Glasswork of Dale Chihuly

Happy Birthday, Dale!

Chihuly is the best there is and pos ever will be.

I got to see an exhibit of his work in Orlando, FL, one year. Like something out of a dream come to life, truly incredible and beautiful.

What a coincidence, I just got back from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester this weekend and there is a Dale Chihuly installation in the Gonda building there. Unfortunately, the pictures on my phone do it no justice whatsoever, it was absolutely breathtaking.

There's a lot of Chihuly work in the Birmingham Museum of Art. It's great stuff.

Saw his stuff at the Indianapolis Children's Museum -- just amazing. Great pix at Chihuly's site.

His glass work is absolutely wonderful. His talent shines through every piece he creates.

all right, artists, who is more abhorred, Chihuly or Hurst? or, Koons?

Chihuly doesn't actually make any of the glass sculptures anymore since he lost one of his eyes. It would be too dangerous. He creates a design, often with paint on a big piece of canvas on the floor and then directs the workers in his studio to make the glass. I suppose that makes him an artist manager. The works are beautiful, but the talent may now reside in others hands.

I hadn't realized who the Bellagio glass guy was until recently. That's when I was exposed to another of his works at the Indianapolis Childrens Museum. The size and work was awe inspiring...not to mention daring. Imagine placing so much glass at the center of a childrens museum.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3662/3642724686_db52abfbe0_o.jpg

From the web site of the Toledo (Ohio) Art Museum.

The Museum’s Glass Pavilion will be vibrant with color, shimmer, and style when the works of internationally prominent glass artist Dale Chihuly are shown from September 17–November 29. Although probably best-known locally for Campilello del Remier #2, the nine-foot chandelier that graces the Monroe Street entrance to the Glass Pavilion, Chihuly has had a long relationship with Toledo. The exhibition is grounded in the studio glass movement, born nearly 50 years ago with the legendary “Toledo Workshops” at the Toledo Museum of Art. In 1970, Dale Chihuly was invited to Toledo to showcase his creations in a study of contemporary art glass; the Seattle native’s contributions have been a part of Toledo’s studio glass tradition ever since.

The first of several events leading up to the Museum’s celebration of the 50th anniversary of the studio glass movement in 2012, this exhibition offers rarely seen master works from TMA’s extensive collection of Chihuly’s work. Sketches and drawings that inspired the work will be part of the exhibit as well. Plan now to see Chihuly Toledo! for the rare opportunity to experience these incredible works for free.

There's a large, hanging Chihuly sculpture in the Bellevue, WA mall a few miles from our home. A lot of glass artists seem cheesey to me, but I've always felt something more from his work.

Look around for the show PBS did a few years ago about him. When you see the thought and design and sheer amount of labor that goes into his pieces, it becomes clear that he's no Thomas Kinkade who merely signs the work his minions create for him, but a truly gifted and thoughtful artist.

I attend the University of Washington in Tacoma,WA and our library has the 'Chinook Red Chandelier' by Chichuly.

"Seven feet wide and 19 feet long, the fiery Chinook Red is composed of over 900 pieces of glass and weighs 1,500 pounds."

Here is a picture: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/75/201530870_d51f018366.jpg?v=0

His work was at Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis just a couple years ago and attendance sky-rocketed! Some of it is still there: www.mobot.org

And I had no idea that all of the pieces are for SALE!! Holy cow...thought they were there to just liven up the place....lol

http://blytheglassstudio.com/