PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — The Oregon Zoo may be closed to visitors but exotic creatures can still be found in one Portland neighborhood.
Mike Bennett, a Portland-based artist known for his cartoon wooden cutouts seen around the city, is displaying a cutout animal representing a letter of the alphabet every day in his front yard. He encourages people young and old to come by every day to see the daily creature.
“Recently, I had a bunch of things taken from the house which is kind of unfortunate and I was a little sad about it for a few days and I took everything inside—but then I was like, ‘This is silly,'” he said Tuesday. “So I thought, zoos have business hours—I’ll just make sure that my art does, too.”
Bennett said he’s creating “obscure” animals so passersby shouldn’t expect to see traditional lions or tigers in his yard. Wednesday will be the letter “C” and Bennett hinted it will be an animal both dangerous and beautiful and native to Australia.
