Dale Chihuly

Dale Chihuly is an American glass sculptor that I really like. I first found out about his existence through a huge chandelier type sculpture of his that hangs from the very high ceiling in the entrance hall of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

It made an impression on me for two reasons:
1) it's fabulous (duh)
2) it's scary
The scary part is me being afraid that one day the ceiling is going to give and that glass thing is going to crash down and kill people. So I felt slightly uncomfortable standing underneath it and preferred looking at it from a different angle on one of the higher floors. ;-)

So when the Groninger Museum decided to do a big exhibit of Chihuly's work I knew I had to go. Luckily Groningen is near enough that I can go back and forth within a day. The practical problem with living on an island is that many things take at least one overnight stay at family, friends or a hotel, unless it's in the north of The Netherlands. Groningen is in the North, so no need to make extensive plans, just catch the early morning ferry and go.

Today I'd like to share an impression of the exhibit, because I loved it so much. Photographs don't do it justice, but at least you get an idea of this mans skill, diversity, love of colour and even (yay!) patterns.

I wish there had been more drawings.

I took a lot of pictures of  pattern details like this.

This was my favorite room. It's consisted of one huge man sized glass garden!

For those who are close enough it's definitely worth traveling to Groningen for. The exhibit still runs until the 5th of May. For those of you who live too far away or don't have time: I hope you enjoyed coming with me virtually. If I can manage it, I myself hope to revisit the exhibit before it expires. We'll see how it goes.

For now I wish you all a wonderful and artsy day.