Shoppers flock to Audubon art sale

Hilary Pfeifer brings art into her life from all directions.

She writes animal-inspired children’s books, each consisting of much more than just words and pictures on a page. And from her garage-turned-studio in Northeast Portland, Pfeifer hand-carves wooden sculptures of the animals in her books.

Then she brings them to life in an animated video that kids and adults can watch online.

It’s a lot of work, considering there are 26 different animals — both real and imaginary — in her three alphabet books so far. She dreams of creating many, many more — a whole menagerie.

But Pfeifer wouldn’t do it any other way.

“I have a belief that you should live with handmade things, and know who made those things,” says Pfeifer, one of more than 60 artists and 30 authors whose work will be featured at the Audubon Society of Portland’s 35th Wild Arts Festival, set for 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 21, and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 22, at Montgomery Park, 2701 N.W. Vaughn St. ($8, 16-under free, wildartsfestival.org).

“It feels really nice to have this book, and know all those things were made by somebody,” she says.

Pfiefer will launch her third book in five years, “Alphabird,” at the Wild Arts Festival. She’ll have her wooden bird sculptures on hand, too, because birds are a central element of the festival.

It’ll be Pfeifer’s first time exhibiting her work at the event, which for 35 years has been a major fundraiser for the Audubon Society of Portland’s conservation and education efforts.

Last year it raised a record $175,000, attracting 5,300 attendees in two days.

Handmade items at the festival feature nature or wildlife as a subject, use natural materials as medium, and promote environmental sustainability.

Many attendees come to support Audubon’s efforts, which include year-round camps, trips, school programs, birding talks, and classes for youth and adults.

Audubon also runs the Wildlife Care Center for injured animals, and has worked to conserve local species for several decades.

And, Audubon leads political advocacy efforts on issues including climate change awareness, the federal killing of cormorants on East Sand Island near Astoria, and fighting the proposed Pembina Pipeline Corp. propane terminal at the Port of Portland’s Terminal 6.

“I like supporting Audubon,” says Cody Blomberg, a Seattle artist who’ll be exhibiting his oil and acrylic paintings at the Wild Arts Festival for the fifth year in a row.

This year he’ll bring a series of owls painted as characters from “Downton Abbey;” last year he brought a series of animals around a campfire listening to an owl read a book.

“I really like to paint things that delight people,” says Blomberg, who calls himself an urban birdwatcher. “I like to bring out that childlike wonder and delight.”

Many Wild Arts Festival guests come to get an early start on their holiday shopping — with an intention to buy local, and support local artists in particular.

Pfeifer, an artist of 25 years, makes her art full-time work, doing public commissions for Home Forward and the Orange MAX line when she’s not doing alphabet books or wooden animal sculptures.

Like other local mixed-media artists, she combines each of her skills — ceramics, woodworking, metals, bookbinding, printing — with an eye toward sustainability.

Under her business name, “Bunny with a Toolbelt” (featured in The Tribune in December 2014), she makes her sculptures from 90 percent recycled wood and other materials — either given to her, or scavenged from the scrap bin at Woodcrafters (a Northeast Portland woodworking shop) or the Rebuilding Center.

Education also is an important component.

Pfeifer is a huge fan of the 19th-century British poet Edward Lear, known for his nonsense rhymes and having popularized the limerick.

Pfeifer has modeled her whimsical rhymes on Lear’s style: For example the letter “B” in her musical instrument-themed “Alphabird” shows her carved wooden bald eagle, wearing sunglasses and a set of bongos.

The accompanying rhyme: “B is for Barry (also called Daddy-O). He could bippity bop on his crimson bongo. B! A Bohemian bald eagle with be-bop chops.”

A glossary at the end of each book includes the animal names as well as any other foreign or more difficult words, because Pfeifer incorporates a lot of words from other cultures, and aims to please both children and adults.

Other children’s authors who will attend and sign books at the Wild Arts Festival include: Carson Ellis (“Home”); Nikki McClure (“In”); Rob and Laura Sams (“The Shark Riddle”); Maggie Rudy (“I Wish I Had a Pet”); and Bart King (“The Big Book of Superheroes”).

Other well-known authors of more adult-focused books include Ursula K. Le Guin (“Catwings”); Kim Stafford (“100 Tricks Every Boy Can Do”); Jack Nisbet (“Ancient Places: People & Language in the Emerging Northwest”); and Lorraine Anderson and Abby Phillips Metzger (“Wild in the Willamette: An Invitation to Explore the Mid-Valley’s Parks, Trails, and Natural Areas”).

Blomberg, the Seattle painter, says he’s a fan of all kinds of art, no matter what the medium.

Especially bird art — it just reminds him to stop and take notice of the small, fleeting wonders in life, he says.

“The best murals I ever did,” Blomberg says, “were the ones where the kids watched me paint. I like the performance of it all. Sometimes I’d let them paint. It creates more of a warm, engaging environment they’ll enjoy, and remember when they’re teenagers.”