[photo credit: Eventbrite]
Pasadena artist Kate Lain will hold the first of three free outdoor art-making sessions this fall at Arlington Garden on Sept. 13, inviting people affected in any way by the January 2025 Eaton Fire to help make a 50-foot textile stream that will go on temporary view at the garden in Spring 2027.
The project, called Watershed, is built on the premise that making art in community with others and with the environment can be healing. Participants will use cyanotype — an analog photographic process that uses sunlight and water and typically yields blue-and-white images — to print designs onto smaller fabric pieces that will later be sewn together.
Participants are encouraged to bring a small meaningful object to lay on the fabric — something that survived the fire, something that has brought comfort since, or anything else — which the sun turns into a shadow print, according to Arlington Garden. Objects go home with their owners. All art-making supplies are provided and no prior experience is needed, Lain announced.
Fall sessions concentrate on making cyanotypes; winter workshops will shift to assembling, embellishing and hand-sewing the components. Dates may change with the weather, and registered participants will be notified.
Watershed is supported in-kind by Arlington Garden and made possible in part by the Pasadena Arts & Culture Commission and the City of Pasadena Cultural Affairs Division.
Watershed Art Project — Drop-In Cyanotype Session takes place Sunday, Sept. 13, from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m., and Saturday, Oct. 3, from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Both are free; registration is encouraged, not required. All ages are welcome, with small children accompanied by an adult. Sessions are held at Arlington Garden, 275 Arlington Dr., Pasadena, in the central Meadow area. Street parking on Arlington Drive is free but limited. Register for Sept. 13 or Oct. 3.