Let Me Take a Selfie

I'm a big fan of art in public places. As a parent, dragging all my kids into an art museum is a bit of a hassle. So, it's nice when we encounter art as we are out and about. Bonus: Docents don't yell at your kids if they touch the art that's out in public like they would in a museum. After all, art that is exposed to the outdoor elements tends to be rather sturdy. (Well, except in this poor guy's case.)

Art for the Masses on Murano, the Island of Glass

Sweat drips down his forehead as he stands at the mouth of the furnace, evenly rotating the metal rod to gather molten glass on its end. Turning towards us, he carries the rod with its blob of gooey glass over to the table and rolls it back and forth, back and forth. Bringing the hollow rod to his lips, his cheeks bulge as he blows mightily, and the glass bubbles outwards. Back into the furnace it goes. The man does this repeatedly, sometimes rolling the hot glass in bits of colored glass to make it more vividly hued or pulling out points and curves with tweezers. When this piece is done, he pulls it off the rod and puts it in a controlled temperature oven which will slowly cool it down to room temperature.

Vitae by Denise Germin

Watching craftsmen create hand blown glass is one of the top reasons that my son proposed Italy as our summer vacation destination. Frankly, this took me by surprise because it has nothing to do with either Pokemon or Minecraft. You never know where you'll end up if you put a kid in charge.

We take a short ferry ride across the lagoon from Venice to Murano which is the center of Venetian glassmaking. Back in 1291, these craftsmen were forced to move to Murano because Venetians were worried that flames from the fiery furnaces would consume their town. For centuries after that, Murano was the main producer of glass for all of Europe.