Saturday April 18: Chihuly and Powerboats

First on the agenda yesterday was a ride to the Chihuly glass exhibit. Left is the towering glass sculpture which made the museum very easy to find :-)

Once again we have learned about an artist that is quite well known - this time for glass blowing sculptures rather than paintings.

The artist, Dale Chihuly, is well known for a variety of subjects - one of which is chandeliers. There were two of his creations here in the gallery at St. Pete's.

They are pretty amazing - as are all of the various pieces on display. Need a showpiece chandelier? Only $150,000 for every 3 foot length!

Other pieces were displayed in groups depending on the theme of the pieces.

I particularly liked the baskets and the "underwater" display".



For more info on some of his work, click here.

More items displayed (not by Chihuly) are for sale - a mere $13,000 per piece.

Of course the next stop was a ride to the Glass Stop and Hot Shop for a demonstration of how blown glass pieces are made.

It was quite interesting to watch this artisan make a basket with a very wide opening.

The physical strength needed to work this piece of glass was really surprising.

The person assisting commented that the tendons and joints just really get worn because the leverage that the weight of the glass on the end of a five foot creates.




There are also many murals around the city. I haven't seen all that many but did see that there was a walking tour for anyone interested in learning more. Not for me ....

Then we noticed the boat trailers in the park next door.

Looks like a Poker Run is in town!

The first time we ran into one of these was in Kingston, Ontario this past summer. These boats are just crazy! And all of them have monster trucks painted to match the boat - of course :-)

We rode to the park just north of our marina. Not only were there big, fast power boats but lots of food vendors!

The Greek place got us - chicken kabobs - or whatever the Greek name for them would be.

Entertainment all day and lots of artists set up with some amazing pieces- from all over the country.

First ever: ATM machine set up in the vendor area!








More pictures of some of the more interesting art pieces.

It's been a great few days here at St. Petersburg. One of these days we may need to think about moving on north :-)