geoff: In the desert of Arizona,
you can visit one of famed
architect Frank Lloyd Wright's
homes.
But for the past few months, the
site has also been home to an
installation by glass artist
Dale chihuly.
Special correspondent Mike cerre
looks at how these two artists'
work came together among the
rugged landscape.
Mike: For generations, Arizona's
desert have attracted and
inspired American artists and
creative.
It was here that architect frank
Lloyd Wright built his taliesin
west, outside of Scottsdale,
Arizona.
It is now home of the frank
Lloyd Wright foundation.
>> Taliesin west has a long
history of artists and
architects living and working
here, but not a long history of
doing art exhibitions.
>> Beautiful.
Mike: Dale chihuly, an admirer
of Wright's incorporation of
design with nature, is the first
artist allowed to display his
work at taliesin west.
>> Is a dream come true.
Taliesin west is such a complex,
great honor to make this exit --
this.
Mike: This includes his
interpretation of desert flora
and red reeds and bulbous glass
globes in the surrounding pond.
It took four years of working
and reworking the designs
between the taliesin team and
the studio team, with thousands
of hand close -- handblown glass
pieces made in Seattle.
Dale's wife is the head of his
studio and workshop.
>> The idea was to work in
concert with nature, to first
notice the nature, appreciate
the surroundings.
In sit, a way that was
complementary to and not
dissonant to the beautiful time
-- natural surroundings.
Mike: Dale originally studied
architecture before becoming a
glass artist.
>> It's about the way you look
through it.
>> It's very much a dance of
heat and light and vision.
And it's a dance of
experimentation, playfulness.
Building on ideas.
You can see, even if you look at
the works around this property,
the two of them both have a
curious mind, a hungry mind when
it comes to beauty, beautiful
objects, and then placing things
within the interior and exterior
settings.
>> They are both inspired by the
natural world, by nature, and
they feel like the organic
architecture of the world, of
nature, of the trees, the
ground, the mountains should
determine how it the building or
the sculpture sits in the space.
Mike: 30 minutes south of
Wright's home is Phoenix's
botanical garden, where Julie --
chihuly's art was first
displayed in 2008.
They collaborated on this
chihuly in the desert
exhibition.
>> The agave is a much shorter
form, but the spiky points of
it, the way it catches the
light, and also the elongation
that he creates really draw your
eye to it.
Mike: Visitors from around the
country have their own reactions
to this mix of art and desert.
>> I was surprised at how
beautiful the juxtaposition of
the art and nature was.
>> There's a boat filled with
all these colors.
At first glance, this is an
indigenous to the desert at all.
>> Every color you see, you can
find here in the garden.
The Orange of some of the cactus
flowers.
Then we have greens and yellows
and reds.
During the day, the light is
reflected, the sunlight, and it
changes and transforms
throughout the day, until we get
to the sunset.
The sunlight becomes more
subdued.
The lights that are on the
installations start to come on
and illuminate the pieces.
The colors shift.
The forms become more evident as
you are looking at the pieces,
so it's a very different
experience.
>> It's a very good combination
of natural plants and artificial
things.
Very well designed.
Mike: As popular as the exhibit
has been, there were concerns
about how chihuly's art would
work with Wright's austere
architecture and the
environment.
>> There may have been concerned
about what the final effect
would be.
People have come to see frank
Lloyd Wright's architecture in a
desert landscape without
interference.
>> You could have any interest
-- experience you want.
You can have an experience of
taliesin with or without the
chihuly, an you get to decide.
>> Does it punctuate the beauty
of the plans or does it detract
from it?
>> It's a nice contrast with it.
>> They do see the artwork and
then there -- their eye
actually goes to the plants.
It becomes aboutheir own
discovery.
Mike: I'm Mike cerre.