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Friday, August 4, 2006

Huh? Chihuly Case Not Settled, Actually, And Even Less So After This Morning’s Story in the P-I

Posted by on August 4 at 15:05 PM

A few posts ago I gave Regina Hackett of the P-I props for reporting that the Chihuly lawsuit has been settled.

Turns out it hasn’t been settled.

And Chihuly speaking out in a statement released last night to the Times and P-I about the ongoing negotiations has jeopardized the negotiations, says Scott Wakefield, attorney for Bryan Rubino, Chihuly’s former glassblower. The two sides had a handshake deal not to talk publicly while talks were ongoing toward the settlement, Wakefield says.

I have a call in to Chihuly’s publicist, Janet Makela, to get the artist’s side.

In a phone interview just now, Wakefield says he would have told Hackett the whole story—if she had called him for comment while putting the story together. (Can it possibly be true that she didn’t?)

Wakefield says the Times did call him last night. Ironically, he didn’t get the message until this morning, because he was at the movie “Scoop.”


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Chihuly's lawyer needs to get controll of his client. Dude doesn't do his own art work-he certainly shouldn't be his own publicist.

PONDER THIS:

Have any of us truly dived deeply down the read the case, articles, and history of art glass… (not that I believe everything I read in the press) however… I believe that Chihuly should be accredited with substantiating Art Glass within the US and he has certainly enjoyed and capitalized on in the campaign for his own exposure. Chihuly self-professes to be a supporter of the Murano style works of glass teaming originally relocated to the US by Littleton…oddly it seems as if Chihuly doesn’t support any Artist who might have slightly more than creative talents unless that artist subscribes to or has been taken past the second tier of Artists that have been schooled at Pilchuck. Sue the threats, seems to be the new answer to competition…

How is this happening? Mr. Kaindl, as an artist is attempting to defend himself in this lawsuit. Chihuly is spending (I imagine) millions of his dollars to now expose himself and his business practice’s to what originally was sought out to destroy the competition is now backfiring severely…Chihuly behaves as if he is a “victim” and that he has actively set out to hire and fire law firms to persecute any and all artists that are in his way… Now we know that Kaindl and Rubino “ARE NOT” the first to be involved in litigation or threats from this artist…

Answer me this.

How can an artist own the process for the effects of gravity in relation to creating a vessel with a fluted body, wrinkled sides, or elongated neck?

How can an artist own and claim textured or molded surface designs from a mold that is sold in an art glass supply store that every glass artist can purchase to use?

How can an artist own techniques for glass working / blowing that have been created originally since before the Romans wandered the Earth?

As a few examples,

In the18th Dynasty (1800 B.C.) King Tut’s mother “Akhenaten’s” famous gold funeral mask was adorned with cast glass of blue and yellow together similarly to what glass workers and artists are using as processes today.

The Egyptians glass were accredited with using colored “cane” on the sides of there vessels along with the zig-zag patterns that are widely seen in art glass today.

The Romans made glass cups and vessels with adding lip wraps to strengthen the edges there creations. The Romans are also accredited with creating the techniques for the body wraps and side-by-side body wraps that glass artists embellish today.

In 1894, Louis Comfort Tiffany created a series called the “Persian” Rosewater Sprinkler Vessel. This “Persian” is a very organic shaped bulb’as glass shaped vessel that was stuffed in an mold then pulled by one side of the open lip to an elongated neck by the lip wrap. It’s beautiful. It looks very similar to what famous Glass Artists are doing now and claiming as there original ideas including the reproducing the name. Louis Comfort Tiffany is also known for popularizing the use of iridescent gold’s, silver’s, minerals, and oxide metals on Glass. LCT is also accredited for electroplating ceramic vessels to create the patina and sheen on surfaces of art.

If an artist finds a similar artistic creation buried somewhere in history and then copies those pieces using previously establish techniques and then announces the replication processes, designs, concepts, names or titles as that artist’s now original ideas… What is that artist really doing?

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