Dale Chihuly, glass artist

The Dale Chihuly glass art show at the Fine Arts Museum in Boston has been very popular so son-in-law Patrick, who is a glass artisan, [see his work here] and daughter Rachel and I went up to Boston Thursday afternoon to see it. The pieces are enormous and spectacular, they were given sufficient space to be seen to advantage. Chihuly who formerly blew glass had a couple of physical accidents so that now he works with a group of apprentices who help fashion the creations he designs. There are blown glass pieces but most are floral or biological forms, mostly on a very grand scale. At the edge of the restaurant area which is a floor above the exhibit, is a chartreuse "plant" or tree, cactus-like although unlike any actual cactus, a construction of glass spikes about 20 feet tall. The reed-like sculpture on birch logs in the above photograph reminded me also of menorah candles although there are many more of them.

There was a ceiling crowded with flower and leaf forms with a few barely visible mermaid or cherubic figures amongst them. It was called The Persian ceiling, presumably because it reminds one of the mosaic work in the domes of mosques. And there was the Milleforra Garden, a very large arrangement of plant forms which I suddenly realized reminded me of Dr. Seuss drawings -- the same whimsical almost human shapes in the plants and flowers.

In the room with "chandeliers" this blue one was my favorite, hanging down from the ceiling at least ten feet. None of the chandeliers had light inside, the carefully arranged lights that fall on and through the glass made them glow and sparkle. Those are only the rooms that come to mind immediately. The glass dazzled and amazed. Chihuly lives in the Northwest and a museum of his work is being build in the Seattle area. Just getting there to see the exhibit was worth the frustration of heavy traffic, brought to a crawl a couple of times by police at minor accident sites.