Partly Sunny by Barbara Matthews

 

Partly Sunny by Barbara Matthews

          

                          

Partly Sunny at the Eastlake P-Patch Garden

An art piece designed for the Eastlake P-Patch in Seattle, WA finally makes its debut in the garden over ten years after its creation. Its genesis was a University of Washington art school project.

The community garden concept with cooperative growing by neighbors was first documented in 1890 with immigrants growing potatoes for sustenance. They continued on through the Great Depression and in the Victory gardens of WWII. Seattle was one of the earliest cities to resurrect community gardens in 1974 with the purchase by the City of a 2 acre plot of the Picardo farm, which lends name to the P in P-Patch.¹

Laying a transition from a lifelong analytical career into an artistic one, I decided to take the year-long Fiber Certificate program at the University of Washington. The coursework was delightfully all-consuming. The assignment for the final project entailed creating a site-specific installation. I had studied the P-Patch community for a prior epidemiology course by gathering data and interviewing gardeners. (At the time there were 46 P-Patches in Seattle, now that number has doubled.)  I had grown to appreciate the P-Patch concept, community, and creativity of the members. Picking a P-Patch for this installation seemed natural.

I visited the Eastlake P-Patch that is situated on the East side of Lake Union on a sunny slope.  Scoping it for potential, I saw an arbor placed on the hillside facing the afternoon sun. The concept of ‘Partly Sunny’ was born, a positive spin on the cloudy/rainy meme that typically labels Seattle.

I used an outdoor nylon fabric and scraps of an analogous color scheme of yellow-green to orange quilting and commercial fabrics to depict the rays of the sun, all machine stitched to the base nylon. Once the 4 by 4 foot banner was complete, I then took a deep breath and cut the banner into six strips. I wanted the piece to better catch the breeze from the water. I designed the strips to hang on three cross bars to hang two strips per crossbar and further add space to support the concept. The piece was temporarily installed in the arbor for photos.

Because the installation was somewhat makeshift, I wanted to leave the P-Patch with a more substantial way to hang the piece. Well life intervened, my art endeavors moved in another direction and I was drawn away from that project. Fast forward 10 years and a pandemic that afforded more free time, and I was able to construct a better way to install Partly Sunny. Of course throughout the 10 years what I did not expect was that nature did not stand still and the wisteria vines grew over the arbor further complicating installation. The garden community members being creative in their own right came up with a solution.  The piece on a removable structure now will be brought out on special occasions for work parties and socials at the P-Patch.

¹ Matthews, Udo, and Kaseba-Sata, “Seattle P-Patch Community Gardening”, June 8, 2003