The Chihuly Museum contains Dale Chihuly's glass creations. Stephanie and Rick tried to see a Chihuly exhibit when they were in Seattle a few years ago, but Stephanie became ill, so they were unable to make the trip. Rick and I had been to the Chihuly in the past, but this was the first time for Stephanie to see a collection of his works. She is familiar with his work, though, since Mayo Clinic has a gigantic Chihuly chandelier hanging in one of its buildings on the Rochester Mayo campus.
While some of the pieces have changed, many of them were the same. Below are some examples of what we saw:
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| This display of glass "flowers" covers an entire wall. The lighting in the Museum makes these works come alive. |
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| Chihuly is known for his elaborate, free-form chandeliers. This one is over six feet long, and my iPhone camera does not begin to do it justice. |
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| Chihuly's idea of a flower is amazing when one considers this is all made of glass. |
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| This shows just one end of a room-sized "undersea garden" of forms and shapes that spans one end of the rainbow to the other. In person, it is breath-taking. |
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| Chihuly's works all start with his "sketches" of what he envisions. I love this one, but do not have the over $3000 price tag to bring it home and frame it! |
Once we left the Chihuly exhibit, we went on to the Morean Art Center. Their exhibit was a Mentor/Student exhibit showing the works of some of the Center teachers' works and their students' works. While the exhibits were interesting, we did not see anything that would fit into the decor of either of our houses... to say nothing of not finding anything within my price range! Overall, for the price of the admission, we were very disappointed in the Art Center. The pieces were not exceptional, the whole Center was not terribly clean or well organized, and the restrooms were filthy. I certainly would not return.
The Hot Shop put on an interesting demonstration of glass blowing. We spent an enjoyable hour watching an apprentice and his mentor creating a vase; of course, since we could not wait the two days for it to totally cool, we were not able to see what the final colors would look like on the finished piece.
Once again, we found a couple of interesting pieces in the gift shop, but nothing we wanted to spend the money on to bring home. Stephanie did find an interesting pair of triangular earrings which reflected a burgundy color depending on how the earrings caught the light. I am happy that she found a usable memento of the trip.
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| Rick and Stephanie pose in the Dali Museum gardens along the shores of Tampa Bay. |
On Tuesday we returned to St. Petersburg and took Stephanie to the Dali Museum. The Dali was holding a Dali/ Disney exhibit which contained a display of the collaborative work that Dali and Walt Disney did to produce a short film. Sadly, Dali took too long to complete his "Fantasia-like" artwork and Disney eventually dropped the film's production. Neither man saw the film completed during their lives. The exhibit also paralleled how the two men, born only two years apart, were able to channel their imaginations in different ways. The displays were very educational but not the Mickey Mouse/ Donald Duck type of display that many people who brought children expected to see. If felt sorry for the kids, but I was happy that our "kid" was old enough to appreciate what the exhibit was trying to show.
Today started early as we took Stephanie to the airport. She just called to tell us that her flight went well and that she arrived chilled but safe in Minnesota. We had a good time while she was here; we enjoyed her company and took time from out schedule to enjoy a little vacation with her.
We have made some decisions on future projects, but I will wait until later to write about our next adventures.
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