack by Cobra from G.I. Joe
Charge!! One Year Anniversary Edition - A cover design for the one-year anniversary special edition re-issue of The Aquabats' 2005 album Charge!!.
Yo! Check Out This Ride! EP - The cover of the Aquabats 2004 EP depicting members of the Aquabats on horses with one lassoing a creature.
