A TRAIL INTERPRETED

Artist talks: Larry Eifert on informative new installation at Fort Worden highlighting history, biodiversity

Posted

Where are the gardens?

The answer to this and other frequently asked questions — and many not so frequently asked but equally relevant — will now be readily available to visitors of the Chinese Gardens trail at Fort Worden thanks to a new five-piece informational art installation.

The panels, spread along what is called the new Chinese Gardens Interpretive Trail, easily located and featuring the work of renowned Port Townsend artist Larry Eifert, highlight the biodiversity of history of the area and officially opened Saturday, Sept. 26.

“One of the gems of Fort Worden State Park is the Chinese Gardens area, rich in history and natural beauty,” longtime Friends of Fort Worden volunteer Zan Manning, who lead the project, said in a recent announcement about its completion.

“The biodiversity that exists there is a rare natural feature worthy of interpretation and appreciation.”

It took nearly three years of planning, paperwork, and persuasion, Manning said, for the Friends,  in cooperation with Washington State Parks, to develop the easily accessible interpretive trail along the Chinese Gardens lagoon.

With five illustrated interpretive signs, the installation highlights “the mosaic of life existing at the edges of the lagoon, farmed land, and forest with its richness in plants, trees and animals,” according to the Friends of Fort Worden.

The trail also highlights the influence of human activity and the contributions of native cultures and the Chinese population that once utilized the area.

According to Friends volunteer Gary Larson, Manning conceived and led the project for the group, gaining multiple approvals from Washington State Parks, researching and writing information for the panels, and turning their plans into artwork and real-life structures.

She also recruited Eifert because of his experience creating popular illustrations for other state and national parks — he reportedly has more art on display in America’s National Parks and preserves than any other artist.

He said this project was a unique chance to bring his work home.

“While I paint this type of interpretive story-art all over the country, for parks and refuges from Florida to Alaska, I rarely get to do it in my hometown,” he said. “While I painted the art for Fort Worden, I was also working on images for Glacier National Park, Wind Cave in South Dakota and Fort Matanzas in Florida. Nancy and I have called Port Townsend home now for almost three decades, and at any point I usually have dozens of these paintings going in various stages of the process. I still get a thrill learning something new, then paint it and write about it, and finally realize a couple of generations of people will see it.”

Eifert said his artistic appreciation of nature and history is inspired in part by his parents.

“Both my parents were museum people, curators of a big natural history museum, and so what I do is just what I was exposed to there,” he said. “I’ve now made a living painting nature for over 50 years, and I hope it never ends.”

The separate panels are meant, Eifert said, to act as a kind of “art gallery out in nature.” And although he’s created many works of various sizes and styles, and for various types of exhibitions, it is his nature work that Eifert said he most enjoys.

“Some of my older panels are now almost 40 years old and will probably out-live me — and that’s a lot of eyeballs focusing on my art,” he said. “While I also paint gallery art, paintings that get sold to private collectors and end up in someone’s home, I just don’t see that process as nearly as interesting. It vanishes into someone’s house, becomes a private possession and few ever see it.

“Contrast that with, say, the Ohanapecosh mural at Mount Rainier or my paintings at the Hoh Rain Forest, where each year hundreds of thousands of visitors see my interpretation of old-growth forests,” he explained. “I see that as a legacy and the making art for a higher cause. I’m very pleased to have been involved in this new installation at Fort Worden.

“They’re a great addition to a great park.” 

Friends’ volunteers prepared panel sites along the trail and installed the panels, and a trail guide is posted on the Friends website (www.fwfriends.org/trailmaps).

“The Friends believe the best way to learn about our environment is to experience it,” Manning said. “We hope that the Chinese Gardens Interpretive Trail will create opportunities for park visitors to connect emotionally and intellectually with the park through personal experience of this unique ecological area.”

Manning also expressed appreciation for everyone who supports Friends’ projects like the interpretation trail.

“We could not do this without your generous donations, membership dues and volunteer efforts,” she said.