Portland's Windows of Wonders

The Window of Wonders is a gallery you enter with your eyes and leave with your mind blown.

Illuminated from dawn to midnight, hundreds of tiny critters fill the classic Portland storefront, artfully displayed in a window-oriented landscape. Everything you see was carefully made from reclaimed wood.

Each week a tiny sign challenges visitors to find a number of mysterious things placed anywhere in the space, so there’s always something new to discover. On display is everything from rainbow-horned unicorns, crows balancing fruits, picketing Santa Clause, electric-guitar-playing egrets, lovebirds perched on topiary, foxes who recycle, penguins who love penguins, jin chan the lucky frog, culinary kitties, dogs lifting a leg, blue sky giraffes, dizzy chickens, smiling gators, daisy-wielding rabbits, game-loving newts, sporty bigfoot, rabbis who love challah, uppity witches, extra-long dachshunds, and more.

The work you see is all made by local artist Hilary Pfeifer, who creates numerous public art projects in the region. She has been using the pseudonym “Bunny with a Toolbelt” since the 1990s when she was fond of making random public appearances in a bunny suit made from an antique chenille bedspread. It became the perfect business name to embody her love of working with a wide variety of found and conventional art materials.

Pfeifer has written six children’s books and created a deck of playing cards, and many of those original characters are on display in the Window of Wonders. 

Update as of July 2022: The window is now empty.