Print  email 

Exhibit will inspire Chihuly glass fans

By Sharon Wootton | For The Olympian • Published April 26, 2007

• Comments (0)

Two dozen Dale Chihuly blown-glass pieces are sure to be one of the main attractions at this spring's Arts Walk.

Rick Rishel, a former Olympia arts commissioner, and his brother, Terry, are bringing in the exhibit. Five years ago, they brought a similar show to the Black Box at The Washington Center fo r the Performing Arts Center.

"It was a huge success," Rick Rishel said. "I think we had more than 3,000 people come through. They were lined up around the block."

The exhibit, a chance to see world-class pieces , is open only Friday night. Chihuly's exhibits, which have raised the bar for glass art, have fascinated millions in many international installations.

"I think it's beautiful the way the glass reacts to light, and that's the thing that fascinated Dale with glass to begin with," said Rick Rishel, a former Chihuly employee who has worked on many installations.

"He'd walk along the beach and see the broken glass and the way it reacted to light," he said.

Chihuly is donating the transportation as well as the staff to pack, deliver and install the 5-hour exhibit.

"He likes the community," Rick Rishel said. "He's been part of our family for years. When our mother was sick for about four years, he'd be in Japan or somewhere and find out she was back in the hospital. He'd find the closest fax machine to her hospital bed and fax her silly pictures that he'd draw."

Their mother once lived in Olympia, and after she died, a Chihuly glass piece was donated to an Olympia senior center in her name.

Terry Rishel is Chihuly's main photographer, the Tacoma studio's manager and the builder of the Arts Walk exhibit.

"It's going to be a 'cowboy installation,' " Terry Rishel said of the set-up and take-down in the same day with a crew of nine. Despite the rush, "It'll just feel good to do it."

Rishel selected the show's pieces, including five large orange baskets, a large ikebana (perfect flower art in Japanese), three classic Venetian pieces, recently blown black soft cylinders, sea life putti (Italian for baby) and Rishel's favorite, a large Persian set of 18 rose-colored pieces.

"Glass is interesting because it's three dimensions and transparent. Its job is to transmit light and that's the secret of glass. It pulls you into it," Rishel said.

"If you go in a museum, you look at two-di mensional paintings on the wall. They're beautiful, but when you see a sculptural piece, it's three-dimensional and it's lit and you can walk around it," he added.

Rick Rishel added: "Dale's work has such a visual presence that it puts you in awe."