We are currently in Colorado for a fall vacation. (By the way, this is a great time of year for a vacation!) Yesterday, we spent the morning at the botanical gardens in Denver. Dale Chihuly currently has an exhibition of the Garden Cycle, a series of garden exhibitions that began in 2001. The exhibit lasts through November 30, 2014, if you have a chance to visit.
I am ALWAYS inspired by Chihuly's work--the colors and the shapes. I particularly love his work against garden and water backdrops. My favorite is this boat.
I love the reflection of the glass orbs in the water.
Now, here is my question--where does being inspired by a piece and copying a piece (albeit in a totally different medium) begin? Case in point--"Chihuly's Gondola" by Melissa Sobotka. The picture below is of a piece of fiber art.
According to the Houston Chronical, Melissa Sobotka won the Handi Quilter Best of Show award at Houston in 2013- a $10,000 prize - for a quilt she named "Chihuly's Gondola." She "calls her quilt "art reflecting art" because it depicts a Dale Chihuly work she saw at the Dallas Arboretum in 2012. "It's my reflections on his artwork - my interpretations of his art," she said. In her quilt, which measures 79 by 41 inches, a small boat nearly overflows with brightly colored blown-glass balls that gleam in the light like oversized marbles. Chihuly, a masterful glass sculptor, has created several of these "Float Boat" pieces, filling small wooden boats with blown glass."
On her website, she does say the work was inspired by Chihuly, but she does not say she has his permission to recreate his work in her chosen medium. If permission hasn't been given by the original artist, is "saying" the work was "inspired by" that artist enough? Opinions? I'm curious.
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