Surfaces, The Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain, 2004 photo

Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery One: Travel Abstractions -- Unlimited Thought > Surfaces, The Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain, 2004

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01-SEP-2004

Surfaces, The Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain, 2004

Capturing the essence of an architect’s art is a matter of personal interpretation. Just as I hope that each of you will bring your own interpretation to bear on this photograph of architect Frank Gehry’s masterpiece – the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, I tried to express my own interpretation when confronting the massive plates of titanium sheathing that gives this world famous, award winning building its identity. Even though the Spanish weather was uncooperative (the skies were flat and gray), Gehry’s building magically absorbs and reflects any kind of light because of the way he has placed titanium plates as the surface of his building. These surfaces curve and twist like giant waves, and because they often face each other, the interplay of reflected light and shadow is fascinating. To portray my own impression of Gehry’s art, I build my idea upon abstraction. I remove all traces of the building’s outer form. (I have also interpreted this startling building in terms of its overall form and setting in my Gallery 15 on Buildings, as well depicted the enormous scale of the titanium panels themselves in my Gallery Two on Incongruity.) I decided to move in and concentrate my attention solely on how light plays upon on the titanium sheathing that covers the building, just as armor once covered the medieval knights of Spain. I found a spot near the building’s main entrance where Gehry had created a courtyard. Titanium sheathing faces other titanium sheathing at odd angles, with sheets of reflective blue glass squeezed between them. The sheathing in the shadows appears to be bronze, while the sheathing facing the overcast skies sparkles in a silvery tone. The blue glass between these panels captures reflections of both. I think my tight, abstract approach to framing has captured the essence of the whimsical nature of Ghery’s amazing concept here. It makes you wonder where these amazing surfaces lead. It activates the intellect, our emotions, and most of all our imaginations. And that is what abstraction does best. What do you think of this approach? I would be thrilled to hear your own impressions of this image. Does it work for you, too? Or does it leave as you as flat as the leaden skies overhead? I welcome your comments and questions.

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Phil Douglis		24-Apr-2006 22:04
Julie, the Guggeheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain cost $210 million dollars. The project took six years from inception to completion in 1997. You can read more about the story of this building in this article:http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=M1ARTM0011434

Phil Douglis		17-Aug-2005 17:41
Thanks, IHL, for your comment. I have left a comment on your own images of the Guggenheim, and hope you find them useful. As you say, you are a beginner, and are making images primarily as description. I hope that my galleries will help you begin to make expressive images as well.

Guest		17-Aug-2005 11:26
Fantastic shot of the Guggenheim. I'm from Bilbao myself. In fact my parent's house is very close to this masterpiece. I have posted some shots of the Guggen (as we locals call it) at www.pbase.com/ihl. They were taken with a digital compact Fuji FinePix 2650. I'm only starting with digital photography but any comments are welcomed. Thanks.

Phil Douglis		01-Jun-2005 01:56
Yes, Cory, Zandra gave us a lot to think about in her analysis of this image. That is the greatest gift of interactive teaching and learning. People coming together from all over the world and giving us the benefit of their own vision. Zandra has a very special vision, as both a photographer and a viewer. And Frank Ghery had a very special vision for this building as well. Everytime I look at this picture, I see it in a different way. It is no longer the same image I saw in my viewfinder. Everyone who has commented on it has seen it differently, and I have come to see it differently as well.

Guest		31-May-2005 19:22
My first impression was looking for escape again, and reading Zandra's interpretation I felt much the same. It bothered me also. Zandra blew me away however with her child analogy. I think I will be pondering this one some more.

Phil Douglis		13-May-2005 00:20
Thanks, Ana, for adding to the dialogue that has been going on regarding this image. One of my goals is to create images that stimulate thinking and lead to learning, and this has certainly turned out to be one of them. I find your own interpretation of this image closest to mine. You and I both see this image alike -- a view that at first may seem claustrophobic becomes really quite airy as you glide across those planes. I love your metaphor comparing your own eye flow to children sliding blissfully down a ride of some kind. Another thing that strikes me about your comment is your obvious highly developed tactile sense. You refer to the the seeming softness of the panels, which, of course, is the result of light reflecting off of them. I think that the undulations of the panels activate the tactile sense as well. That's another why I made this image as I did. By telling me that this image seems more like a dream than a building, you reinforce still more of my own intentions here, Ana. As I said in the caption, I removed the form of the building itself by moving in on these panels, and I, too saw it purely as a delightfully whimsical play of light on metal --an architectural dreamscape. Far from being trapped in it, my emotions soar. Thank you for your delightful impressions, Ana. It's always rewarding to have one's intentions validated by a viewer, particularly from a visually trained person.

Ana Carloto O'Shea		12-May-2005 23:27
Hello Phil, I am still in the first of your galleries. I like to take time to see everything carefully before moving on and this particular image caught my attention the first time I've been here. To me this is an extrodinary photo, because when looking at it, I mediately forget that I am looking at a building! That by itsef is reason enough to declare this one a very powerful image, but being by yours or Gehry’s talents the truth is that this one is for me almost like an image of a dream. The structure with all it's complexity of lines, curves and textures touches deeply into our senses and I see it as a very elegant and even sensuous combination of volumes. Even the glass reflection helps to make this feeling stronger. We cannot actually touch it, but we feel the softness of the of the pannels and this I am sure is something exclusive from your photo. This feeling I get is due to the fact that when looking at the image, my eyes go directly to the top right corner, then slowly slide down into the image, reach the glass structure and go up into the light. Which means that even if the structure extends to the whole image, there is no feeling of being traped in there, the eyes go in and out of it as easily as children sliding down blissfully on a ride. What a great feeling to experience from an apparently claustrophobic image!!!

Phil Douglis		05-Apr-2005 18:53
This image has delighted and disturbed its viewers, which is, I'm sure what Gehry intended, and that's why I photographed this structure in this way. I like the way you work through this maze of surfaces, always seeking escape. I think what you are feeling in this picture is the tension between entrapment and escape. I don't know if Gehry has acknowledged this aspect of his architecture, but it certainly is there. You felt it in his Disney Concert Hall, and I was able to express the essence of it in this picture. Thanks for your comment, Mik. I hope its the first of many.

Guest		05-Apr-2005 09:26
Frank Gehry's playful folding planes are difficult to understand. I've been to his Disney Concert Hall and I just got lost inside his building. I've been coming back to this picture quite a few times actually because I don't understand it yet I love it. Now that I've decided to make myself write something about it (because that helps me think better), I started to think what Gehry's buildings mean to me. I see rythm, from the interpretation of his Disney "Concert" Hall - literally. I like how you placed the more concentrated planes on the left with the two larger, less congested ones on the right. The glass seemed cramped inside this space, yet two "escape routes" going up and down in both directions, give it a vertical breathing space, a vertical space which moves your eyes up to the sky from where you stand.

Phil Douglis		27-Feb-2005 02:55
When it comes to responding to pictures, nothing is strange.

Phil Douglis		27-Feb-2005 02:54
Rest, Jack. Rest.

Guest		21-Jan-2005 22:25
Isnt it strange I'm not trying to read the picture i'm trying to escape from it. How about that Phil? Jack

Guest		21-Jan-2005 22:23
I'm back on this image Phil it is hunting me (which is very good) I can't get it out of my mind. The sails are coming back to me but so does the window. When I follow my eyes first thing to see is the tip a little middle right under, then my eye is following the "sail" up to the big black hole and then it stop I have to go to the light high on the upperleft I can let myself slide from the "sails" behind the windows and I'm out. I think i can rest now. Jack

Phil Douglis		04-Jan-2005 19:15
Thanks, Jack, for this comment. I tend to agree with Zandra, who felt that window was the only route of escape from this cave like fortress she felt trapped within. I also agree with you that part of the incongruity here is the great sense of movement within such a confined area. And yes, the window is out of place. You sense that it is the only thing that is not part of the chaotic sailing ship you are riding on here. And that, too is an incongruity. Anything that is out of place in a setting is an incongruity. The question is, what does it mean to you? And that is where your own imagination must take over. There are layers of incongruity in this image, Jack, just waiting for people like Zandra and yourself to find them. Thanks for the comment.

Guest		04-Jan-2005 12:27
Hi Phil, I started to browse through your gallerie, later i hoop to give you some more comments on other pictures. This one didn't give me so much different feelings as Zandra for instance. For me it's like sailing on a windjammer and making a wrong manoeuvre, sailes all out of order, there is only one thing confusing me, the windows. Every time i look at it i have a feeling that the windows are out of place. And how hard i try to look at it from another point of view or mindset the windows don't belong there. They are the one that made the mismanoeuvring! Jack

Phil Douglis		30-Dec-2004 22:19
You take my breath away with this comment, Zandra, because you show all of us exactly what abstract imagery is capable of doing to the human imagination. Which, is, of course, exactly why I made and posted this image. Your comment is really an analysis of three different creative acts. First, and most important, we have the creative expression of this incredible building. Its architect, Frank Gehry, is expressing ideas to us with it. And what he says to us depends upon where we may view it from, how we view it, and what context we choose to bring to bear on it. Secondly, we have expression from this image itself. I am saying something to you with it. I am giving you my own impression of it, and by abstracting it in this manner, I am attempting to activate the imaginations of my viewers so they can bring their own interpretation to it. And third, is Zandra, and how you use your imagination to interpret both Gehry's art and my art. From this wonderfully detailed comment, I can see that Frank, Phil and Zandra have all accomplished what they had hoped to do. You begin by very honestly admitting that this image has given you some real problems. Yet are you sure they are really "problems?" I define problems as difficulties that must somehow be solved or corrected? Or did you mean that this image has actually asked you some difficult questions? If so, that is what I intended to do here. An effective expressive image will ask questions of its viewers and demand answers from them. How a viewer answers those questions will tell us as much about them, as about the image itself. And what you are doing here is mirroring yourself in this image, Zandra. For example, you might be used to looking at things in a certain way, and suddenly Gehry and Douglis have both decided to drive you nuts by slapping in the face with an image that is utterly alien to your expectations, and well out of your own comfort zone. And so this image initially seems to drive you to distraction. Is that Frank's fault? Phil's? Or is it Zandra's. All three must share both blame and credit. Frank and I did this to Zandra intentionally. Frank sees all of these wildly clashing angles and surfaces as 21st century energy paying homage to an ancient culture. Phils interprets Frank's art as an abstract dream of metal, glass and light -- which may be exhilarating to some, but nightmarish to others -- including Zandra. I am thrilled at your response to this image. If you are going to grow as a creative photographer, Zandra, you must be willing to forge your own style, and your personal way of thinking, seeing, and expressing ideas visually. And that usually means leaving the comforts of predictable seeing and thinking behind, and instead significantly altering your sense of aesthetics and form, challenging all of your old assumptions, and breaking all the rules that are holding you back from exploring new ground as an artist. As I read through your spontaneous, rambling analysis of your feelings about this image, I was also struck by your honesty. You simply let your words evolve, just as your feelings do. You don't hold anything back. You just let it flow. By doing this, you allow one idea to lead to another. Your method here is a perfect metaphor for how you should make your pictures as well. Begin in one place, and end up in another. Keep playing with ideas until they lead to new ideas. Your comment here becomes a cathartic journey for you. So should each and every photograph you make. I love the gutty level of your phrasing, too. "I want to grab them, and straighten them just as you want to do with someone with delusions." That tells me you feel this image viscerally, so much so that you are not only mentally aroused by it, but also physically involved. Because of the degree of abstraction I have put into this image, i have focused your eyes and mind on Gehry's dislocations and collisions, and that is what causes you to react with such intensity. As you can see, this lesson in abstraction is already paying dividends to you, Zandra. It is showing you how you, too, can alter or change an object or subject in ways that cause not only harmony and beauty, but the opposite side of the coin -- dislocation, incongruity, unexpected dead ends and collisions. Some of it, of course, is Gehry, and some of it Phil, and together we are forcing Zandra to think and re think the meaning of what she sees. Gehry's architectural triumph and my abstract image of it have prodded your imagination to not just feel and sense the disharmonious clash of light, metal and glass, but we also challenge you to provide your own personal interpretation of what it means. I read in great fascination as you begin your interpretation with a feeling of delusion -- an idea triggered by things seeming to be "wrong and out of place." Yet you quickly observe "a touch of sanity shining through it all" in that window reflection, and then see the light on the metal sheets at the very top as a symbolic "cure for all this madness." You admit at this point that you always try to find "something indicating hope in pictures like this." That should tell you more about Zandra than about this image. Your interpretations become ever more specific and substantive as you fault the way I have deliberately made the angles converge at the top to limit escape, and instead stress those massive sheets of titanium at the bottom, which to you made them seem about to "tumble down." You are also upset by the reflective glass -- you see it as blinding, which leads you to announce that this image is really a portrait of yourself when you "are in chaos." You then immediately make a mental leap, associating that personal chaos with great social ills that affect the world at large. At this point, the image becomes a universal symbol of a twisted world crashing in on us, with no escape. You fear not just for yourself, but for generations to come, citing pollution, war, killing, and our selfishness. Which brings you back to the greatest delusion of them all -- that we somehow we think we can continue to consume forever, without giving anything back, or taking any care to preserve what we have. At this point, you realize that this image has carried your imagination to the very edge of doomsday, and you urge yourself to look again at this image from another, possibly more positive, standpoint. You worked at the image and found a small patch of light between wall and glass as an entrance to a cave and a "way out." You imagination sees another world beyond that patch, and perhaps some answers to our problems, as well. But we must ask the right questions. You thought you had ended this analysis with this positive interpretation, and yet you came back to it still again, to build on the optimistic theme you had started. You finally come to see this image as the symbolic mind of a child, filled with curiosity, an urge to peek at everything, a love for discovery through play. And you ultimately admit that between Frank and Phil, there is a lot to discover in this image. Because this is an abstraction, much of it is hidden, and available only to the imagination. Which is the great domain of childhood. You note those now tempting corners, illusionary reflections, the narrow line between fantasy and reality, the interplay of light and shadow as a metaphor between fear and relief. You see the colors that Frank has created, and I have isolated, as being as "shifting and imaginative" as children themselves. All of which add up to not only a symbolic playground for a child, but also a metaphor for the child itself. You have come a long, long way from seeing an image with "real problems" to an image filled with the dreams of children. Did the building change in the meantime? Did my abstract rendering of it change? No, Zandra. You changed. You gave your mind and body and soul to this picture and it worked its way into your consciousness until you were able to absorb it into your imagination, process it, play with it, and come to your own conclusions. You have given us an object lesson in the power of expressive photography to provoke the human imagination into creative thought. You have shown me that my own art, as an abstract photographer in this particular case, has the power to not only deeply provoke your imagination, but also allow you to develop your own creativity in the process. I am sure this process will come to influence your own art as well, as you lern understand the role of abstraction as a force for expression and make use of it. I can't thank you enough for giving so much of yourself to this image, Zandra, and then giving it all back to us through this comment. You have taught us all so very much here, including yourself.

Guest		30-Dec-2004 18:37
This image has given me some real problems Phil. I wasn't able to sort out my thoughts about it at first, not fully now either, so i will be rambeling some. At teh very first glimps i was some waht reppeled by it but i couldn't figure out why, caseu at the same time i liked the picture, the way it looked. It just made me feel a bit uneasy. Around 2 am i woke up and realaised why (see, you had my brain working wheni was sleeping ;-)) It remendied me a litle bit of the twisted mind of a person who suffers from dellusions. I think it is the shape of the wall to the right and the angel, they look so wrong and twisted and out of place. I want to grab them and straighten them, just as you want to do with someone with dellusions. When this came to mind i went back to the picture this morning and just looked at it for a few times trying to search for something more. I saw the glass and the refelction and with the whole dillusonal idea on my head i got the feelign that that reflects the sanity that shies through in good moment. Next thing that came to my mind was the light at the top, my eye was drawn to it, as if that would be the cure for all this madness. I alwasy try to find something indicating hope in pictures like this and i guess that it is for this particular picture. The most troublesome withit though is how all the angels work together. The way that point towards eachother at the top and creates a very vrey narrow escape, and the way they are broad and heavy at the bottom, as if they are about to tumble down. Even the reflected galls is about to brake of the massive wall to the right. It is pointing in it in the eye, blinding it. I could almost picture my own brain like this when i am in chaos hehe. It could be a symbol of how twisted out world is about to become? How it comes crashing in on us and how we as humans close the gap that is our way out. All the polution all the wars and killing that we do, our seflishnes, all that will make life disaterous for the generatiosn to come. As if we are living in an illusion beliving that we can consume without giving back and taking care...TAHT IS delusoinal for sure. But i don't want to be a domesday kind of person, so i went and search for another escape. It is small but i found it. The small patch of light between teh wall and the glass structure at the bottom. The entrance to the cave and the way out. Sneek around the corner and you will find another world, youll find answers...if you ask the right questions...OK, brain empty for this time, might come back with more...hope you don't mind your picture made me draw pararelles to a dillusional minda dna twisted world...i know you wont ;-) (Or am I being dillusional now???) Nop sorry not done yet...another though crossed my mind. This could also be the mind of a child, the quriosity they have, how they want to peek around every corner, how the love for play is a way to discover. And there is a lot to discover here. Ther are many things that draws the attention of a child. The corners, what is beoynd them, the refelctions...are things really as we see them or are they something else. The play with lights and shadows...fears and relif. The colours, shifting and imaginative, as a child can be. Diffrent structures to affect difrent sences. A perfect playground for a child, but also a child itself...and isn't it so, that you enjoy time with children the most when you come down to their level and play with them, not as an adult but as an equal, a child...cause we can not expect the child to be and act as an adult. I tin iam done now, we will see if i came up with more...

Phil Douglis		14-Dec-2004 23:58
Thanks, Mikel, for taking another look. Open minds learn best. You have an open mind. I salute you!

Guest		14-Dec-2004 23:24
You are entierly right, BW is alot worst, with your permission I hope, I've downloaded the image and transformed it in bw by eliminating colour chanels, lowering saturation and by tourning it in to gray scale and in no one of these three ways BW had any satisfactory resoults. I have to agree with you 100% about it it's much better in color.

Phil Douglis		14-Dec-2004 22:12
Thanks, Mikel, for this comment. I must first take exception to your suggestion that this image would be better seen in back and white since "color does not support too much information." I agree that black and white can be an effective medium of abstraction to begin with, but in this case I feel that it would have compromised two important objectives. First is my intention to express the nature of the Guggenheim itself. I am sure you have visited here, and you must know how important those sheets are in terms of reflection. Not only do they reflect light, but also color. If you look closely, you will see subtle golds, browns, and pinks reflected on those plates, contrasting to the reflections in the blue glass. I have looked carefully at a black and white version of this image, and the meaning of those plates is entirely changed. While the flow of light itself across the plates is enhanced in the black and white version, the duality of Gehry's plan for reflectance is lost with the banishment of those subtle colors. Secondly, I did not want to make the point about black and white photography as an abstracting medium twice in this gallery on abstraction. I will make it very strongly -- once and well -- a bit later in the gallery when I display a black and white version of Xian's Terra Cotta Warriors. Keep in mind that this gallery, like all of my galleries, is a learning resource. As such, I post each image as a separate lesson, not as a separate work of art. All of my decisions are based on teaching, not just displaying my pictures so others can share them with me. I agree with you entirely about the plates referencing the skin of a fish, and this abstract image does indeed give them a sense of movement, as if they were swimming through the water. In my comparison of the black and white and color versions, there seems to be a greater sense of movement in this color version because of the contrasting hues. And I agree that removing the sky by cropping tightly on the structure seems to imply an even greater sense of strength and power, no doubt by increasing tension between the geometry of the frame and the differing geometry of Gehry's titanium plates. I also agree that the glass window creates a point of interest as a change of pace from this mass of writhing titanium. However, I am not bothered at all by the small amount of sky reflected in it. (Your proposed black and white version would have solved that issue for you, since the window is not blue in black and white picture, and the sky does not read as sky.) When seen in the context of the reflected building in that window, the sky is appropriate, not a distraction. I am glad we agree on most aspects of this abstract rendering of the Guggenheiim, Mikel. Coming from a professional photojournalist, your comments are valuable to me and to all who might read them.

Guest		14-Dec-2004 21:15
This is the typical image that I wold have seen better in BW since here colour doesen't apport me too much information. In a certain way, for it's reflexions and the different sheets of titanium it makes me thing like it wold be the 'skin' of a fish. also it's ondulations give me a sense of something mooving in the watter. I have to say that this aproach is a good one since it augments the strength of the building a lot more then if sky wold be present or any other object that undoughfully wold distract too much the attention on the building. The window is a subtile but efective interest point and doesen't overwhelm the harmony of the rest of it though I feel that the reflexion of the sky in the window is a bit more bothersome then usefull. My point of view. But criticizing is easy the difficult thing is too doo a perfect image. ;)

Guest		01-Dec-2004 17:06
what I see is a ship or a vessel and the ocean with its waves

Phil Douglis		18-Nov-2004 22:44
AMP, my explanation of this picture, and the comments and question people have left beneath it, are there to teach you how to make expressive photographs. My site is not just a place to display pictures. It is a teaching site. And words are as important to teaching as my pictures are.

AMP		18-Nov-2004 22:01
If I did not see the comment of the photograph.I also did not see everybody's discussion.The list is from a photograph I see what?My feeling is just a strange building.Say so.Does each photograph need the comment?I started the first problem.Probably what I ask is a stupid problem.But I am vacant.

Phil Douglis		09-Nov-2004 04:27
Nut, what a magnificent summary of my intentions. You ought to write all my captions for me! Perfect. Absolutely perfect. You even added a new dimension by discussing the symbolic meaning of the blue surface as the sea and the bronze as the sun. Symbolism is often produced by abstraction, Nut.

nut		09-Nov-2004 03:34
Gehry's design demonstrates a distinct sensitivity to the museum's surroundings. He designed structure of this museum as smooth as curves and nonrepetitive geometries and covered this building with the flexible titianium. He merged all these titanium together with a locked seam. And this provided a softening pillowlike effect. Your idea here is to express this building in your way. You kept only the main idea of Gehry and found the the spot light so you let the wave reflection work on wave fronts. Reflection on blue surface is represent the color of the sea and bronze shadow is represent the sunshine. This is an abstract photo to express the original idea of Architecture based on photographer's idea.

Phil Douglis		30-Oct-2004 22:36
The architect of this building is characterizing no only the ship but the waves here. The surface texture is very smooth and reflective, and it is meant to imply a tactile feeling. In this abstraction, I try to emphasize what the architect was trying to say with this building.

nut		30-Oct-2004 08:12
Well, so it's smooth as silk like a sailing ship touch the wave. I do agree with you about wave. But this photo are so smooth to me.

Phil Douglis		30-Oct-2004 06:43
The Bilbao Guggenheim Museum is often likened to a sailing ship, a tribute to Spain's great age of exploration. I saw it as well in this shot. Thanks, Larry, for this comment.

Guest		30-Oct-2004 02:17
I picture old sailing ships, clustered together in a harbor on a gray day.

Phil Douglis		29-Oct-2004 21:46
Yes, Nut, this is a very tactile image. It invites your touch.

nut		29-Oct-2004 17:49
smooth surface

Phil Douglis		22-Oct-2004 02:02
Thank you, my critic in residence, for your favorable comments on this image. You are right -- it could just as well be in my gallery on "buildings" or "light and shadow" but I thought it worked best as an example here in my abstraction gallery. It is a matter here of "less is more." I love the way you relate my treatment of the surfaces here to the power, complexity and ingenuity of man. And yes, my abrupt cropping and abstracting of this image does indeed "accentuate the illogical madness of this heap of contorting, twisting metal and glass." But this madness, of course, lead to magic. This was the first contemporary art museum to be built as a completely contemporary work of art in itself. And what a work of art it is!

Phil Douglis		22-Oct-2004 01:45
Thanks for your question, Yunyue. There are two ways to see light in a picture. One way is to see the light source itself, in this case the sun or sky. The other way is to see the effect of light. And that is what I am using here. Look carefully at the play of light and shadow on the titanium plates and on the windows. That what's brings the surface textures here to life.

Cecilia Lim		19-Oct-2004 15:44
This to me Phil, is a statement about the incredible power, complexity and ingenuity of man! Titanium and glass are very hard, solid materials, yet you've shown us here how Man has managed to tame it, absolutely control and manipulate it into whatever shape and form he desires. By zooming into a small segment of the building you've abstracted it even more - We know that the lines follwing the curve of the building are leading somewhere, but you crop it abruptly, hence further accentuating the illogical madness of this heap of contorting, twisting metal and glass. You also recognize how important light is to the effectiveness of your image because you chose a spot where there's a strong interplay of light and shadow. By doing this you could express the amazingly fluid curves of this 3-dimensional building. Also, by letting us experience the dazzling reflections plus the array of whites,blues and pinks, all coexisting with the ominous shadows and dark nook and crannies, this image creates a sense of wonderment and mystery. Your bold and aggressively abstract composition plus your sensitive handling of light, do extremely well to capture the essence of this fascinating building and Man's mad genious! Excellent work Phil! This masterpiece would fit in extremely well as a teaching piece in your "Gallery Fourteen: Expressing the meaning of buildings and structures" too!

Unknown Name		17-Oct-2004 07:51
Thank you, Mr. Douglis for giving us the chance to learn the expression here. I have a question. I truely enjoy the lines and the curves that waving and interating in this picture. Its rich texture I thought is the major topic in this image. But in your illustration, you talked most about the light, which I don't see much. Why? Seems like I missed a big part of it. Thank you again for your kindness.

Phil Douglis		26-Sep-2004 00:18
Once again, I owe thanks to Frank Gehry, whose design made my picture possible. All I did was to abstract his building to capture what I considered to be the essence of its whimsical nature. Phil

Guest		25-Sep-2004 18:00
To elaborate - I "see" music, I "hear" curves, I "taste" the titanium, and I "touch" the reflections. I "feel" like I'm there!

Guest		25-Sep-2004 17:54
Thank you - I love this one - you reveal knowledge through detail, yet allow mystery for our imaginations to play in by what you exclude. I just love this one. A visual playground!

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