CommUNITY Tree in Downtown Silver Spring by Karl Unnasch et al.

Karl Unnasch -- Public Art, Stained Glass and Sculpture

CommUNITY Tree

Karl Unnasch — Public Art, Stained Glass and Sculpture

A Holiday “Tree” Celebrating CommUNITY

Special thanks go out to:

· Peterson Companies

· Downtown Silver Spring

· Laurie Yankowski

· Juanita Stewart

· Michael Cimino

· Michelle Izquierdo

· Vanessa Smith

· Erick Satchell II

· Suzy Slater

· Nancy Unnasch

· Luis Alvarado & Crew

· Sqvibl and LilBoi

Silver Spring stands proud as a community where folks from every corner of the world come together to live, work, love and play. The 2018 holiday “tree” embodied that spirit. The kaleidoscopic mural on the tree’s surface was a fusion of the work of four Artists — the majority of whom were Silver Spring locals. Like the community itself, this work was a colorful amalgamation of a broad variety of talents and backgrounds, people and cultures.

Bold color celebrated this message of visual harmony. Images of a diverse congregation of people ringed the bottom of the tree; prismatic energy organically flowed from them and danced toward a mobile color sculpture at the top. In a nod to the societal value of mural art, repurposed paint cans dotted the surface and shed light upon it.

“Community” can’t be spelled without “unity”. It was the Artists’ hope that the 2018 holiday tree inspired everyone to embrace our differences and unite as vivid bursts of color in our community!

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