According to their website, The Curious Cat Trail pawed its way through Portland beginning on August 1. This temporary art installation lasted until October 13. The installation featured 31 different cat statues situated throughout Portland. All were painted by local artists and all shaped in the form of the famous black cat from Laika Studios’ animated movie “Coraline” to celebrate its release fifteen years ago.
Junior Addison Talerico is enrolled in 2D art at Lincoln and thinks that the Curious Cat Trail was a smart strategy for capturing peoples’ attention.
“I think it is this kind of interesting,” said Talerico. “It’s good advertising and marketing because it’s very eye-catching, but also just how interpretive you can get with it. There are so many versions of one thing.”
The Curious Cat Trail gained attention from Lincoln students because of its location in the downtown Portland including right outside of the front doors of school.
Three cross-country runners ran together to see the Coraline Cats throughout the city during their one of their regular practices.
The inspiration for this adventurous run was not from social media, said freshman Allegra Wehner, but from a random glance at a poster in the Multnomah Athletic Club (MAC).
“…There is one [cat sculpture] in front of Lincoln, so we definitely knew about it from that. But then once we were in the MAC and there was this picture of “Coraline” cats all over Portland, and we’re thinking that maybe we could go run to them tomorrow. We just kind of came up with the idea like that,” said Wehner.
The Lincoln cat Wehner referenced is called “Sakura Pond” and was painted by artist Baz Murnin.
Freshman Eva Schubert, one of the runners who visited the Coraline Cats with Wehner, believes that because the cats are a widespread public attraction, they draw more attention than regular exhibits in museums.
“You see them [the cats] when you are just walking around or in Portland,” said Schubert. “But when you go to a museum you are already interested in the art.”
Both Schubert and Wehner agree that this experience made their normal training run a little more exciting.
According to the Coraline Curious Cat Trail’s website, the cats will be auctioned off on October 30 as a fundraiser for Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) Doernbecher Children’s Hospital.
