Wildwood Crows #1

I apologize for the length of this one! I wanted to get every single crow into it. As it is, at crow #25, I realized the length was just becoming unreasonable, and I broke my post in half. You can just skim through – it’s ok. Have fun! Pick a favourite! There are 30 crows in total, and I’ll post the rest tomorrow. ❤

Pedro and I saw the movie Wildwood Sunday night. I recently completed my quest to find all the Wildwood crows from the crow art trail recently. I thought it would be good to combine the two events and get a post out before the crows are gone. The free art walk of crows has been around the area for three months, but October 31 & November 1 will be at the Darcelle XV Plaza together for a photo op, then they will be auctioned off with all proceeds going to OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital.

Movie thoughts: I’ll add those at the end of post #2. Go see it though! It’s a love letter to Portland. Every single scene had something iconic from here. If not from Portland proper, from the area. It is phenomenal how many distinct regional things are captured clearly in the movies, beginning with our marvelous crows.

Three crows are set along the real Wildwood trail. The movie is named after this trail. The crows at Pittock Mansion, at the Bird Alliance, and at the International Rose Test Garden.

The crow above is titled On A Mission, by artist Nelson Lowry, and sponsored by LAIKA. (It is also pictured at the top of the post.) LAIKA is a stop-motion animation studio based in Portland, that made the movie Wildwood that is currently in a theatre near you. I had multiple sweet interactions with people in the city while hunting crows, and the first of them was here, at Pittock Mansion. When a couple noticed that I was photographing the crow, they offered to leave their seat at the picnic table, so I could get a shot with no people.

Two years ago, LAIKA studios (pronounced Lyka) was involved in a similar program to advertise and also to make money for the children’s hospital, when they installed 31 Coraline cats around Portland. I thought since I found all of those cats, that I should commit to finding all of the crows this time. Crows are a perfect animal to represent Portland, as there are thousands of them in our city, roosting and pooping from the thousands of trees inside city limits. Trees fill with crows in the wintertime and look like countless black berries on the branches. Clouds of crows fill the skies. Cawcauphonies of crows drown out city noises at times. People love or hate the crows, but they are here, no matter how we feel about it.

The crow above is titled Kindred Spirits, by artist Lil Hobbit Cosmonaut. It reflects the cooperation and assistance between Choctaw Nation in the US, that collected money to send to Ireland during the potato famine. The information panel omits a more recent chapter of the story, when people in Ireland took up a collection to send to the Choctaw Nation during COVID.

Kindred Spirits was my first crow, and probably my favourite, though it’s hard to choose. I am disappointed that my very first crow was this one, because I wasn’t into the groove yet. We had limited time and as soon as we found it, I began strategizing to find the next one. Later, I learned to slow down, and look at each crow from every angle, from far away, from very close, and with intent. If I had come later, I would have taken many more shots of the astounding amount of detail in its feathers.

Pedro and I had to get clever with the crow titled Dusk, by artist KSRA. The entire time we were there, a large box truck was trying to park close to the fence. Beep! Beep! Beep! as it backed up, didn’t like that spot, pulled forward, and backed up again. Beep! Beep! Beep! try again, try again. Noisy and ugly. We did manage to crop the truck out of every shot, swooping in during times when it pulled away, then leaping out of the way when it came back.

Anyway, Dusk could have been the crow in St. Johns because it has the St. Johns Bridge on its chest and the trees from Forest Park. This promenade at Tom McCall Waterfront Park is also in Wildwood. This is a very movie-themed bird.

On the way to this crow, we passed beneath trees filled with crows, and I stopped to pick up two feathers from the ground, thinking they needed to be with the crow statues. Here I was, thinking how unique my idea, when I arrived and found a dozen other crow feathers already stuck into the platform! Portland minds think alike. I looked back at the images of Kindred Spirits, and see that it has crow feathers too, and I simply hadn’t noticed.

Look at the detail in the painting of Sakura Hanami by artist Maya McDarragh above. This beautiful crow could have been at Tom McCall Waterfront Park, since that’s where our most famous cherry blossom trees are, and the Japanese American memorial. The trees blossom in the movie Wildwood.

Heart of the Forest by Ana the Artist is located on the Wildwood trail at the Bird Alliance, which feels like another movie reference. In the movie, there are communities that live near each other who believe they are against each other. One of them is the Avian Principality, which consists of all birds except crows, which have been compelled or bewitched to obey the malicious orders of Alexandra the Dowager Countess. This was a contender for a favourite crow of mine, because of the highly detailed flora and fauna on the feathers.

Sir Timber Cawthorne by artist Lizzy Keenan was placed in a postition of honor at the International Rose Test Garden. I caught him in the low light of afternoon and it made his wooden feathers glow. Please note the owl in his eye, and the box of treasures at his feet. The note invited people to add and to take from the box. I opened it up and looked inside to find that people probably arrived here unprepared, and donated whatever they had on them: business cards, stickers, feathers, roses, a postcard, some sticks, and dried seed pods.

How did I find all the crows, you ask? I downloaded the app for the art trail! Above, I included some screen shots so that you can see what it looks like on my phone. I clicked the little icon titled “Map,” and it would show my current location on an interactive map that prominently displayed crow locations. If you click this map link, it will show you a similar map on a .pdf.

It’s easy to visit A Murder Huddle and Stash together, if you’ve been training as a speed walker for years, like I have done on the Belle Brigade. The two installations are on either side of the Tilikum Crossing Bridge – Portland’s only pedestrian/bike bridge with no cars allowed. It does allow city busses and the MAX lightrail train though. This crow of crows is absolutely gorgeous. Note the crow foot that curls around the leg of the crow statue.

A local podcast that I love is called the City Cast Portland, that has hosted a crow specialist. The specialist said that a group of crows is also called a flock, and he prefers to use that term because he thinks the word “murder” gives crows a bad name. The host of the show countered that the word murder is more sexy and is good advertisement, attracting people who otherwise might not pay any attention to crows. I can see the argument for both. In the movie, the word murder is used, and the crows are definitely made out to be in collusion with the villain. It’s not a good look for crows.

Feathers and Flowers seeks to educate, with many local plants and fungi depicted, and a numbered legend on its tail, allowing people to find the names.

Bloom was the only crow I found that had bird food left at its feet. There were dried cranberries and peanuts left, which I thought was especially thoughtful of someone.

On another trip out to hunt for crows, I went first to the suburb called St. Johns. It is far from all the other crow locations, but a beloved town to me. I have spent a lot of time there, since Kellen’s fiancé, Cameron, grew up there and I drove the kids back and forth to spend time together when they were in high school and dating. Then my long time friend, Vladimir, moved there from Honolulu, and he also does not drive, so I went there often and we walked Cathedral Park, shown in the image above. That gorgeous bridge is iconic of Portland, has been in multiple movies, and is prominently featured in the movie Wildwood.

Carson Ellis, the artist of the yellow crow The World of Wildwood, lives in Portland and with her partner, Colin Meloy, lead singer of the Decemberists, who wrote the book Wildwood. The crow displays a map of the worlds in Wildwood, and key landmarks from the story. This was another location where I met lovely people. They pulled up to the library in their truck – saw that I was taking photos of the crow – and hollered through the open window, “Hold on! We will move!”

On a telephone pole in St. Johns, I saw an ad proclaiming ICE OUT! with information about resistance of our fascist-leaning government. There was also an ad for a Fruity Slumber Party drag show, and also Drag Bingo and birthday party. There was an ad for a local civics talk on what to know about voting in the upcoming midterm elections. On the side of a building in downtown Portland, I saw my first billboard ad for the movie. I recently heard there is a movie everyone is talking about: You Can See Everything. It was a surprise. I had never heard of it. The only one we are talking about here is Wildwood.

The adornment on Emergence simply sparkled in the sunshine. My first three crows were on a cloudy day, because Pedro and I happened to be in Portland for another event. Every day I hunted crows after that, I chose to head out in the sunshine. Portland blessed us with an extraordinary warm, sunny October.

This iridescent crow is found down in the Yamhill District. The Watercolor Crow is Pedro’s favourite. Like the Coraline Cats, he favours the dark ones with colorful undertones.

While the earlier crow titled Watercolor Crow seemed iridescent to me, this crow titled Iridescence leans into the actual color of crow feathers to show that crows look dark, but in the right light, the feathers are colorful.

Out of sympathy for your time, I have decided to break this post into two right here. Please continue tomorrow with Crow #16, that I found at Portland’s famous Voo Doo Donuts!