Art in Silver Spring

Helllooo! It is me and I'm back with another blog post! This metro journey, we went to downtown Silver Spring to look at art. Not art in a museum, but art on the street that you can easily see right outside! I will be talking about these places out of order, due to my terrible memory, and the fact that the end of this journey was so terrible for me, I forgot most of what happened in the beginning. 

So first up is a cafe, named after an African goat herder who in fact, discovered the coffee bean. This place has a 4.5 out of 5 stars on Yelp! Kaldi's Coffee Bar was extremely nice. Comfortable seating, yummy croissants, spacious and just a nice feel. I would recommend it. There's free Wi-Fi for those who need a place to work.

Next are the Sisyphus, steel orbs. Created by Wendy Ross, this sculpture is based on the Greek mythology story of King Sisyphus, son of Egyptian king, Aeolus, Sisyphus thought he was just as clever as Zeus, which made Zeus pretty unhappy. To punish him for being prideful and deceitful, Zeus made Sisyphus made him roll a huge boulder up a steep hill. This doesn't seem so awful if he only had to do it once, but Zeus enchanted the boulder, causing it to roll down the hill away from Sisyphus right before reaching the top. So King Sisyphus spent eternity constantly rolling the boulder up the hill in frustration. 

Next up is "Fear the Turtle: Wisdom of Einstein." A sculpture created by Kali Cornelius, this is a random sculpture of a standing turtle painted like a sky of fluffy clouds with Einstein quotes all over it. 

The Botero Ballerinas are a stainless steel sculpture that represents life and community. Created by Barton Rubenstein, the Botero Ballerinas move in the wind, changing light patterns. This was awesome!

This next mural tells the stories of three refugees living in Maryland. The Global Refugee Muralis awesome because the mural is based on actual interviews with the refugees. 

"The first section of the mural tells the story of Georges, a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo who was once the mayor of his city.  When a violent rebel group attacked his region, he took his family and escaped to a refugee camp in Kenya, and eventually came to the US.  The second section shows the story of Mai, a refugee from Burma.  When the repressive government discovered that she had visited a Christian church group in the US, she and her family were persecuted and she was unable to return to her country.  The third refugee, a woman from the south of Iraq who wishes to remain anonymous, explained how her brother, a young and educated man with democratic ideals, was murdered by a local fundamentalist militia group.  She was targeted by the group as well, and escaped and came to the US."

 

Right next to this (in the picture!) is Kefa Cafe, An organic, Ethiopian coffee shop. Host of Space 7:10 (an organic art-space). 

This next place is home to the original Silver Spring. Acorn Park, the final remains of Francis Preston Blair's estate called "Silver Spring." It was named after close mica-speckled spring he found in 1840. 


The Hand of NOAA was created by Ray Kaksey, who worked with NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) to create a sculpture that would "reflect their vision." What came out of this was a bronze hand, releasing seagulls into the air.



This next sculpture is named after a beloved homeless man who "lived" in Silver Spring for 25 years. The man, Norman Lane, looked around florist shops and funeral homes, in search of flowers. The sculpture is called "The Mayor" (his nickname). 



Next we saw The Arc. Reminiscent of formation of rocks in an Arizona desert, Thom Ashcroft and David Chung created this sculpture. 


We have the East/West Beacon. The East/West Beacon stands 35 feet high, freestanding. Created by artist Ray King, this sculpture is constructed of stainless steel holographic glass, with a film laminated over it, giving it that iridescent glow. 

 


The next stop was this super cool, new library. The Silver Spring Library was huge.


Lastly, (FINALLY!) we have a Narcissus Quaglilata (that was hard to spell) painting.  A mural, actually. 


I am almost certain I forgot some things and it was completely out of order but the end of the journey was so terrible I forgot what else happened (I got lost for an hour and a half and got a huge nosebleed in the middle of the street whilst being lost).

I hope you have a nice week and I also hope that you come back next time!