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.           

BELOW AND BESIDE

To my great benefit, Mrs. C is often sharper at spotting things than I am. I was stumbling through the crowd inside the Climatron, eyes on the path, when she told me to look up. There seemed to be an explosion of ice worms inside the rigid frame of the geodesic dome. This wasn't the whole story, though. Several steps further on I looked back and saw this:

A side-on view of a chandelier. We hope it is well-secured.               

CITY DAILY PHOTO JUNE THEME - SMILE

I couldn't think of anything happier or more appropriate than my granddaughters, Audrey and Ellie, an endless source of joy. See big grins from City Daily Photo members around the world at https://citydailyphoto.org/category/theme-days/ .