Back in August, I took my parents to the Denver Botanic Gardens to see the Dale Chihuly exhibit. The garden itself is a spectacular place, full of flowers even at the end of the summer, but the giant glass sculptures scattered throughout the grounds took the experience to a new level.
As soon as we walked through the gate, I knew we were in for a day full of breath-taking moments. Each time we turned a corner and got our first glimpse of what was coming next, my heart raced. I took a bunch of pictures, trying desperately to capture what I was feeling as I admired the sculpture-filled gardens. Looking at them now, I don’t feel any of my photos do those moments justice.
The dazzle of the glass sculptures coupled with their gigantic size make them seem like something left by a bling-loving Merlin. They glitter and shine and demand to be noticed. They stand out from the plantings surrounding them. Thanks to their organic shapes, they harmonize with them, too. A sense of magic is palpable as you look at them. It’s hard to believe humans had anything to do with them.
And yet, human hands and minds were involved. Dale Chihuly has a huge team of artists who work with him to create his magnificent sculptures. Nearly twenty people were required just to install the show in Denver. And the work doesn’t stop there.
The second time we passed the lily pond, we saw a man standing in the water, bent over one of the twisted glass reeds poking up out of the cattails. When I asked him what he was doing, he held up the spear he had just pulled out to show me. The hollow tube had several inches of water in it.
The water had slowly leaked into the piece over the three months it had been sitting in the water. His job was to take each piece out of the pond, drain the water out, and then return it. Water left to accumulate can freeze and crack the glass, so this sort of maintenance is standard for the installations that are in the water. The show runs until the end of November, and our first frost warnings are already a week behind us, so their preparations were timely.
Despite seeing the maintenance crew at work and hearing about the installation team from a garden staff member, I still came away feeling like I had seen objects created by magic. Great art is magical. Strangers communicate an idea to us by making something with their hands and leaving it behind. We may not hear words, but we react to what we see. We feel emotions and walk away thinking new thoughts and remembering that the world is wonderful and wonder-full. We are grateful to be alive and to have seen what we have seen.
Chihuly is an inspiring artist to watch at work. If you’d like to see more of his art and find out how he makes it, check out the many videos on his web site. They are at the bottom of this page.
