Art installation turns neglected Olympia park into ‘A Place to Reflect’

In a once-neglected pocket park on Olympia’s west side, a tree has been transformed into a temple. Strings of flowers hang from the branches, defining the space and inviting visitors to come closer and take in the fantastical sight within — the trunk covered with brilliantly colored flowers.

This is “A Place to Reflect,” dreamed up by Olympia painter Kathy Gore-Fuss, installed by a team of artist volunteers and funded by community donations.

Last week, visitors — many of whom discovered the installation while walking by — paused. They smiled. They talked to friends and strangers alike about what they saw and how it might have come to be.

“I love just running into this, not knowing that it was going to be here,” said Hugh O’Neill, who lives near the park at the corner of Madison Avenue and Thomas Street. “It makes my heart sing. It’s a gift to the neighborhood and the community.”

Giving a gift was a part of Gore-Fuss’s purpose for “A Place to Reflect,” which was installed Sept. 5 and will remain on view for about 25 days, depending on how long the chrysanthemums on the trunk last. It’s the second in a planned series of installations using flowers to create space for contemplation.

“When I decided to do the installation, the park was in complete disarray,” she told The Olympian. “It seemed like an area where the community used to gather, but people were no longer going there. It felt like an example of what happened during the pandemic. We were not gathering.”

She worked with the Northwest Neighborhood Association to clean up the park, enlisted Olympia sculptor Boucante to turn old tree stumps into seats and restore park benches, and turned a kiosk into an informal neighborhood food bank.

“I wanted to make a contribution to the neighborhood that would be long lasting even though my projects are temporary,” she said.

Already, people are gathering at “A Place to Reflect.” Benches and tree stumps form a circle beneath the tree’s boughs, inviting visitors to linger.

“It’s a place to take time and reflect on the challenges we are facing during a difficult time in history,” Gore-Fuss wrote in an artist’s statement. “There is a journal to write in, two poems to take with you — Josie Emmons Turner’s ‘The Studio Is a Place to Mourn’ and Ashly McBunch’s ‘The Grief We Hold’ — and the beauty of flowers to bring you peace.”

Though it is bringing happiness, too, the installation also could have been titled “A Place to Grieve,” the artist said.

“That’s what we’re doing in the world right now,” she said. “We have lost what we have known to be our lives, and there’s a great deal of sadness and sorrow that we’re all experiencing on different levels.”