Chihuly In The Desert
Last January, I went to a late afternoon through night wedding at the Desert Botanical Garden here in Phoenix. The first couple of hours there were normal visitors in the park, the rest of the time, especially later at night, we had the place pretty much to ourselves. It was spectacular.
The scene was especially notable because it was in the middle of the stay of a Chihuly exhibit at the Garden. If you are not familiar with Dale Chihuly’s artistic glass designs, it is really something to behold. Read about Chihuly and his work at the link, it is an interesting story.
At any rate, I was chatting with Professor Nancy Leong the other day after she tweeted a picture from a Denver display of Chihuly. I actually think it may be the same installation that had previously been here. Nancy asked me to blog some of my pictures, especially the nighttime ones, which are very cool.
Marcy and I are both enroute to Netroots in Detroit, with Jim White, Masaccio and Gaius Publius all slightly behind us, but also well on their way. Use this as a general discussion trash talk thread, and we will all be checking in, but it may be a little sporadic for the next few days.
All photos will enlarge if you click on them, and a few of them are really worth doing it.
So, without further adieu, Chihuly in the desert:
My wife and I were lucky enough to stumble across Chihuly’s exhibit at the botanical park while visiting friends in the Phoenix area a few years ago. It was spectacular, even in the daytime.
The nighttime pics remind me of the bioluminescent plants in Avatar.
My understanding is that the elements are the same in Chihuly’s installations but the configurations change as he plays with the shapes and forms. Saw his exhibit at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts a few years ago. He puts you in a different world.
It is some wild stuff. What I want to know is, how in the world do they move those things without breaking them??
I have several dozen photos from the Phoenix exhibit a few years ago. Really cool stuff.
It is some pretty mind blowing stuff. I have no idea how he does that level of art with glass.
He uses some great Italian artisans. He scribbles on a big sheet of paper and these Venetian guys do all the work.
Also if you like glass, you should make a mandatory visit to Corning’s museum in Corning, NY. Dale has a piece or two in the lobby and the rest of the museum is spectacular. They have glass that dates back to 4BCE as well as missile nose cones and windows from the space shuttle. The architecturals they have are remarkable beyond.The gift store ain’t too shaby either.
Ooooh, that sounds cool. Will try to get to that.