Patsy Surh O’Connell talks community and culture

By Carolyn Bick
NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY

Patsy Surh O’Connell

Patsy Surh O’Connell is a prominent member of the state’s AANHPI community. An accomplished and acclaimed artist, the Korean American Surh O’Connell is also well-known for her community-focused work and for founding Tacoma’s Asia Pacific Cultural Center (APCC).

On May 21, APCC and the Low-Income Housing Institute (LIHI) will celebrate the opening of the first phase of Patsy Surh Place, a two-phase affordable housing development in Tacoma. The first phase includes 78 affordable units that will house formerly homeless Asian and Pacific Islander elders. The second phase, which is still in the works, will consist of 75 family units.

The Northwest Asian Weekly’s Carolyn Bick caught up with Surh O’Connell to talk with her about her career and decades-long work with Tacoma’s AANHPI community.

Northwest Asian Weekly

So, tell me about your early life. I read a bit about you and your background before this interview, and I would love to hear about moments or people who really made an impact on your life, and shaped your life path and career.

Patsy Surh O’Connell

I would say my mother, who is very open. She never pressed me on what I was supposed to do. I was free to think and do things. I have to say both of my parents did.

In my formative years in junior and high school, our president was a woman and she emphasized being a good citizen and good woman.

NWAW

How did that impact you? What sorts of lessons did you carry forth from those experiences?

Surh O’Connell

I think I am open-minded when I face something new — not criticizing, “This is not me,” or “This is not good.”

I want to find out if it is good or it is the right thing to do, before I decide to go forward. And I think that kind of mindset makes me who I am today.

NWAW

I was going to ask about this later, but I think this one weaves in really well: I wanted to ask about your artwork and how you got not only into the world of art, but how you weave your Korean heritage into it.

Surh O’Connell

When I graduated high school, my father was in the United States and he knew that I love drawing and making things. He arranged [for me to attend] interior design school in San Francisco. So, I came here as a student and then when I met my husband who was in the U.S. Army, we had to move around many different places. And the best place for me to be attached to was the arts and crafts center inside the base. I was freely experiencing different mediums, different kinds of things that I was not aware were available. And because of those kinds of experiences, I explored or experienced many different mediums to do my work.

When I finally settled, I got into more of the visual art and doing the two-dimensional work. I use acrylic, oil, and watercolor and ink. And now, I am more concentrated on ink and watercolors.

And the images I use—my background, what I experienced or was exposed to—many of the signs and patterns [I use are] related to Korean history. I like using the crow, the bird, as a symbol of myself, working hard and family-oriented and just a survivor.

NWAW

You touched on this a bit already, but what did your path to the U.S. look like?

Surh O’Connell

When I first arrived in San Francisco, it was a very cosmopolitan city, and everybody seemed to be in style. I wanted to be a part of it by buying a hat to wear, going to school. I wanted to make sure I was in the style of what I saw people were wearing. At the time [in] 1963, San Francisco was very, I think, safe, and I was able to go to different places and learn about American culture.

My school, Rudolph Schaeffer School of Design, was a private school. The president was very involved in color theory, and I learned a lot of colors in doing interior design. We visited different museums and hosted different functions, as well as individual private houses to explore their interiors [to learn] what is good design and what is not.

That kind of thing made me look at my art as I create. I always think about [how] this painting could be good on certain places in the interior. So, I pay attention to that as well.

Now I’m 83, so I’ve been here in the United States for 60 years.

NWAW

How did you get involved in the Korean American community here in Washington State?

Surh O’Connell

So, I think many people look at me as [having] a very proud Korean heritage. I have. And when I arrived here [in Washington] in 1985, I realized that the Tacoma downtown didn’t have many Asians walking around.

And when I was recommended to be a board member there, I learned I was the only Asian—no, there was another Asian male. [But] I think it wasn’t a very [diverse] ethnicity. I was wondering why that was so obvious.

And then in 1996, I brought my parents here for their last journey. And when my father passed away the following year, I had to do something positive, so that my parents could be proud of who I am.

So, I gathered some of my friends—Filipino, Japanese, Chinese, Korean—and we talked about, as first [generation] immigrants, we feel strongly about our backgrounds, and how we want to have our children to learn about our cultures, but the opportunity is not always there.

So, when I asked second-and third-generation [AANHPIs], they all agreed that there should be somewhere they can learn about their parents’ ethnic cultures. So, we created the Asia-Pacific Cultural Center, a non-profit organization.

I wanted to build it right downtown, so that many Asian faces would be amongst American culture, especially when I learned about the Chinese expulsion of 1886. I thought for sure that this project should be located in Tacoma. And so, we worked.

We had a lot of wonderful, great people on our board, and they led the organization to where we are. And of course, I have to mention our executive director, Lua Pritchard.

Everybody knows her. I’m sure you know her as well.

She worked tirelessly to make the cultural center a reality. During the 30 years of that history, we tried about four times to put the location downtown. In fact, I even got a bridge loan and bought the old Tacoma Art Museum building and tried that location for two years and wasn’t able to make it go.

So, we finally got Metro Parks to be our partner. [The new building] is almost 80% done, and our opening is on Aug. 29. After almost 30 years of effort [it is] finally coming to fruition.

NWAW

Oh, that’s really exciting!

And speaking of, there’s going to be housing for elders in a building named after you. I wanted to ask whether you had a particular connection with the elder community, given the purpose of the building, or if you had any other thoughts or comments about that?

Surh O’Connell

We always thought the seniors who immigrated to this country have this rich cultural background, and that they are not able to really utilize their talents. So, we always thought the Asia Pacific Cultural Center could have housing for seniors, but we couldn’t do that at the Metro Parks property.

Seattle’s low income housing authority, LIHI, came to us to see if they could partner with us to build the first low-income senior house in Tacoma. So we partnered with LIHI and made that happen.

I didn’t realize that my executive director suggested it should be named after me, so that’s how I got this awesome honor of having the building named after me.

It’s a 78-unit [building, and we filled all of it except about 10 units. And it’s all furnished, so people could just bring (themselves) and live there. They even furnish the soaps and everything.

I’m really honored to have something like that to be with my name on it. The opening is just around the corner, the 21st of this month.

NWAW

Are there other community projects coming up or specific programs for elders that APCC has?

Surh O’Connell

Well, that place—Patsy Surh Place—has a community room and gallery, and all kinds of spaces so that the residents or anybody who wants to participate can come and do activities. … I’m looking forward to seeing what kinds of programs we’re going to build there so that our residents will be stimulated and happy staying there.