Pat Kilmer, Veda Huntington-Bradley, and Rachel Hodes share a laugh as they eat lunch at Monarch Sculpture Park northeast of Tenino Wednesday under an untitled sculpture created by Valdis Zarins from his “Balance” series. The group chose the park as the midway point of a 31-mile bike ride. The sculpture is for sale for $7,200.
Cyclist Bob Wendel of Bainbridge takes a photo of a sculpture at the Monarch Sculpture Park near Tenino Wednesday. The sculpture park sits beside the Chehalis Western bike trail. The art in the background is called “Pick Up Sticks,” by sculpture park owner Myrna Orsini.
Rust collects on David Sederburg’s sculpture called “Freezing Man” at the Monarch Sculpture Park northeast of Tenino.
Pat Kilmer, left, and Rachel Hodes lock up their bikes at the entrance to the Monarch Sculpture Park Wednesday near the sculpture titled “Row, Row, Row” by Yelm artist Gary Hammer. The piece is for sale for $2,000, according to the sculpture park website. The sculpture park sits beside the Chehalis Western bike trail east of Offut Lake.
Artist Dennis Peacock of Shelton works to remove his half-ton sculpture, “The Old Adam,” from the Monarch Sculpture Park northeast of Tenino Wednesday. The sculpture park will close in late July. “Everybody that’s got something here will have to retrieve their stuff,” the 68-year-old artist said. “I hope they will. (This piece) is going to be retired on my property.”
Prayer ribbons flutter from the branch of Prayer Tree, a participatory sculpture at the Monarch Sculpture Park outside Tenino Wednesday. “People create it,” owner Myrna Orsini said. “They create a message and tie it on.”
TENINO — Bicyclists who venture far enough along the Chehalis Western Trail along Waldrick Road know about the Monarch Sculpture Park, where a sign invites passersby to experience the various art and sculptures that have adorned the trail side since 1998.
That invitation will soon be revoked. Citing health and financial concerns, artist, sculptor, and sculpture park owner Myrna Orsini will be closing the park for good on July 23, bringing to a close 13 years of public art at her property east of Offut Lake.
“If I can’t keep the park maintained properly I don’t feel comfortable having the public on the grounds,” Orsini said. “The grounds look dumpy after this winter. No one has complained, but when the weeds are higher than the plants, something is wrong.”
That, and she can no longer afford the liability insurance necessary to protect the park. It’s an unfortunate end to a grand plan that evolved into an inviting and peaceful setting for artists and art lovers.
The idea for the park emerged from Orsini’s trips to Europe, when she attended symposiums where artists could simultaneously live, work and show their art at one location. The idea of providing a creative and collaborative space for artists to live and work, and for the community to come and participate, intrigued her.
“If they can do it in Europe, whey can’t we do it here?” Orsini said.
So she set out to do just that and began looking for property in the greater Puget Sound area. Another artist, retired Federal Judge Doris Coonrod, who also had an advanced art degree, had come to Orsini’s then-Tacoma studio to learn stone carving. She bought into Orsini’s vision and enthusiasm for a live-in art studio and later became a business partner, agreeing to match dollar-for-dollar Orsini’s investment in property for an artists’ compound. The pair initially bought 68 undeveloped acres northeast of Tenino in 1992. Two years later they purchased a developed property across the road where they set up shop.
They opened the sculpture park in 1998 with 13 art pieces created by 13 artists who came from nine countries, including Lithuania, Austria, Cuba, Italy, Canada and the U.S., they worked six weeks to produce the park’s original pieces. Those pieces were the start of the permanent collection that remains today.
“That was the main purpose that Doris and I had,” Orsini said. “To enrich the community about the arts.”
Prayer Tree and Hedge Maze
Much of the art is participatory in nature. One of the more popular is titled “Prayer Tree.” It is simply a tree that invites guests to hang a prayer on a strip of ribbon from a tree branch. Each year it fills up with individual prayers for just about anything and everyone under the sun. It’s art created by those who come to view it.
“One women with cancer came every year for four years,” Orsini said. “Then she stopped.”
One of the more spectacular pieces is the laurel hedge maze, created in the shape of a butterfly, one of only six such theme-based mazes in the U.S. It took nine months to plant the trees for the maze, years to grow, and only one harsh winter for deer to eat it to the ground after heavy snows destroyed part of the fence that protected it. The fence has since been repaired, thanks to donations, and the maze is on the mend. It’s too little too late, however.
The park has hosted some significant events. In 1999 Orsini, in conjunction with The Evergreen State College, organized a conference to celebrate contemporary women in the arts. This after she visited the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C. She left disappointed that no contemporary women were exhibited there. So she “got this bee in my bonnet” to do a conference called “Transcending Boundaries.” They invited nine women from across the country who represented a broad spectrum of the arts: literary, visual and performance art. Much of the effort and expense for such events was borne by Orsini and Coonrod out of their own pockets.
“We learned a lot of tricks,” Orsini said of their efforts to support the arts and artists. “What we didn’t learn was how to fund the park.”
Art Could Be Donated to Local Cities
Orsini, now 70, slowly lost her business partner to Alzheimer’s disease. Coonrod died in 2008. Orsini has been “going it alone since.” The ravages of age, mainly arthritis, has since slowed her down. Although the 68-acre parcel across the road is now for sale, Orsini said she plans to continue living at the park. She hopes that at least some of the artwork might be adopted by local cities or towns.
“It would be nice to sell the pieces,” she said. “But I would want the artwork to become part of the local communities.”
She plans a final, private celebration of the park on July 16. After that she will close the doors on her ambitious adventure for good.
“Its a shame to see it go,” said Tad Santino of Olympia, who, with his fiance Lisa Hodson, had stopped to use the park’s facilities before continuing on their bike ride down the Chehalis Western Trail. The couple had been to the park in the past to get ideas for their home.
“It’s pretty cool,” Santino said. “It’s a shame to see it go.”
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Monarch Sculpture Park
Information about the Monarch Art Center and Sculpture Park can be found at www.monarchart
center.org, or by calling (360) 264-2408.
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Lee Hughes: (360) 807-8239
