The Persian Ceiling by Dale Chihuly

            Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to visit the exhibit, "Chihuly," at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA). According to the VMFA, "Dale Chihuly has been an innovative figure in the American glass movement, creating glass on an increasingly epic scale that has astonished and enthralled people all over the world" (Fall, 2012 Magazine). I have seen artisans blowing glass and as a child, my family collected some of these works. But I have never seen glass pieces as large as the ones I saw at VMFA. As I walked from room to room of the Chihuly exhibit, I heard other people exclaim in surprise as we floated through dark rooms where focused light sharply illuminates color-drenched objects of wonder. We all were delighted by the magical quality of the work. The piece, Mille Fiori, which means "a million flowers,"" was like a winter wonderland made of fanciful glass creations. Persian Ceiling reminded me of visits to aquariums where one can walk under fish tanks and watch sea life swimming overhead. With this exhibit, however, one sees fabulous colorful shapes as one looks up at a glass ceiling. The exhibit as a whole was breathtaking. There were pieces that were only about the size of a coffee cup to multiple massive structures that were the size of large rooms. The works were made out of several different materials there was a series of drawings, woven fabrics and baskets, but the main material displayed was hand blown glass. .
             The piece that I have chosen to write about is The Persian Ceiling. This piece is a part of a series that Chihuly did called The Persians. He started this series by just experimenting with geometric shapes and it grew into this series of massive pieces. "When I started the Persians [in 1986], I was thinking of spice tones, " Chihuly said on the tour. "But they got brighter. I loved the name Persian. " Before entering the installation "Persian Ceiling, " a large text on the wall encourages viewers to "Look up, and luxuriate.