Chihuly: The Nature of Glass - Desert Botanical Gardens - Phoenix, AZ

Ar, maties, let me tell you scallie-wags about my latest adventure in the desert to visit an exhibit by a great artist and possible pirate, Dale Chihuly. Though not linked to anyone in Somalia, Chihuly is known for his iconic eyepatch which evokes images, at least in my head, of pillaging and plundering on the high seas. However, in contrast to the current romanticized images of pirates, thanks to Johnny Depp and the Disney Corporation, pirates are and were bad people. Blackbeard was not in search of fun and adventure. The pirates currently terrorizing ships off the coast of Somalia are not foppish drunks like Capt. Jack Sparrow. But I am not here to condemn piracy or Dale Chihuly, regardless of him being a parrot and a pegleg away from appearing in Treasure Island. I am here to recount, hopefully humorously, my recent visit to the Chihuly exhibition at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, AZ.


For those of you who do not know what Dale Chihuly does, the photo to the right is an excellent example. I can best describe the exhibits at the Desert Botanical Garden as blown glass gone wild. Since I know most of my audience personally, let me remind you that this is not comparable to those commercials that appear on Comedy Central late at night/early in the morning. The words blow and wild are sepeareted by glass. Blown glass gone wild is like scribbling with glass. Making the exhibit more impressive is the fact that these exhibits are brittle and fragile and located in the harsh desert climate. The brightly colored glass sculptures stand as a striking contrast to the subdued tones of the surrounding Sonoran Desert. You do not see day-glo colors like this in the desert and they provide a striking contrast to the plant species in the botanical gardens. Throw in a few 'ooohs' and a couple 'ahhs' and my reaction to the brightly colored glass is covered. And that concludes my amateur critical analysis of Mr. Chihuly's exhibit.


What may interest the casual picsomeinfrontstuff.blogspot.com fan is the fact I toured the Desert Botanical Garden with non other than Michael Phelps! Michael, or Mike as those in the know refer to him, bought me lunch that day and is engaged to my good friend Lenore. Here's the two of them together at the Deser Botanical Garden.

Mike looks a lot different in person, about 37 years older and a foot shorter than in Beijing.

I thoroughly enjoyed the art as well as the lovely Phoenix weather. Considering it was 70 degrees warmer in Phoenix than picsofmeinfrontstuff.blogspot.com's home base of New Jersey it was very difficult to leave. Fortunately, Lenore, the fiance of Michael Phelps did me the honor of posing for a photo. Who knows, it may help his Q-rating to appear on here....