Joy During Social Distance

By: Andrew Thomas

After people rode the initial wave of isolation during the pandemic, they eventually began to get creative ways to interact at social distance. During the fall of 2020, my family starting getting stir crazy and so we began to slowly emerge from home to at least see life again from afar. One of the best experiences during that strange time was not too far from our own home in Northeast Portland.

We had heard rumors about a local resident who had begun painting animated creatures on huge cut pieces of thick wood. What started as a couple of displays morphed into an entire visual theme that he would setup in his own front yard. His name is Mike Bennett.

Mike was a guy who started making these painting on wood in 2019 totally on a whim. With good feedback he began expanding it and kept going through the pandemic. One of the quintessential Mike Bennett icons has been the funny genuine slow animals with a “slow down” sign for residential neighborhoods. This helped catapult his presence all over Portland and beyond. 

I had the pleasure of meeting him when we went to the first presentation “A to Zoo” and then went to an encore of the “Crypto-Zoo” show. The street was packed with local residents; basically everyone in masks but with smiles seen in their eyes. A few months later he let me take a peek at him in action.

Mike Bennett is the type of person with positive energy and genuine empathy. While he gets more and more fans he has maintained a care for families and has made several donations towards non profit organizations. Always morphing his new project check out his site here for the most up to date exhibit.