Frank Gehry...Artist Inspired

Frank Owen Gehry, Walt Disney Concert Hall, 2003

Although not as grand or as fancy as the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao that Gehry designed in Spain, but his Walt Disney Concert Hall has inevitably became symbol of the city of LA (according The Guardian reported from UK). Gehry is one of the world famous contemporary architects. His own house, the half-torn down kitchen with exposed structure, that was also designed by Gehry, has been published by numerous reports and media being as a new architectural breakthrough, and lectured as a destructivism example in many architecture classes (of which, I took a few).

Not to mention other great buildings Gehry had designed (Exhibition Center in Columbia, Edgemar Retail Complex in santa Monica, Frances Howard Goldwyn Library in Hollywood, and more). But what has been the driving force behind Gehry's inspiration that propelled him into such success?

Reading from a Seattle Post, "The Creator: Frank Gehry builds on his experience - Striking an artistic chord" by Regina Hackett (intelligencer art critic), I realize, like many other successful designers and artists, Gehry's inspiration comes from nature. For instance, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao was inspired by an aquatic creature that has a lot of fish scales on it, and the Walt Disney Concert Hall was inspired by simply the concept of iron. Interesting, Gehry is also inspired by the natural forms in shells, spider webs, lilies, artichokes, Grand Canyon, and the nature list goes on...