Artist Diana Kersey's ceramic panels on the Mulberry Avenue Bridge at Brackenridge Park whimsically depict the life cycle of the Texas Gulf Coast Toad, from mating to egg, to tadpole to toad again.
Kersey was commissioned to do the public art under the city's Public Art San Antonio program, and she chronicled the process on her blog, dianakersey.blogspot.com
Why the Gulf Coast Toad? "Just the other day I found a toad in my back yard and I picked him up and started telling him about the bridge," Kersey says. "I said I built a bridge in your honor. He didn't seem that impressed. But that's the point of what I'm trying to do with the bridge. You see the bridge, you learn about the life cycle of the Gulf Coast Toad. And then when you happen to see one in your backyard, it makes sense. You get that connection that toads are important to our environment. They are important to the macro system of San Antonio."
(To hear the toad's call, click on the Gluf Coast Toad's photo on this page at the Texas Parks and Wildlife site. Here is a very short video of the toad's call for a mate.) Here's the video: