PHOTO GALLERY: Sculptures Inhabit the Civic Center

Six new sculptures have sprung up on the grounds of the in the vicinity of and the .

The 25th annual "Sculpture on the Grounds" exhibit is on view until mid-October in conjunction with the opening of a three-person one-month show featuring works by Roger Doyle, Theresa Martin and Anne Nicholson at the Glenview Mansion Art Gallery.

"'Sculpture on the Grounds' is part of our Art in Public Places programs," said Betty Wisda, the city's arts programs supervisor, who led a walking tour of the sculptures on June 5. "The review board chose six pieces to be displayed out of 40 submitted."

Several of the artists were present on the tour and each provided a brief description of their work, sometimes going into detail about the intricacies of manufacturing these life-size installations.

"The wave shape implies water. There is also a sun shape in there. The undulation in the work evokes movement. This piece has been shown at Mount Pelier and the Krieger Museum," said David Hubbard, the creator of a hollow, fabricated stainless steel piece titled "Progress." Hubbard described his sculpture through action verbs such as "thrusting up" and "going in a direction."

Lloyd Roberts was listening to music when he came up with the idea for his "Guitar Lady," a copper and bronze, child-size piece outside the Fitzgerald Theatre.

"I used wire and copper pipes and hammered the whole thing together," he said. "Copper patinas very nicely when it gets weathered, and I like the resulting colors. I assembled the jewelry she is wearing around her neck myself."

Bill Wood was the only selected artist who submitted a site-specific proposal. His piece is wedged on the ground near the theater. It is a series of prisms that are reflective on one side and covered in blue vinyl on the other.

"I sought to create a water feature without any water," he said. "I also challenged myself by creating a piece that was identical in structure on all sides."

Wood's piece expresses a strict pattern geometry. He created it specifically for the annual show.

Hanna Jubran's stainless steel and bronze "Solar Wind" resembles an obelisk. Because the artist was not present, Wisda read from her statement to help shed light on the motivation behind the piece. According to Wisda's reading, Jubran expresses time and space through her work and strives to maintain the natural quality of her materials.

Jim Gallucci and Sam Noto were also in absentia but their sculptures graced the grounds of the Civic Center with playful candor. Gallucci's galvanized steel "Cluttergate" evokes a wind chime on first glance. According to Wisda, the artist, who is also the author of the gates in Veteran's Park in Rockville, expresses the paradox of the gate/doorway through his work. Gates are both utilitarian and symbolic; they are open or closed, they confine or release, she said. Noto, who teaches art at Montgomery College, contributed a wiry, squiggly piece made of painted tubing and titled "Chaos II."

A guide map will be available to visitors to the sculpture exhibit.

While visitors toured the sculpture garden, Kathleen McLaughlin and Big River entertained guests at the Glenview Mansion Art Gallery opening reception with easygoing American roots music, including country, blues, bluegrass, rockabilly and folk.

Doyle, Martin and Nicholson greeted visitors in the gallery space.

"Of the latest works within the group of paintings I am showing here at Glenview, I use images of cemeteries, wrecks and memorials ...," Doyle wrote in his artist's statement. "For me these works truly became amusing rather than dreadful in this style of working."

Doyle's statement, true to Picasso's adage, is emphatic about remembering what it's like to experience creating art as a child. Doyle paints car wrecks, cemeteries and figures with the precision of a cartoonist and in a vivid patchwork of color.

Theresa Martin creates 2D and 3D assemblages from memorabilia she has collected over time.

"Sometimes the objects begin to feel too precious to use and I save them for too long," she wrote in her artist's statement. "I decided to no longer keep them tucked away ... many of the women in my images are from a collection of antique photographs ... The scale dials are taken out of vintage scales and have become halos. I used some rhinestone and Swarovski buttons and laces that I've saved for many years."

Nicholson's small sculptures, mostly figurative, express the depth of human emotion and the tension of human posture.

"I love taking a lump of clay, a piece of wire or any material and making it into something that speaks through/to me," she wrote in her statement.

The Glenview Mansion exhibit is on display through July 5. Gallery hours are from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays.