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A crowd of children and their guardians, a gaggle of artists, a murder of musicians, guest speakers and the mayor gathered in front of the St. Johns Library on Friday, Aug. 7. All had come to see a 5-foot-tall painted crow. It’s one of 30 such sculptures now spread throughout the city as part of Wildwood: Follow the Crows, an art installation Laika organized around its latest stop-motion movie, Wildwood, which hits theaters Oct. 23.
The movie is based on a book of the same name written by Colin Meloy of The Decemberists and illustrated by his wife, Du Iz Tak? author Carson Ellis. The story begins with a 12-year-old girl, Prue, and her baby brother, Mac, visiting this very same St. Johns Library.
A murder of crows abducts the baby, much like the goblins in Labyrinth, but instead of taking him to David Bowie, the crows deposit baby Mac deep in Forest Park, aka “the untamed wilderness.” To rescue her brother, Prue must journey into the woods, where she encounters all sorts of Pacific Northwest creatures, like a coyote army and an owl in charge of his own principality.
Similar to the Coraline cats dispersed around town two years ago, this project is a collaboration between Laika and OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital with help from the U.K.-based group Wild in Art that organizes public “art trails.” Portland Metro Chamber and Downtown Portland Clean & Safe also worked on the project, which, aside from the guerrilla marketing aspects, is ultimately a fundraiser for Doernbecher.
The crows will be on display until Nov. 1 and will be auctioned off on Nov. 15. You can stumble upon them about town or track them down on a paper map. But perhaps it’s most fun to hunt for them on the gamified, Pokémon-like app put out by Wild in Art. It costs $1.49, but you can log all your crow sightings and win prizes.
The movie is coming out 15 years after the release of the New York Times bestseller and has been in development since publication. It’s been five years since the movie was announced and, now that the moment is about to arrive, the excitement is palpable.
Before the unveiling of the first crow, on which Laika artists had painted a map from the book, Meloy and Ellis held court in front of the library. Several generations of readers surrounded the author and illustrator, telling of reading the books to their now-grown kids and asking for pictures and autographs. “We’ve been so lucky to watch Laika bring this world to life,” Ellis told the crowd. “Not only the woods, not only those characters from that story, but also our city. It’s been really moving and kind of profound to see that world built in miniature by this army of brilliant, creative, technically skilled people.”
Thirty local artists were chosen from 214 applicants to paint the giant crows. They make a diverse group. There’s a footwear designer, a botanist, and an incoming Portland State University student.
Local children’s artist Mike Bennett, known around town for his cartoon yard signs and art installations, also made the cut. Touring the “crows nest,” a warehouse workshop where all 30 crows were painted and stored, Bennett described stretching his skill set for the project. He adapted his usual 2D style for his Crow of a Different Color, a nod to the horse of a different color in The Wizard of Oz. The lavender crow has Bennett’s signature cartoon style in the eyes and broad feathers. It guards Lincoln High School a bit warily.
“It was tough,” he said, “but I think it paid off, and I’m really proud of it,” adding that participating in the project felt like “tooting that ‘Portland is amazing’ horn.”
Artists had time to plan their designs, but were only allowed a month in the nest to execute them. Each received a standard-issue blank crow and decorated it with house paint and paint pens before weatherproofing the sculpture with a layer of epoxy. Artists said they spent anywhere from 10 to 50 hours on their crows.
Emma van Halsema, a set dresser at Laika by day, was also among the 30 artists selected. She described the feeling of the communal workspace as “like camp,” and mentioned that she could hear the infamous downtown Portland crows while she was working on her design, Oregon Botanica, which is inspired by antique vases.
“As Portlanders,” she said, “we are so in awe of the crows.”
Seattle artist Jordan Mason’s crow is titled As the Crow Flies. It looks like a topographical map, which she says was inspired by the maps in the book.“It was more physically intensive to paint than I was anticipating,” Mason said. “I think we were all laying on the floor at some point.”
Ana Gabriela, a muralist who has work up around the city, including at PSU, said her crow, Heart of the Forest, was inspired by her own childhood spent in Forest Park. It features native plants and young deer over a dark background. “More than anything, Heart of the Forest is a celebration of how everything in nature is connected,” Gabriela said. “It’s a reminder that even the smallest plants, animals and ecosystems play an important role in keeping our forests healthy and alive.”
Olivia Mount, a horse trainer and self-described “small” artist who specializes in pet portraits, said her crow, Emergence, was inspired by the contrast of dark and light. Its blue-gray base is spotted with orange, white and blue floral patterns. The self-taught artist says she hopes her crow “encourages people to remember that growth is possible, even in life’s darkest moments.”
While the crows are the “bad guys” in Wildwood, judging from the overwhelming response in-person and on social media thus far, Portland seems pretty warm on its giant crows.
SEE IT: Wildwood: Follow the Crows, ohsufoundation.org/wildwood-follow-the-crows. See the website for a map of locations. Aug. 7–Nov. 1.
