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Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.
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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
ROSART_110619_002.JPG: Artist: Chris Gardner
Title: Cupid’s Garden (1994)
Material: stainless steel, concrete foundation, brick paving, landscaping
The artist imagines this work as “the garden where Cupid grows his arrows.” Arrows have been a predominant motif in the artist’s work for some time, as Gardner enjoys the dynamism and sense of movement they convey and the numerous metaphorical possibilities they offer.
Cupid’s Garden is appropriately located on a traffic island where several streets converge. The arrows allude to signs that direct the busy flow of traffic and become shiny directional counterparts for the cars dashing by.
Funded and developed by LaSalle Partners
ROSART_110619_039.JPG: Artist: Kendall Buster
Title: Untitled, 2006
Material: powder-coated steel covered in greenhouse shade cloth
Originally trained as a microbiologist, Kendall Buster (b. 1954) considers herself both scientist and artist. This suspended sculpture, like many of Buster’s artworks, calls to mind natural forms and processes. Here, two clusters of domed oval forms hover overhead. Each cluster comprises a series of interconnected shapes, which invite us to imagine a path through and within the structures. Buster’s use of steel frames and semi-transparent cloth yields tangible yet airy forms that seem simultaneously weighty and delicate.
The sculpture’s simple shapes encourage a wealth of associations. Typical of Buster’s abstract forms, they may portray cross-sections of cells viewed under a microscope, clouds drifting across the sky, or even a fantastic architectural model. Buster often refers to such works as “drawings in space” because of their visible structures.
Funded by Washington Real Estate Investment Trust
ROSART_110619_042.JPG: Artist: Foon Sham
Title: Aya, 2006
Material: cherry and walnut wood
Initially, this dramatic sculpture by Foon Sham (b. 1953) appears solid, like a massive tree trunk. But Aya is meticulously constructed of myriad pieces of stacked and interlocked wood. Balanced at its base, Aya soars upward fifteen feet, twisting to produce visual dynamism through its evolving contours. The tower-like form reflects Sham’s exposure to architecture of the American Southwest. He developed his concept for Aya using acrylic and pastel sketches.
Closer consideration of Aya’s surface reveals Sham’s passion for process, craftsmanship, and wood as a material. Tidy, regular edges and neat joints create a unified surface, which also discloses the artist’s touch in the marks left behind by carving implements. This type of joinery is a traditional construction method, but Sham celebrates its aesthetic merits rather than its merely functional ones.
ROSART_110619_070.JPG: Artist: Wendy M. Ross
Title: Radiolaria, 2006
Material: welded stainless steel
Sculptor Wendy M. Ross created this airy steel structure as an abstract focal point for the landscaped courtyard. Ross has long been fascinated by the internal structures of plants and simple organisms. The delicate skeletal remains of minute marine creatures called Radiolaria inspired this sculpture. Our movement around Radiolaria reveals its visual complexity of curves and counter-curves. Interior and exterior hooks terminate in disks that recall the filaments Radiolaria use for propulsion and buoyancy.
The sculpture’s undulating forms suggest the water currents of the marine environment the creatures inhabit. These same elements give the impression that the sculpture might be capable of motion despite its repose in the garden. Ross is best-known for abstract sculptures like Radiolaria. However, she also designed and created the realistic full-length bronze portrait of Founding Father George Mason, which is the central feature of his memorial near the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C.
Funded by Washington Real Estate Investment Trust
ROSART_110619_100.JPG: Artist: John Safer
Title: Interplay (1988)
Dedicated to
the living memory of
Gerald J. Miller
1930-1986
ROSART_110619_122.JPG: Artist: John Dreyfuss
Title: Helix, 2006
Material: bronze
Inspired by the shape of the human pelvis, Washington, D.C., native John Dreyfuss (b. 1949) created this massive bronze sculpture titled Helix. Expanded to this monumental scale, Helix functions primarily as an abstract form rather than a literal representation of a human bone. Its curving silhouette, echoed by the circular plaza on which it sits and the concave arc of the adjacent building, encourages us to walk around the work. Our movements reveal the elegance of Helix’s changeable contours from our own perspectives.
As a sculptor and trained architect, Dreyfuss enjoys exploring the component parts of such complex structures as the human skeleton. Though he begins his creative process by making small models to understand the form, Dreyfuss uses digital technology to refine the shape of a sculpture at different scales before its execution.
Funded by Holladay Corporation
ROSART_110619_147.JPG: Artist: Miriam Schapiro
Title: Anna and David (1987)
Material: painted aluminum and stainless steel
When real estate developer J. W. Kaempfer discovered Miriam Schapiro’s painting Pas de Deux, he not only purchased the work, but commissioned Schapiro to recreate the painting’s central figures into a large-scale sculpture. This sculpture now beautifies the entrance to this Rosslyn office building. Schapiro, primarily known as a painter, embraced the proposal and created her first sculpture.
Anna and David, a three-story, brightly painted sculpture, conveys movement through animated poses and brightly painted aluminum. A woman steps sideways, raising her arms while her partner appears to dance in a similarly dynamic stance. Schapiro writes, “I wish to translate feeling into movement in my figurative works, so that body language tells the story.” This sense of movement is visible in Anna and David and allows the sculpture to enliven the neighborhood in which it stands.
Funded by J. W. Kaempfer Company
ROSART_110619_184.JPG: Artist: Sculpture by Raymond Kaskey
Title: Chicago Titan (1991)
ROSART_110619_221.JPG: Artist: Boaz Vaadia
Title: The Family: David, Haggit,
and Adoniyya (1992)
Material: bluestone
Using materials from his urban environment, Israeli-born sculptor Boaz Vaadia gleans New York City for slate and bluestone from which to create works of art. Vaadia’s parents farmed the earth for food, while Vaadia garners stone from the earth for his artwork. This primal connection to the earth and respect for natural materials is vital to Vaadia’s work.
The simply posed figures of The Family: David, Haggit, and Adoniyya are based on biblical characters from the Old Testament: King David, his wife Haggit, and their child Adoniyya. These figures were formed by stacking hand-carved layers of bluestone. Vaadia’s layering of stone slabs mimics the stratification of the sedimentary rock and emphasizes the verticality of the structure.
Funded by Arlington County
ROSART_110619_247.JPG: Artist: Tom Ashcraft/ Y. David Chung
Title: Continuum & Reposto (2003)
Material: Continuum: hand-cut ceramic tile mural mounted on waterproof composite board
Reposto: Japanese porcelain mosaic tile over steel frame and concrete
Commissioned to enliven this stretch of Key Boulevard, the 17 mosaic panels of Continuum depict motion through a sequence of abstracted botanical forms. A second work, Reposto, is situated at the main entrance of this building on Oak Street. Reposto consists of two mosaic benches and one mosaic sculpture, whose forms echo the organic shapes found in Continuum.
Although Continuum is two-dimensional and Reposto sculptural, the shared color scheme, mosaic design, and references to natural forms visually unite these works.
Developed and funded by The Donohoe Companies, Inc. and Twin Oak LLC
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[Public Art]
2011 photos: Equipment this year: I mostly used the Fuji S100fs camera as well as two Nikon models -- the D90 and the new D7000. Mostly a toy, I also purchased a Fuji Real 3-D W3 camera, to try out 3-D photographs. I found it interesting although I don't see any real use for 3-D stills now. Given that many of the photos from the 1860s were in 3-D (including some of the more famous Civil War shots), it's odd to see it coming back.
Trips this year:
Civil War Trust conferences (Savannah, GA, Chattanooga, TN),
New Jersey over Memorial Day for my birthday (people never seem to visit New Jersey -- it's always just a pit stop on the way to New York. I thought I might as well spend a few days there. Despite some nice places, it still ended up a pit stop for me -- New York City was infinitely more interesting),
my 6th consecutive San Diego Comic-Con trip (including Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and San Francisco).
Ego strokes: Author photos that I took were used on two book jackets this year: Jason Emerson's book "The Dark Days of Abraham Lincoln's Widow As Revealed by Her Own Letters" and Dennis L. Noble's "The U.S. Coast Guard's War on Human Smuggling." I also had a photo of Jason Stelter published in the Washington Examiner and a picture of Miss DC, Ashley Boalch, published in the Washington Post.
Number of photos taken this year: just over 390,000.