Virtuosity: Venezia

VERDE.  The color of creation.  I began my search for greens in gardens.  What unfolded were these images depicting the genius of human artistry.  It's everywhere in Venice.  First glass, then gardens... 

GLASS:  Bertil Vallien, a world-renowned glass arist from Sweden, currently has a retrospective show called Nine Rooms in an exquisite restored palazzo overlooking the Grand Canal.  He is a master of sand-casting ethereal "sculptures within sculptures" that deeply draw you into the soul of the piece.

Miraculously, I was invited to the Berengo Glass Studio in Murano that sponsored Bertil Vallien's retrospective show.  It was an honor to be able to watch the master (on right with beret) and his crew.  Here is a boat-shaped sand mold, waiting to be filled with clear, molten glass.  The man in white is interpreting Bertil's English instructions to the Italian foundry crew.

MOSAICS:  I organized a tour with some artists to the Orsoni mosaic tile factory, founded in 1888 to revive the Byzantine art of mosaics and the techniques for making pure glass enamels that had been developed in Murano in the Renaissance period.  These crucibles are filled with glass paste and metal oxides (creating the various colors) and are melted in the furnace, then rolled into tile-width slabs.

Here are some of the Orsoni mosaic tile color samples.  The Orsoni company has 3,000 different colors and also a variety of gold tiles.

The Orsoni company calls this their "library" of enamels.  There are shelves and shelves of glass that can be purchased in sheets, or pre-cut into tiles.

This Orsoni mosaic tile cutter is meticulously trimming tiny golden tiles.  The gold tiles are made of sheets of gold leaf sandwiched between layers of glass.

In addition to supplying tiles to famous churches and institutions around the world, the Orsoni company gives one- and two-week mosaic tile setting lessons.  Here is a student's portrait of Frank Zappa! 

SCULPTURE:  Here is a sculpture in the garden of the Peggy Guggenheim museum.  Peggy is the niece of Solomon Guggenheim who was the benefactor of New York's Guggenheim Museum.  She was an eccentric collector of modern art during the 1940's-1960's, and lived her last days in a palazzo on the Grand Canal, where her collection is now open to the public.

A Henry Moore sculpture in the Guggenheim garden.

A Guggenheim garden detail.

John Lennon's wife, Yoko Ono, gave Peggy Guggenheim this Wishing Tree.  Visitors write their wishes and hang them on the tree.

GARDENING: Surely the color scheme of this person's front door and the vine peeking over the secret garden wall were intentional. 

Simple, inviting and enticing.

A secret forest, walled off from the bustle of the busy canal.

A private palazzo garden with gnomes of royalty.

A canal-side garden.

A cascade of foliage.

 WOODEN BOAT BUILDING:  A squero is a boatyard, and here is one where gondolas and other wooden boats are built and repaired.

The work of a local wooden boat builder and creative painter.

I spent my summers in rowboats in Maine where the oarlocks are U-shaped.  Here, the oarlocks are sculptures in themselves.  The canal widths preclude using two horizontal oars, so the boats and gondolas are maneuvered with one or two oars vertically, in a sculling motion.

LEAF FOLDING:  This lovely woman makes sculptures out of leaves.  They are highly detailed and elegant.  I have a grasshopper.

PRINTMAKING:  This is one of my fellow artists at the Scuola Internazionale di Grafica.  She is lifting a new print from the carved woodblock which has just gone through an ancient press.  The series of prints she created were based on Venetian symbolism.

PAINTING:  In today's art terms, I'd say the whole island of Burano is an "installation" - a piece of art composed by its community.  Each house has color coordinated pot gardens, door drapes and laundry.  Why?  Simply because it's beautiful.

Another block of Burano.

Who needs house numbers?

I'm home.

BRONZE CASTING AND IRON WORK:  The lion is the symbol of San Marco, and therefore, of Venice.  They adorn buildings, gates, doorbells and churches all over Venice.  This one looks serious, yet gentle.

This cast iron lion is one of many fountains situated in the squares.  The water is potable, fun to paddle in (if you're a child) and great to cool your hands during the scorching summer months.

MASONRY:  The architecture of Venice is a miracle of masonry.  Here is a combination of brick, stone and stucco.

And finally, a fantastic feat of physics.