Dale Chihuly has singlehandedly pioneered large scale art glass. He founded the first American glass studio which evolved into a cutting edge Glass Museum in Tacoma, Washington. Here's what I'm talking about.
This vibrant yellow and red sculpture is about 40 feet high, and Mr. Chihuly has installed twenty-one diverse glass sculptures scattered throughout the entire Desert Botanical Gardens. This venue is one of my favorite destinations in Arizona. It's a cactus garden run amuck. There are all sorts of desert vegetation from the commonplace, such as prickly pear, to the uncommon such as a Bojum Tree. Mike Perez, my brother-in-law, who has lived in the desert all his life, was amazed by plants such as this one. I first saw the garden in 1970. It was my first trip to Arizona. I was a 20 year old Oklahoma girl who had never seen a desert. The Gardens were a wonderful introduction.
Chihily has been doing exhibitions in other gardens around the world for several years. This is an artist with an international reputation, and his pieces reside in the most famous museums in the world. His garden installations bring his glass visions to ordinary people. They are utterly astounding. Some of our discussions as we viewed the pieces were 'how were they transported'; 'how were they assembled', and what does that one weigh?
If you are interested in future Chihuly exhibitions, click here:
My pictures of what we saw on Sunday are available at
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