6/8/14 Chihuly at the Denver Botanical Gardens

Okay, lemme confess, I was not familiar with Chihuly. 

Every time I saw his name I thought of this:

So now that I've gotten that ignorant confession out of the way, let me say, the installation at the Denver Botanical Gardens has made me an instant convert. 

Large-scale glass blown art pieces in the most spectacular shapes and colors are architectural marvels unto themselves. But placed (largely) outdoors among the explosion of colorful blooms of the gardens in early June, and the marriage of the two is just spectacular. 

Strangely, last Sunday I'd passed the Gardens on York street travelling from the zoo to the Cherry Cricket and caught myself thinking, "I have got to check this place out soon!" And then, the next day, Amber texts me asking about our June outing and suggesting . . . the gardens! 

We met at 9:00 this morning when they opened because 1) it's much cooler and 2) June afternoon storms. We left at noon and the skies opened (as well a quite a few tornadoes) at 1:00. That was right about the time we were leaving the . . .  Cherry Cricket. Since it was close, and she'd never been, and we wanted to grab a bite, we hit the place again and, still strangely, I ended up being seated in the exact same spot as last Sunday, with exact same waiter. Oh, and wearing the exact same hat. I ordered different toppings on my burger, though.

But I am getting ahead of myself. 

Back to the Gardens.

So, if you buy a ticket ($12.50) and then decide you would like to purchase a membership (regularly $65 for Individual Plus means you and a friend get in free for twelve months both here and at the satellite locations around Denver), it's $20 off the regular price.

The grand opening of the art isn't until next weekend. We were delighted to find only one installation is incomplete (in the Romantic gardens) and the lighting incomplete. Since Chihuly at Night doesn't start until October, and the gardens close at 5:00 all summer, the lighting can wait. I am very excited to get to see these at sunset and in the dark in the fall. 

So, first, the Chihuly installations:

And the Garden shots. With the storm clouds building, I was fighting a lot of washed out backgrounds, but with these flowers, it's hard not to get some really pretty results.