Chihuly Drawing
by Dale Chihuly (Author), Nathan Kernan (Author), Chihuly Workshop: February 2003, 156pp. (hardcover)

You can perhaps sense my energy more directly in my drawings than in any other aspect of my work. —Dale Chihuly

Chihuly Drawing chronicles five decades of Dale Chihuly’s work on paper. This dynamic collection is a fascinating study of variety. Many of the drawings are drenched in thick, bold layers. Others are more elusive—just a hint of form sketched with a fistful of pencils or a confidently manipulated charcoal. Over the years his style has evolved, becoming more abstract, more elaborate, and, in some cases, much larger. But there are no rules; a technique that Chihuly favored a decade before may resurface again. The excitement of Chihuly’s work on paper is in its unpredictability, and that in two dimensions Chihuly is free to let his grandest schemes come to fruition. Above all, Chihuly’s work on paper revels in the monumental creativity that is essentially Chihuly.

Essayist Nathan Kernan, a freelance writer and poet based in New York, explores the complex body of work chronicled in Chihuly Drawing.