Flowers Light Up Lake City
Artist Kimberly Chan’s digital florals bring a little warmth to Seattle’s gray season.
By Sarah Stackhouse October 21, 2025
On a stretch of Lake City Way lined with bus stops and small businesses, one bright window refuses to fade into the background. Inside, artist Kimberly Chan’s digital florals bloom behind the glass—oversized peonies, tulips, and peach blossoms.
The five-month installation is part of Seattle Restored, a city initiative that transforms unused storefronts into art and pop-up spaces. For Chan, a Bellevue-based artist who left her career in tech about a year ago to pursue art full time, it marks her first large-scale public display and a chance to share what she calls an intentional act of optimism.
“I want the colors to pause people in their day, to pull them out of the gray,” Chan says. “Even if someone’s waiting for the bus, maybe they stop for a moment and feel a bit lighter.”
Her vibrant, high-contrast florals blend traditional symbolism with modern, digital technique. In her artist statement, Chan notes that flowers in Chinese culture carry meaning—peonies represent prosperity, gladioluses symbolize resilience and remembrance, and peach blossoms mean renewal and vitality. Growing up near Hong Kong’s bustling flower market, she saw these blooms mark every new year and celebration, and after moving to Seattle in 2005 for college, they became a way to stay connected to home.
Chan says that link only deepened over time. As an immigrant and parent raising two young children far from extended family, she’s drawn to subjects that speak to belonging and continuity. The flowers she paints carry the same meanings she grew up with, but they also act as bridges—symbols that anyone can recognize and find comfort in. During her years at university, she met classmates from all over the world and began to see how universal these connections are. Her work reflects that belief that beauty and optimism transcend language and background.
Chan earned both her undergraduate degree and MBA from the University of Washington and spent more than a decade in tech before returning to art during the pandemic. With her children learning from home, she found herself craving a creative outlet. “It was a stressful time,” she recalls. “Picking up the paintbrush was about self-care in the moment.”
Late at night, she began painting with watercolor and gouache, mediums that let her start and stop easily while balancing parenting and work. She liked that both were water-activated; she could step away to make dinner or help with school and return to a dry palette that came back to life with a bit of water. The flexibility made painting possible in short bursts, and those sessions soon became routine. They led to Cute Fun Joy Designs, the art business she launched in 2024, and a growing presence at local cafes, art walks, and markets. When Seattle Restored announced a call for artists earlier this year, she applied.
One piece in the Lake City installation comes from her Kintsugi Collection, inspired by the Japanese practice of repairing broken pottery with gold. The idea took root when Chan noticed misprints coming out of her home printer. “I was learning how to manage color, and the results weren’t perfect,” she says. “But instead of throwing it away, I decided to finish it with gold leaf, to honor the imperfection.”
Each hand-embellished print is one of a kind. And in a way, Chan’s process mirrors Seattle Restored itself: both see potential in what’s been overlooked.
Since the installation went up, she says she hopes it brightens the day of people walking by. “It’s been really interesting to connect with people over flowers, and it’s been an exciting year,” she says. “I’ve had opportunities to show my artwork in lots of different settings.”
In Lake City, new pop-ups and a monthly art walk are adding creative energy to the neighborhood. Chan plans to join those events this winter and hopes to collaborate with other artists she’s met through Seattle Restored.
The installation runs through Feb. 20, 2026, at 12325 Lake City Way Northeast.
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