Secret Art in Seattle Revealed in the Rain: Now On Sale Worldwide!

Those who live in rainy cities often say that it is best to adapt to the situation.

In Seattle, an artist took this philosophy to heart by creating an eco-friendly spray material that is only visible when wet. This invention has gained so much popularity that the city government now uses it to decorate bus stops.

Known as Rainworks (rather than artworks), the product is sold alongside stencils and is based on superhydrophobic coatings. Although these coatings often contain the dreaded “forever chemicals,” Rainworks founder Peregrine Church was aware of this from the beginning.

Church collaborated with a group in Belgium that was interested, like him, in developing nature-based hydrophobic coatings. Together, they began creating nocturnal street art that would appear the next day in the rain, revealing hidden messages or images on the sidewalks.

Rainworks’ first social media highlight was when a bucket of water was dropped onto a sidewalk to reveal a hidden hopscotch game, which instantly went viral and generated immediate demand for the product, which at the time was still a prototype.

Church turned to crowdfunding platform Kickstarter to found a company to manufacture and market Rainworks products, and has seen great success ever since.

“Seattle has a deep connection to rain. It’s an integral part of the city’s culture and personality,” Church told the Seattle Times. “There are a lot of kind, caring, passionate people here too. So I like to think that Rainworks represents all of those characteristics. Yes, it’s a rainy city. Yes, we have gloomy days. But we also know how to make the best of it.”

Recently, the Seattle Department of Transportation commissioned Rainworks to create a series of designs for its new plaza and bus stop on Beacon Hill, a pedestrian zone where commuters were surveyed to find out what they would like to see more of.

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Responses included places to spend time with friends, more shelter from the rain and sun, and art.

Rainworks proceeded, and probably without anyone understanding what they were doing since the coating that makes the artwork visible is invisible when dry, to spray a pair of sea lions, a killer whale, a giant wave, and a 25-foot maze around the plaza and bus stop.

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Only when Seattle’s inevitable hazy clouds gather over Beacon Hill and thick raindrops begin to fall do travelers get a chance to see what was beneath their feet.

The Rainworks community is now global, and since the pieces are invisible in the dry, the website includes a map with dozens of rainworks, from Nigeria to Scotland, and from Seattle to New South Wales.