CHIHULY at RISD

I don't even know where to begin - this will be the first of several blogs about our trip East. It all started with a PBS special years and years ago about Dale Chihuly and his team putting up glass sculptures all over Venice. The art was so beautiful and so different.

Then a few weeks ago there was an article in the Saginaw News that he was going to have an exhibit to open the new "CHACE" center at the Rhode Island School of Design. Chihuly was a teacher at RISD for many years and the exhibit would also include several pieces by his former students. I mentioned to Pat how much I would love to go there and he said "Let's go."

We always take trips for our birthdays and he suggested we take my birthday trip early. With Veteran's Day on Tuesday I had already decided to take Monday off and this would require taking Wednesday off, too.

We started to map out the trip and realized we could visit my cousin Elise and her husband Roger in Rowley, MA - just a few hours away. So a quick email to them and sure enough they had time to visit with us. (That will be the next blog - about what gracious hosts and good friends they are! And what fun we had on our trip to Harvard and Lexington) We also realized while we were on the road to Canada to see the Niagra Falls that we could go home through New Jersey and see my neice, Kim and her husband Fred and their girls. So we called them and sure enough we could stop there on the way home. The only thing we would have done if he had more time was stop to see Sarah Beara for lunch on the way back home - but it was already a 12 hour trip the last day and we couldn't add on to that day.

We got to the exhibit and we were the first people to arrive for the day. They have only been open five weeks and everything was so beautiful. We had the whole place to ourselves for the first half hour.

I cannot tell you how overwhelmed I was walking through the exhibit. The art was so stunning. At one point I had tears streaming down my face - I just couldn't believe I was there. The picture above with the birch trees and purple glass was the piece that I love the most. It was Lent. I even called my friend, Bill, after the show to tell him he was lucky we don't work on our Art and Environment anymore because he would have to come to Rhode Island to see our next project!!!!

There was one section in the exhibit that we walked under that when you looked up the glass pieces were all layed out with lights above. They looked like seashells and sea urchins. The colors were so vivid and the light shining through was spectacular.

I am the luckiest person in the world - to be able to pick up on a moments notice and take off with my best friend in the world to go see such amazing work. I will blog lots more in the coming days.