I took this with my phone in Vegas and then promptly forgot about it. I've long been fascinated with the place where blue-collar work meets uber high brow elitest fine art. And here it is. This janitor is cleaning the floor of an uber elite Chihuly gallery.
When we were in DC I stopped to talk to a guard at the National Gallery. I asked him how long he'd been there and what he thought of all the work. Sure, I love me some uber frou frou art, but on this day a different interest kicked in, and I was more interested in stopping to talk to this man about his experience being surrounded by that art all the time; what he thought about it, what he saw when he looked at it, if he thought it was as important as those of us who make a pilgrimage to look at it think it is. And he said to me "Well miss, I've been here for 25 years and I've seen just about everything in this museum. I like some of it and I don't like some of it." And then it occurred to me that I've studied art, I've seen much of that work in books and studied the history and purpose behind it ... and I like some it and I don't like some of it. Maybe we're not that different after all.
If I had been able to stop and talk to the janitor in this gallery, I wonder what he would have told me about Dale Chihuly's world-reknowned sculptures and paintings.
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