More Chihuly

We went to Arkansas to look at Art. 

It proved to be a worthwhile detour, making the drive not just an obligatory drive, but an opportunity for exploration.  And the exhibit proved to be worthwhile as well, including the familiar, and the unfamiliar.

There were, of course, expected shapes and forms, still ethereally beautiful.

But there were also unanticipated delights.  The beauty of simple shapes, columns of glass, patterns inspired by weaving, by baskets and native American blankets.  Chihuly is a collector and a creator.  This is not surprising.  I don't know an artist or even a designer who is not also a collector or gatherer of things.

You can see how the blankets have influenced the designs.  But that is only a hint of the way that the things we see and love are transformed into something completely different, in a different medium, but equally beautiful and equally useful.

This.  This transformation of idea into object, this cross-pollination of influences.  This is what is fascinating; this is why it was worth driving to Bentonville.

I hadn't realized that Chihuly had started with weaving. Even then he incorporated glass into his works, but he hadn't yet discovered the magic of molten glass.    "One night a few years later, I melted some glass in a little oven and blew a bubble….As soon as I blew that bubble I decided I wanted to be a glassblower."

It seems no surprise then that he is also fascinated by baskets, by the way old baskets collapse and reform over time.

But I had never made the connection, one that seems so obvious now.

Even the colors and textures are transformed through glass.

Chihuly's drawings were mounted throughout the exhibit.  In and of themselves they are beautiful. You see the inspirations.  You see the idea on paper.  And then you can go directly and see the result.  It remains mind-bending.  A. B. C.  I can see the progression, and yet I understand nothing.  It is like holding a soap bubble in my hand.  I think I have it, but the moment it touches the skin it bursts.