Artist Peregrine Church has always struggled with the gloomy weather in the Pacific Northwest.
“It doesn’t rain so much as it just gets wet,” he said of the weather in his home city of Seattle, which famously has a near-constant drizzle in the winter.
Church, 33, a former magician, wanted to come up with new ways to surprise and delight people, in part to help improve his own mood in the dark days of winter.
He developed an invisible spray that can be used to make sidewalk art that can last for up to four months. The solution is nontoxic and water-based, which means it isn’t flammable and is safe for the environment as it degrades.
Most importantly? It ensures his artwork appears only when wet.
“There are pieces of art out there that give people a reason to look forward to the rainy days,” Church said. “And that’s sort of the mission.”
He had no idea that what started as his own subversive experiment would spread to other cities in the United States and even around the world.
When he started making what he calls “rainworks” about 10 years ago, he was at a bus stop on a dark evening, about to put down a stencil that said “I 
rain” when a woman came up behind him.
“I hear a very stern voice from behind me,” Church said. “She’s like, ‘You’re not about to graffiti the sidewalk.’”
He explained that he was using an invisible spray, and that the design would appear only when it rained.
“Her demeanor completely flipped around,” he said. “She was like: ‘Wait, that’s amazing. I love that.’”
Church got the idea from a viral video, in which clothes were sprayed with a hydrophobic coating, a substance that protects surfaces from getting wet. A person poured red wine and ketchup on the clothes, but the protective coating caused them to roll right off.
“I was like, oh that’s really cool. But what if you stenciled that onto something?” he recalled thinking.
Church bought various hydrophobic coatings, but none were invisible when dry the way that he was hoping. He posted about his experiments on Reddit, and a chemical manufacturer reached out to him, asking to partner in making something new.
After trial and error, they hit on the right formula for Church’s sidewalk art, and he founded his company Rainworks. It’s “still a very niche art form,” Church said. He is the only full-time employee, though he does hire help and supports himself with the small business.
The surprise and delight of people who see the art still brings him joy, even though he’s been doing this for years.
Church has worked with schools and universities, such as Indiana University; nonprofits like the Kimball Arts Center in Park City, Utah; and public transit authorities and parks departments in Washington state to create fun distractions for people waiting for a bus or walking down the street on a dreary day. He’s made a maze near a bus stop, an environmental message in a park, an ode to rain on the sidewalk.
Recently, the Seattle Department of Transportation brought in Rainworks to make temporary, rain-activated artworks near a bus stop and sidewalk outside of a middle school. It was covered by the Seattle Times.
“There’s a lot of drab, gray space,” said Allison Schwartz, with the department. “I just thought of Rainworks as one way to bring a little hit of joy into the life of people, especially around bus stops.”
“It was fun to be out there and watch people interact with it,” Schwartz said about the sidewalk maze Church created. “Everybody’s kind of on their phone, looking down, and then they’re like, wait, what’s going on here? You can see them stepping into it and looping around.”
The middle-school students in particular have really responded to the rain art, Schwartz said.
“You could just see their faces light up,” she said.
In nearby Kirkland, the city is using rain art to create messages about pollution prevention.
“Lake Washington starts here,” reads one of Church’s artworks in a park near the lake. “Don’t pollute. Protect our fish.”
“The rainwater activates our messages in a fun and an educational way,” said Ryean-Marie Tuomisto, a water quality program coordinator for the city of Kirkland.
In addition to being commissioned by cities and schools, Church also sells the spray and stencils so people can make their own rainworks. He’s seen his product used for rain-activated surprises, such as marriage proposals, gender reveals and graduation messages.
The only challenge is timing. The ground needs to be dry enough to make the art and then wet enough for it to show up.
Church said he hopes he can inspire others in a way that “breaks people out of their day-to-day monotony.”
“The whole goal is to make people smile when it rains,” he said.
The post To make people smile when it rains, his sidewalk art appears only when wet appeared first on Washington Post.
