The Grotto
NE 85th & Sandy
The Cult of Catholicism thing pretty much escaped me my whole life. I always feel out of the loop when people pin anything on their Roman Catholic upbringing–whether it’s their aesthetics or their neuroses. When the church decided this month to select an ex-Hitler Youth (however reluctant) to be their figurehead, I couldn’t help but marvel at their sheer ballsiness. And the whole communication thing with the white and black smoke was pretty awesome–where can you even buy white smoke?
With ex-Nazis and smoke signals in mind, I headed for the Grotto, Portland’s Catholic shrine and botanical garden. In a nutshell, The Grotto is a beautiful, bluff-side park littered with religious sculptures. And oh yeah–it’s a park where you’re not supposed to throw Frisbees, bring dogs, or do Tai Chi. It’s more of a contemplative garden where you’re bombarded with some serious downer martyrdom imagery.
Three dollars buys a ride on a talking, 110-foot elevator to the Meditation Chapel and Peace Garden atop the overgrown basalt cliff. The Meditation Chapel is a glorious, if bizarre structure. Built from polished granite and glass walls, strong diagonals thrust outward to create a completely modern, convex picture window. Unfortunately, the view overlooks a nondescript residential area, the airport, and a Rodeway Inn. As impressive as the architecture is, the view is hardly sublime. In the center of this panoramic glass wall, a life-size mannequin of the Virgin Mary cradling a (Germanic?) blond baby J stands encased in a huge cylindrical tube of the beam-me-up-Scotty variety. The friction of the banal landscape below, the dramatic architecture, and the hokiness of the JC Penney virgin all conspire to make a funky friction worth the price of admission.
Certainly nobody can object to a Peace Garden, especially one that bears such a botanical resemblance to Laurelhurst Park. Their mission is a bit curious, though–to illustrate the 15 mysteries of the rosary through flora and landscape. This sounds like a great undertaking. Using flowers and trees to explain biblical mysteries? Unfortunately, The Grotto’s landscape is the same throughout the 60-acre grounds, though it is dotted with heavy handed sculptures of James Caveziel doing some heavy-duty suffering, which puts a serious damper on the redwoods and purple flowers.