From Earth to Sky......Dale Chihuly and the ceiling at The Bellagio

The ceiling at The Bellagio, Las Vegas, Nevada

"Steve Wynn started talking to me about the ceiling at the Bellagio long before construction even began. He wanted me to make a “spectacular” piece in the lobby of the hotel that would rival the aquarium at the Mirage, and generate more interest. Back in Seattle, we built the entire seventy-by-thirty-foot ceiling, full-scale, at my studio. The commission, as contracted, called for a whole new armature type and about a thousand new “flowers.” Steve visited several times, loved it, and wanted even more glass. Finally FIORI DI COMO was installed with over two thousand handblown glass elements. "

Dale Chihuly, artist and designer

The first time I saw the ceiling inside the lobby of the Bellagio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, I was stunned by the intricate beauty of the colorful, floating flower anemones that hung above my head. A complex ocean of blown glass that glistened and seemed to virtually ebb and flow, I could only appreciate it with my intrinsic sense of color, line and movement. A repetition of the same curvilinear form, variety producing some flowers large in scale, some smaller and then, even smaller. There is no monotony in this endless sea of glass because the glass design distributed bright, citrus colors of summer evenly. Kinesthetic continuity is maintained and the eye knows not where to rests.  It moves rapidly and smoothly over the shiny, glossy glass jellyfish-like flowers.  Purple pansies, orange poppies, yellow buttercups...It is a surrealistic and abstract interpretation of a garden.  You could be Alice in her Wonderland, wandering through a giant, dream-like flowerbed.  Undulating with over 2000 flowers, it is the largest glass sculpture ever made.

Walking into the lobby this weekend with 2 weeks of Design 001 under my belt, I have a whole new appreciation of what went into the creation of the largest glass sculpture ever made, named "FIORI DI COMO".  As a design student, we learn that design essentially means "to map out, plan, to organize".  This is not just an installation piece that "happens", this was an example of:

Thinking

Looking 

and 

Doing

as outlined in Chapter 1 of "Design Basics" by David A. Lauer.

With so many books available on the topic of design, Lauer's Design Basics lays out the process of designing to its most basic, organic and simple process.  When meeting with Steve Wynn, real estate mogul and creator of the Bellagio, Chihuly listened to what Wynn wanted and began with a sketch.....

Exactly what inspired this rich flowerbed in unknown to me, but Chihuly took this inspiration, put pen to paper after thinking about what form the idea would take, and , the sketch above conveys the idea of the form to the client.

The Thinking, the Looking, and now, the Doing....

Production!

Chihuly, a trained interior designer and architect, became interested in the art of glass blowing in the early 1960's.  He was accepted into University of Wisconsin's hot glass program and from there, was at the Rhode Island School of Design, where he established  the glass blowing program and a new generation of renowned artists.  His craft of glass blowing was finely tuned and passed on.
Glass blowing, itself is a very complicated process...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5rueeBR4ns

I am fascinated that what once was the earth, mere sand, can become a piece of floating sky, shiny, smooth curves up in heaven......

In addition to the level of skill required to master the medium of glass, Chihuly also utilizes his skills at drawing and painting to plan and execute his installations.  In fact, his acrylic paintings, in their abstract beauty, are used to communicate to his team of talented glass blowers what it is he is looking for in the final product.  It is an essential part of the looking, thinking, planning and doing process that is design....

Chihuly at work...

Honolulu Academy of Arts

As you can see, Chihuly's paintings exhibit the same abstractions of the actual objects of which he is trying to interpret and project to his audience.  Movement of color as well as rudimentary and organic shapes convey one idea, expressed as many.  In the above picture, we see the concept of a vase.  But the variety in which this form takes shape is unique and fresh within every sectioned panel.

His list of projects, exhibits, installations and awards is exhaustive and immense and well worth checking out on the website....

http://www.chihuly.com/intro.html

I invite you to go to one of his exhibits and have included a schedule....

2010

September 16 – October 16, 2010
Chihuly 2010
Marlborough Chelsea, New York, New York

November 5 – 7, 2010
Chihuly at SOFA 2010, Litvak Gallery
SOFA Chicago, Chicago, Illinois

April 30 – October 31, 2010
Chihuly at Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park: A New EdenFrederik Meijer Garden & Sculpture Park, Grand Rapids, Michigan

May 9, 2010 – January 2, 2011
Chihuly at the Frist
Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville, TennesseeMay 25 – October 31, 2010Chihuly at CheekwoodCheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art, Nashville, Tennessee

June 6 – October 4, 2010
Red Reeds at the 2010 International VSA FestivalJohn F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, D.C.

December 4, 2009 – December, 2010
Chihuly at CityCenterThe Gallery, CityCenter, Las Vegas, Nevada

Seeing the Earth below us, the sand, turned into floating bouquets in the Sky, is believing.......