WILDFIRE

 

Fire is a subject on the minds of many Canadians and Americans today. This Chihuly installation, Cattails And Copper Birch Reeds, makes me think of the flames consuming much of Quebec and the Maritimes. The photos of the smoke in New York, my home town, are shocking. St. Louis is far enough southwest that we have been little affected.                

HAIR ON FIRE

This frizzy sunburst and its twin behind me are permanent installations in the botanical garden and not properly part of the current Chihuly exhibition. They flank the large rose garden. The western one catches the last of the sunset.            

A WEED, A TREE, A BRUSH?

This Chihuly piece, Vivid Lime Icicle Tower (really?) is the first thing you see when you leave the botanical garden's entrance and visitor's center and get out into the displays. I don't know quite what to think of it. It reminds Mrs. C of a cypress tree. I see it as a really serious bottle brush.

 

All these objects are ostensibly glass but there has to be more to it than that. We can get severe thunderstorms during the summer with high winds and hail. The artist and the garden apparently consider these things to be safe.            

AT ANCHOR

The scene is the central reflecting pool at our botanical garden, where angels made by Swedish sculptor Carl Milles charm us with their flutes. One of Chihuly's boats filled with an explosion of colored glass seems to have come to rest. It's called simply Fiori Boat, the first word being Italian for flowers.

The works seen in this series get oohs and ahs from the public. However, I once asked an artist acquaintance what he thought of Chihuly. His review was in two words: too easy. Something to think about.                  

SPIKES

A different style of Chihuly glass work in the botanical garden. Looks dangerous to me. The purple spikes grow from a pile of cleanly-sawn logs, as if in reaction to the destruction of a tree. Any other ideas?.            

GERM THEORY

Looking at a work of art often raises associations - that reminds me of something. This large piece called Vermilion and Canary Yellow Tower is at a major junction of paths in our botanical garden. It immediately made me think of a cartoon germ in a children's book, aggressive, threatening and scary. Lots of other reactions are possible, of course.           

HERE COMES THE SUN

Since as usual there is nothing going on around here, I went to our gorgeous botanical garden on Sunday to get some exercise and images. They have a bunch of Chihuly glass around the place, this one on a side of the rose garden. (I was standing underneath its twin on the opposite side.) It looks like it needs a haircut worse than I do in these no-close-contact times.  These could be solar rays or a punk rocker's yellow died hair.

I didn't know it before but the garden takes these glass tubes out for the winter. Freezing temps could damage them.     

CDPB Monthly Theme Day: Glass

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This was put together a bit hastily but you wouldn't expect me to post a picture of a literal piece of glass, would you? If the idea is too obscure, click here.

Peep through panes all over the world with City Daily Photo Blog members. Click here to view thumbnails for all participants.

WHAT I'M DOING THESE DAYS THAT I DON'T USUALLY DO: cook. We can't have our recovering patient standing over the stove. I've gone slack on this over the years. My wife and both our children are excellent cooks. My son in law is a professional chef. I leave it to them and go edit pictures. It's not likely I'll poison us, though.

TOMORROW: one more Mardi Gras street portrait for now and then STL DPB is on the road again. Virginia, can you make this page sing Willie Nelson's On the Road Again? This is more-or-less a business trip with some fun attached. With luck, you will find out what on Tuesday.

AND BY THE WAY, sincere but puzzled thanks to PJ of Pensacola Daily Photo for her post that went up Saturday evening U.S. time titled (get this) Bob Crowe Sunday. Hooda thunk.

There is a new Arch photo
today on Gateway.

Glassmaking

The past weekend brought one of my favorite annual events, the St. Louis artists studio open house. More than a hundred local artists opened their workspaces or gathered in group exhibition areas. Last summer, charged by Bobbi Lane's portrait photography workshop, I made the rounds asking artists if I could take their pictures and posted some of the results (see here and here). A "portrait of the artist" series with shots from lthis year starts tomorrow, with sincere apologies to Stephen Daedelus.

Today, however, we have a shot from Third Degree Glass Factory, STL's premier art glass workshop. They had hands-on demonstrations on the art of glassblowing and invited visitors to come back and learn more. Indeed, several of the artists work tee shirts that read "Learn To Blow." However, I was surprised by the lack of safety precautions around molten glass and ovens at 2,000 degrees C. and more. Only half of them wore safety glasses (no pun intended). None wore insulated gloves or shoes. When I asked about this, one of them told me that when they go to clubs they do the glassblowers' shuffle, shaking his feet as if to throw off a piece of molten glass. I stayed the heck out of the way. Today's photo depicts one stage of the process. I like the strong hand and tool. The glass is red with heat, not just dyes.

WHAT I'M LISTENING TO: Study for Player Piano No, 3a by Conlon Nancarrow. The devil's own boogie woogie.
TOMORROW: Portrait of the Artist series begins with Tom Huck at Evil Prints.