SAN ANTONIO – If you have walked, run or ridden in some of the San Antonio city parks or trailheads recently, you may have noticed large beautiful sculptures depicting South Texas native flowers.
No, they didn’t bloom overnight, as the seeds behind the project were planted five years ago.
The San Antonio Department of Arts and Culture along with the City’s Parks and Recreation Department were looking for ways to enhance local city parks and greenways with public art.
The goal? To increase neighborhood connectivity, create a visual identity for the linear creeks, and to place more art on greenway trails. It’s how the bloom sculpture series came to life.
The first one was planted at Mud Creek at McAllister Park in 2019.
With the help of input from residents about which indigenous flowers to create, San Antonio artist Leticia Huerta and Wanderlust Ironworks brought the radiant oversized metal flowers to life.
“I’m really proud of it because it’s my first large scale free standing sculpture as a public art project,” Huerta said. “Figuring out how to make something three dimensional at least for me I’m not a sculptor. I’m proud of that effort and I’m proud of how well received that project has been.”
The flowers resemble larger than life bicycle parts. Simon and Autumn Saleh helped weld and bring Huertas designs to their actual size.
“We come out here and we do some brain storming with raw materials and we figure out how far we can curve say a bowl or a dome shape and we figure out how to attach things discreetly where it’s not just industrially welded and it really creates the illusion of some hybrid mechanical flower,” Simon Saleh said.
Two more installations will be complete by this summer at Salado Creek at South Side Lions Park and Leon Creek at the Tezel road facility.
Currently you can see the blooms at five city parks, and the most recent installations at Farias Park and Brazos Pocket Park on the city’s West Side.