Category: Art

More Chihuly

One knockout exhibit in the Chihuly Garden and Glass in Seattle is in the Sealife Room. Like many of Chihuly’s large pieces, the centerpiece of the room initially looks like a huge freeform, sinuous pile of wild glass shapes. Look closer and it’s filled with identifiable golden shapes: shells, anemones, octopus, eye candy at it’s most fun. A fellow photographer in the room moved from one spot to the next, snapping away, and repeatedly murmuring, “Oh, wow!”

This is part of the Persian Ceiling, a room that serves as a passageway between exhibit rooms. Look up and it is a backlit kaleidoscope of shapes and color.

Some of the exhibits are as much about light and reflection as they are the glass shapes. Look at this image. It’s hard to tell where the glass stops and the reflection begins.

Chihuly Garden and Glass

Dale Chihuly is a glass artist whose work has redefined art glass for decades. Although his work is exhibited worldwide, he is a Pacific Northwesterner and has exhibits in both Seattle and Tacoma. I was excited to visit his Garden and Glass collection last week at the Seattle Center. Works are exhibited indoors, beautifully lit in low light and open atrium rooms, and outdoors where they sparkle and reflect the natural light around them. The shot above was taken in the outdoor garden. The garden is filled with large, glossy globes, free form leaves and tubular shapes arching in spirals and reaching outward for the sun.

This image is from the Glasshouse, as was one I posted in a collage yesterday that showed the Space Needle. Huge “vines” of glass poppies explode in a sinuous conga dance across the top of the arched glass roof of this building.

In the Macchia Forest room oversized “bowls” filled with color lean inward to surround visitors in a riot spun of glossy colors. Stunning!

Tomorrow I’ll show a few more highlights from my visit to Chihuly.

Up on the roof

Paris is nothing if not glittering with gold. I’ve read that the dome above Napoleon’s tomb has 26 pounds of gold leaf. If I have my Parisian geography right, the gold here is part of Opera Garnier. But don’t make any bets on my account. I can read a map and usually find my way around. But in Paris? Except for the evening when we got off the bus about a mile early, dear husband was a flawless navigator. I’d still be walking in circles trying to find our hotel if it weren’t for him.

Apron artistry

A recent trip to Port Townsend included a mandatory stop at Elevated Ice Cream for a scoop of their handmade yumness. These “clothes lines” on the wall were a bonus.

This display is a collection shared by a woman from Forks with wonderful examples of “personality by apron.” Patchwork, vintage fabrics, lace, and ruffles. They all were represented.

It’s wonderful to see the variety, creativity, and even beauty in a simple utility garment like an apron. What a fun exhibit!

Sand sculpture resurrection

Last summer I posted a version of this sand sculpture here. The sculpture, entitled “Violet Picking Lavender,” was a volunteer effort by Kali Bradford who spent over 200 hours on the work to celebrate Sequim’s annual Lavender Faire and Festival. I posted a photo of the work on July 7th. A week later vandals destroyed the top of the castle and smashed “Violet’s” head off.

Bradford returned to work on the sculpture last month, adding the lion to protect Violet. And she rebuilt Violet’s head.

I don’t think this dragon was part of the earlier sculpture when I saw it; it’s not in any of the photos I took.

Although there is rain erosion, you can see some of the human-caused damage in this shot. To call it senseless is an understatement.

Bradford admitted she didn’t have the heart to rebuild the sculpture after the vandalism but said in the newspaper last Friday getting back to the sculpture was a way for her to heal from the vandalism. “That’s the great thing about sand: I can always rebuilt it.”

Time again for the County Fair

We went to the Clallam County Fair on Saturday night. It was time for our annual “fair fix”: the rodeo, antique farm machinery put-putting, a review of ribbon-winning entries, animals, carnival, junk food. And people watching. Above was one of my favorites, a fine example of the work of the face-painting booth. Her father consented to my taking her picture.

Her brother volunteered, too. I can’t decide which one is the cutest. They both make me smile.