I'm head over heels. In love. With Chihuly.
It's like a party of flowers, and undersea shapes, and vegetables, and sea sponges and coral outcroppings; sort of Alice in Wonderland meets Dr. Seuss with a taste of The Little Shop of Horrors. It feels like a tropical fruit salad, or maybe a party. There's birdlike shapes, and silvery planet-like orbs. And towers and chandeliers and boats filled with the most amazing things.
I spent the day with my husband and son (that's them, and me,below) at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, most of it at the most amazing art exhibit we've EVER seen - Chihuly "Through the Looking Glass".
I 
I've included these photos with us in them, mostly for a sense of scale. The stuff is SO much bigger than you'd think from photos. And the color is richer, and more luminous. Hard to describe. Just amazingly amazing!
This photo is from the "Persian Ceiling". I just can't post all the pics, but imagine looking up at a ceiling overhead, filled with richly colored glass in every shape imaginable, illuminated from above, that looks like sea shells, and oh there was an octopus, and then we found this angel, and all the amazing shapes, and the spectacular colors...
I'll admit to being late to jump on the Chihuly bandwagon. The truth is, you've just got to see this stuff for real. Photos will never do the work justice. But we tried, shooting hundreds of photos between my son and me.
I wanted to bring home an exhibit book for school, but they were a pricey $50 and anyhow were sold out, but lo and behold there was ONE just sitting there, with a binding that needs re-gluing, for HALF PRICE. Lucky me! I can glue it myself!
Definitely expect Chihuly lessons sometime later this school year. Maybe in the middle of cold snowy monochromatic wintertime?
Phyl - Lucky you -- sounds like a terrific exhibit. I can't remember whether or not you've posted Chihuly lessons before, but if you haven't checked out his website, DO!! He has some great videos of his team (and him) working in their hot shop. I love the one on bamboo and potatoes!
ReplyDeletePhyl! The photos are amazing. Thanks so much for posting them. I didn't make it to Boston this summer. Wah. Coursework, summer jobs, and getting ready for our big summer wedding took precedent, and now it's gone. The exhibit looks amazing in the photos. Must have been spectacular in person.
ReplyDeleteBarb
I'm so glad you got to see it in person!!!! Amazing, eh?!!! I loved your opening paragraph...I think you nailed it!! ha ha Oh, and just so you know....we talked about you at our inservice the other day!!! Me & Ms. Malone(not sure if you follow her blog or not?). So you're famous in Nashville even if you don't visit!
ReplyDeleteI saw some of his work in the botanical gardens when my husband and I visited Atlanta a few years ago, it was a really cool setting!
ReplyDeleteMust be cool to see the work with the lighting very dramatic. I also love your opening paragraph. I've only seen a few of his pieces in person (one being at a casino in Atlantic City:) this description was awesome!
ReplyDeleteyou forgot charlie and the chocolate factory!!
ReplyDeleteI got to go to his boathouse studio in Washington State and was floored - I was ready to move in. I should post my pics...
I have to say your blog keeps me watching constantly! I love just about every post you put out there. :) Thanks for taking the time to share!
ReplyDeleteI do have a request for you that I've been dying to ask for months now. As you know, you have an outstanding readership with your blog. Maybe, just maybe, one day you can give a post to us on how to "get your blog out there" per say. I have a few friends (including myself) who just got into blogging, yet we don't know how to get our blogs out there.
Any tips?
~Sheena
http://themidnightmonalisa.blogspot.com/
Yes! Charlie and the Chocolate Factory! And Beetlejuice, and Honey I Shrunk the Kids.
ReplyDeleteChristie, no I haven't posted Chihuly lesson before because I've never done any. Thanks for the heads-up on his website.
And Sheena, I've left you a BIG comment on your blog. Everyone, go take a look at this new blog!
Tish - please DO post those photos. Oh, so many great ideas to put on my Pinterest boards!
I went to see the exhibit at the MFA on my birthday a couple weeks back. The colors are astonishing and the sheer volume of work is incredibly inspiring. I've been trying to figure out a lesson to do that will honor this amazing artist...I'd love to add it to my curriculum this year!
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear that you enjoyed it...and had fun in my neck of the woods!
And yes, isn't it wonderful to see SO many people in a museum. The day we went was amazingly full as well! The new wing that they have built brings in a lot more people! It is such a destination now for many!
Phyl, you beat me to the post! I made it to the MFA on a free (after 5pm) Wednesday night in July. I picked up a book and DVD mainly about his chandilers, as inspiration for a potential school wide recycling/ art project at my new school. -- I will eventually post about my experience going to a museum on a free night! Glad you made it to Boston!
ReplyDeleteYou're so lucky Phyl that you got to see and experience such a amazing exhibit! Still enjoying and marveling over my new grandaughter!
ReplyDeleteI love Chihuly! I've seen his work in Las Vegas and we had a small exhibit come to Syracuse several years ago and it was awesome! I would love to see this exhibit... it looks magical!
ReplyDeleteMy son, who graduated from University of Rochester last spring, discovered that at the Eastman School of Music there, there is a new acquisition of a Chihuly chandelier.
ReplyDeletePhyl, Love your blog! I just posted a lesson I did with my Young Fives on Chihuly. An old lesson with a twist.
ReplyDeleteJody
www.artfor1170.blogspot.com