Chihuly

   Dale Chihuly is an American artist.  He designs elaborate glass blown pieces and has done displays all over the world.  He studied interior design at the University of Washington, after which he enrolled in the nation's first glass program, at the University of Wisconsin.  In 1968, he moved to Venice and worked at the Venini glass factory.  This gave him a unique approach to glass blowing, which has highly influenced his work.  His pieces are naturalistic and a number of them are done on an extremely large scale.
   The art is extremely unique and has become fairly relevant in the avant-garde art world.  Although, initially working individually after an accident Chihuly was unable to blow glass and now hires others to blow the glass for him.  This he acknowledges this as a good thing in some aspects because he now examines the work from more varied perspectives and because he is less involved in the actual process of creating he is able to anticipate issues in the pieces more quickly.  He describes his role in the pieces as "more choreographer than dancer, more supervisor than participant, more director than actor"  (San Diego Times).