Chihuly at the De Young

So, as I have noted earlier, I am a big fan of master glass blower Dale Chihuly. And I am even happier after attending his exhibition which is his "most ambitious installation to date" at the De Young Museum of Art in San Francisco. I went with my friend Dyan and her cute daughter Nora whom loved the art and just kept staring at it with wide eyes. We arrived at the museum at 10 am and it was already packed with people- and many more waiting in line providing evidence of just how interested people are in his work. And fortunately, they do allow photos without flash. I think that they came out fairly well although like much art, they are better seen in person.

"Glass Forest #3". What a striking piece to begin the exhibition- I love that he uses black reflecting mirrors so much in his work because it truly magnifies the beauty of the pieces, creating an even more dramatic effect. The cool thing about this project is that these long tubes are made by him standing on a ladder and dropping the glass from it- the bowls on the bottom are from where the glass pooled.

This was my favorite of his collection of vases incorporating nature from the Venetian series.

Imagine a room filled with these creations and you have the "Persians"

This is part of the "Tabac Basket" series, inspired by Native American woven baskets into glassware. I love that they placed the patterned fabrics behind them.

And welcome to the "Macchia Forest"- I just love the luminescent glow

Here's one of the boats filled with marbles, reminiscent of what he loved to play with as a child. I preferred this boat to the crazy things-sticking-out everywhere boat next to it (just too much)

Here I am standing underneath looking up at this huge chandelier that could DEFINITELY poke both my eyes out!

And his preliminary sketches are works of art in their own right

This is my favorite piece from his "black" series where he painted the outsides black and the insides different colors. I LOVE the fluidity and movement of this piece and how the colors enhance that.

This was one of my FAVORITE rooms- its called the "Persian Ceiling" Chihuly created it so that the viewer would feel like they are in an underwater world. It was so neat- look at all of the beautiful shadows it produced

And the grand finale of "Mille Fiore" which is a stunning garden of glass. (I totally lucked out with this shot because there were so many people that I thought I would get one of them in the foreground.

Here is his installation outside of the museum- the "Saffron Tower". It would look much prettier with a background of blue sky but gray fog is much more appropriate for San Francisco.

And my passion for appreciating art also extends to art books- particularly the ones that are appropriate for a "coffee table" (those that are hardback with large color prints) and of course I bought the exhibition catalogue and am excited to learn more about his work. We watched a few short minutes of a documentary about his glassblowing and his team of artists and so we are going to rent some of the films to learn/appreciate more about the whole process that creates such amazing works.