Getting to Know an Art: And Modest Suggestions for More

It is a truth universally acknowledged that here in Reston, we have more public art than you can shake a stick (of appropriate length, materials, and colors) at. It seems like every time a new building goes up, the developer sticks some fancy, if slightly undersized, Art in front of it (a nice gesture, but we'd like them to pay RA dues as well). If not by the developer, it is a creative installation by our Public Art Reston organization, which makes our community unique. So if you haven't walked around recently, there are a ton more Arts to see. And we'd like to suggest even more!

North Reston: The newest section of our plastic fantastic planned community has the least public art. There's a yellow "dinosaur-like sculpture" in Lake Newport Park, and some whimsical bike racks called "Duck Duck Goose" closer to the lake itself. Those are great, but that doesn’t have to be all! A pyramid of orange Home Depot paint buckets towering over Reston Parkway could serve as a symbolic (and functional!) gateway to the neighborhood. Need a bucket? Take a bucket! Have a bucket? Leave a (hopefully empty) one!

Lake Anne: The OG, as the kids haven't said in years, includes lots of concrete abutments with evocative names like "Pyramid," "Pulpit," and "Sun Boat." They're all vaguely reminiscent of things you'd see on 1970s album covers your weird older brother or cousin always wanted you to listen to. Let's liven things up a bit, and add some Art featuring soft materials and more colorful pastels—things you might, you know, find on 1980s CD covers.

RTC: In honor of some semi-recent unpleasantness with the community, we'd suggest a flaming dumpster full of smoldering parking tickets, but that would be Wrong. Childish, even!

South Reston: We've always enjoyed the rotating sculptures created by South Lakes students on the Lake Thoreau spillway, but apparently there's also a "configuration of rocks and trees" on the far side of Reston Parkway we must check out someday. Our favorite Art, "The Portal Seats of Memory," nicely honors the Marcel Breuer building that got torn down for some midscale townhouses and condos. Not saying nothing, but someone should be checking with the artist about his ability to chisel some golf clubs out of marble, the end.

 This post was originally published in the Reston Letter.