15 June 2008 @ 10:56 am
Art: Dale Chihuly  
About fifteen years ago I walked into the darkened lobby of the Brooklyn Museum of Art, and encountered one of the most amazing art works I had ever seen: what seemed like hundreds of gigantic multi-colored glass butterflies and flowers covering all of one wall. It was "Brooklyn Wall," by glass artist Dale Chihuly. It turned me on to glass art, especially Mr. Chihuly's wondrous giant installations. 

For the past two years, Mr. Chihuly has installed art on the grounds of Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden and the results have been magnificent:

Snake in Paradise

Mr. Chihuly's garden art is organic, animal and plant shapes that spring from their settings as if born there:

Snakes and Palm Tree

But sometimes he turns playful and floats huge spheres and hershey kiss-shapes in the streams and lakes:

Floating worlds

Glass Kisses

And sometimes it's just the utter beauty of it all that catches at you:

The World Inside