A change of scene
Back from Syracuse. The trip went well. When not attending wedding festivities. we walked around Syracuse and got to know the city a little bit. Most impressive was the huge regional farmer’s market that just happened to be open on Saturday morning when we were doing most of our walking.
On the way home, we ate at Moosewood Restaurant. I’ve always wanted to go there because the Moosewood cookbooks have been so much a part of my life. And then we went to the Corning Museum of Glass. Very impressive. The museum paid attention to science and art in equal measure. Glass is an amazing material. I found the simpler glass artworks the most appealing. I took photos of Dale Chihuly’s amazing Fern Green Tower. When first installed, it was 11 feet tall but the artist extended it to 15-1/2 feet in 2013.
I found a YouTube video of the reconfiguration of the tower in fast motion: Chihuly Fern Green Tower Time Lapse (best watched without the music, I think)
There was a lot of fall color to be seen on this trip. We passed through western Maine, New Hampshire’s White Mountains, Vermont’s Green Mountains, and the Adirondack Park. On our way home, it was very rainy but I still enjoyed this beautiful fall tree in downtown Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
To see your brother dance with his daughter, the bride, is so endearing. Family events like these are such sweet moments..
Re Dale Chihuly: I first became aware of his glass art when of all things, I attended an author signing years ago in CA. The author Nora Roberts, was signing one of her Irish trilogies, Born in Fire, Born in Ice and Born in Shame. The main character in Born in Fire, Maggie, was a female glass blower. In the question and answer portion of the event, I asked Nora Roberts about the research that she had done re the glass blowing and she spoke of Dale Chihuly and how his work inspired hers.
Years later I made a spectacle of myself when I lay down on the floor of the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, camera in hand, scooting across the floor to to photograph Dale’s wondrous ceiling installation, Flowers of Como, a 2000sq ft creation consisting of over 2,000 hand blown glass flowers.
When we lived in Maui, we would often visit the NaPua Gallery in the Grand Wailea Resort which featured many of Dale’s works. His undulating, what I call seaweed, extravaganzas,were fun to walk around, astonishing in their many colors, some a solid color, others mixed. As much as these were wondrous, it was a very simple waved rimmed deep green bowl with variegated lines of color that I would return to, time and time again.
The father-daughter dance was very touching. Your experiences with Chihuly’s work are interesting – his art is the kind that stays with you.
Moosewood, Chihuly, fall color and a beautiful wedding: what a wonderful trip!
It was full of wonders! I’m glad we took an extra day and went to Moosewood & the museum.