Dale Chihuly

These are photos I took of the some of the works of Chihuly in Columbus, Ohio at the Franklin Park Conservatory.  Mr. Chihuly has done amazing things with glass.  His name is somewhat controversial now as he is known to have an unpleasant demeanor with his team.  (Google: chihuly jerk for about 80,000 hits).    He also had a couple accidents in the late 70's so he stopped personally blowing glass leading to the constant debate whether or not his work is really "his" work.  My personal feelings is that while a conductor of an orchestra isn't actively creating sound, he is instrumental (pun intended) in translating the work on the page into the soundscape you appreciate in the concert hall.  If the conductor wrote the piece, all the better for him.  Chihuly is the conductor who writes the pieces.

There is also criticism about his work - is it art?  Or decoration?  Or crap?  I think it's a matter of personal taste.  I love glass so much that I am a bit biased.  But I also love the way that light shines through his work.  I haven't seen a piece I wouldn't bestow upon the title of: "Art".

2D favorites

These pieces are inspirational to me.
The first is a painting by one of the Hudson River Valley school of artists, Thomas Cole.  I saw this when I was a high school student on a class trip to the Toledo Museum of Art.  I was extremely taken by it, especially for a high schooler.  Throughout the years I've gone from marveling over the technical accomplishments in the painting to enjoying the overall design of the piece, and now I'm much more into appreciating how artists convey feelings.
 

Thomas Cole, The Architect's Dream
 

This next piece is detail from a triptych by Hieronymous Bosch, called The Garden of Earthly Delights.  The piece in it's entirety depicts religious oriented concepts, such as damnation, falling from grace, etc.  I appreciate this work much more for it's grotesque creativity.  People are tortured and burned and displayed in tormented poses.  Something like this seems so modern to me, and would not be welcomed in your standard art gallery with warnings for the squeamish, however, it was painted sometime between 1490 and 1510.

Hieronymous Bosch, detail from Garden of Earthly Delights

And of course a Balrog of Morgoth!  I am a Lord of the Rings fan, and really enjoyed the imagery that Peter Jackson's movies put forth to appease the creative mind.  I read that the sound effect for the balrog's "roar" was created by grating together two pieces of cement block.  Wonderful!

A balrog!

Springtime in Ohio

Feels like a long time ago as now the trees are starting to shed their leaves.  Here are some photos I took back then...

Mother Robin

athelas  (not really)

Before

Before I started working with polymer clay, I worked with glass and created beads and sculptures.  Life circumstances have veered me away from glass for the moment, but here's a sampling of some of the pieces I've done:

 These are glass murrini which are made like polymer clay canes and pulled when hot:

 These two beads were launched into space on Shuttle Endeavour as part of the Beads of Courage program:

The buck starts here...

I started my adventures into polymer clay miniature making with a few slices of vanilla cake with chocolate frosting, hot fudge cake, and a meat product which I am going to call "roast".  I never eat any kind of "roast" so I will say it is a tofu roast.

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