Public Art Field Guide: Bud/Blossom

Ever wonder what a giant, shiny, metal pine cone is doing outside  around the corner from the Ballston Mall? Well, it's not a pine cone, silly; it's art. That's right. In 2003, local sculptor Wendy Ross was commissioned to produce a sculpture as part of the redevelopment of Ballston Point, one of the central intersections in Arlington's business district.

Constructed of welded steel pipe that glistens in the sun, and rising 35 feet, Ross's piece of public art might not act exactly as a wayfinder, but it certainly is eye-catching. The sculpture was dubbed "Bud/Blossom" as it recalls an opening flower. Ross is interested in the forms of the natural world, but also quite captivated by the concept of energy. Not energy, like the voltage that your wall-sockets spew forth, but life energy, cosmic energy.

In a 2002 interview with Sculpture Magazine, Ross described this concept of energy and its place in her artwork: "constructed from welded 'dots' of steel, represent energy as a point, seed, center, or axis around which all revolves and ultimately returns." 

Ross earned her Masters in Fine Arts (MFA) from the Rhode Island School of Design, otherwise known as RISD (Riz-dee), so she's entitled to speak at length about cosmic energy. While her more "far-out" artistic exploits might be her passion, and also a more dynamic talking-point, she is also highly praised for her more "straight-forward" work. Ross's commemorative bronze sculpture of founding father George Mason, lounging elegantly along the National Mall in Washington, is one her most famous works of art, and also one her most reveered.

So whether you want to see space-age or bronze-age art, Ross has dreamed it up, sculpted it, and placed it around the Metro area, and across the country, for audiences to find. The Bethesda-based artist has sphere-like wire sculptures hanging near the Washington Convention Center, metal towers in Boston, glowing metal orbs in Oregon, and More. Ross has even painted murals in Clarendon. To find out where to view her other Arlington-based work, and more, stayed for public-art news here at Patch. 'Til next week...