Transcript DALE CHIHULY Born in 1941 in Tacoma, Washington, Dale

DALE CHIHULY
Born in 1941 in Tacoma, Washington,
Dale Chihuly was introduced to glass
while studying interior design at the
University of Washington.
• After graduating in 1965, Chihuly enrolled
in the first glass program in the country, at
the University of Wisconsin. He continued
his studies at the Rhode Island School of
Design (RISD), where he later established
the glass program and taught for more
than a decade.
• In 1968, after receiving a Fulbright
Fellowship, he went to work at the Venini
glass factory in Venice. There he observed
the team approach to blowing glass, which
is critical to the way he works today.
• In 1971, Chihuly cofounded Pilchuck
Glass School in Washington State. With
this international glass center, Chihuly has
led the avant-garde in the development of
glass as a fine art. Pictured is Chihuly’s
work at the Bellagio casino in Nevada.
• In 1976, while Chihuly was in England, he
was involved in a head-on car accident
during which he flew through the
windshield. His face was severely cut by
glass and he was blinded in his left eye.
After recovering, he continued to blow
glass until he dislocated his right shoulder
in a 1979 body surfing accident. No longer
able to hold the glass blowing pipe, he
hired others to do the work.
• His work is included in more than 200
hundred museum collections worldwide.
He has been the recipient of many
awards, including twelve honorary
doctorates and two fellowships from the
National Endowment for the Arts.
The University of Akron
Close-Up of Akron
• "I love to go to the ocean and walk along
the beach. Glass is so much like water. If
you let it go on its own, it almost ends up
looking like something that came from the
sea." —Chihuly
• The Seaform Pavilion in Tacoma
Washington is a ceiling made of 2,364
objects from Chihuly's Seaform and
Persian series. Seaforms have soft,
undulating sides and rims, and feature
delicate, flowing forms and colors.
Persians, the exotic cousin to the
Seaforms, are a rich variety of cones,
flasks, and roundels with spiraling ribbons
of color.
• Placed on top of a fifty-by-twenty-foot plate-glass ceiling, the forms
are suspended in midair and make dramatic use of natural light.
Fluorescent lights augment daylight on cloudy days and illuminate
the pavilion at night. The tinted glass side walls of the pavilion allow
viewers to immerse themselves in the space without distraction. As
visitors walk under this pavilion, they experience a seemingly
underwater world of glass shapes and forms a few feet above their
heads.
Alexander Calder
Other Glass Scuptures
What’s the next step?
• Begin brainstorming ideas for your
sculpture
• Sketch at least 2 ideas in your sketchbook
• Include scale and color in sketches
• What elements and principles apply to this
sculpture?