Chihuly

Amazing creations

I don’t remember when I first saw Dale Chihuly’s art. It could have been on a Disney Cruise Lines ship, where it is displayed like a giant chandelier in the great atrium. Or it could have been at the Missouri Botanical Garden, where it floats surprisingly in a water feature, or at the Franklin Park Conservatory in Columbus, Ohio, where I was in town for a wedding. It’s there too.

Wherever I first saw it, his art has become one of my favorites, and I started to seek it out. I went to his glassblowing workshop in Tacoma, Washington when my son was living in Seattle. Just recently I saw a very large show of his work at the Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The number of pieces on display both indoors and in the park is overwhelming.

In 1962, Chihuly began studying art in Florence. He started glassblowing in 1965, and received a scholarship to attend the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he earned an MS in sculpture. In 1976 he was involved in a head-on car accident that resulted in him becoming blind in one eye. Since that time he has famously worn an eyepatch.

His artworks range from naturalistic to otherworldly. Some of my favorite pieces remind me of sea creatures, but in wild colors. He has developed a technique for drawing on glass using glass of a different color, and has incorporated glass into fiber art in some installations. The pieces also come in a variety of sizes, from kitchen bowls to giant outdoor pillars.

Chihuly gets negative reviews from some people who find the work repetitive, or who criticize it because he doesn’t make every piece himself. He hurt his shoulder in a surfing accident, so cannot hold the heavy glassblowing tube. He now supervises over 100 artists who blow the glass and shape it to his specifications. For every negative review, however, there are many effusive ones. It is reported that he has a net worth of over $10 million, with some of his individual pieces selling for more than $50,000.

“I want people to be overwhelmed with light and color in some way that they’ve never experienced.” — Dale Chihuly

Chihuly is experimental and meticulous. Several walls of the exhibition at Meijer Gardens were covered with his sketches and instructions to his team of glass artists. Part of his genius is finding ways to create these elaborate structures such that they don’t fall apart.

When I visited his studio in Tacoma, I was able to see a small part of the elaborate process that goes into creating one of his works. The art is distinctive. I can tell right away when I see a Chihuly. And once you see one, you can’t stop seeing more — he has over 400 permanent exhibitions around the world, and many more temporary ones. I hope you get to see an exhibition. I’m looking forward to the next time.