It’s been raining lately. Steadily. A lot. I went looking in my photos for something with more color than I’ve seen for a while and found this Dale Chihuly glass flower to brighten my day.
Tag: Dale Chihuly
Color blasts
We’re back in Tacoma again. I found some nice eye candy there and recent rains have had me burrowed in at home.
This is part of the “Seaform Pavillion” by Dale Chihuly on the Bridge of Glass in Tacoma. It is part of an amazing glass ceiling filled with pieces that would turn a typical ocean reef on its head.
On the same bridge is Chihuly’s Venetian Wall, a display of dozens of vases. Aren’t all the colors and forms amazing?
Chihuly Venetians
The website for the Tacoma Museum of Glass advertised an interesting exhibit of Dale Chihuly’s Venetians, developed from inspirations on a trip to Venice. I wanted to see the Chihuly “putti,” little cherubs or mythical creatures that adorned some of the work. I wasn’t disappointed, though they generally proved hard to photograph as they adorned vases.
This simple piece showcased the putti better than some. Others had the sweet little cherubs lounging amongst flowers or perched in streamers of glass.
The more Chihuly I see the more I love this work. Photography doesn’t typically do it justice. I decided to move in close to focus on some of the details of this fantastical workmanship. Remember that this medium has to be heated to an almost molten state to be worked into the shapes it presents.
In addition to the shapes, the colors can also be amazing. This exhibit will be at the museum until January 4, 2016.
More Chihuly
It’s a short walk from the Museum of Glass in Tacoma to see more Dale Chihuly work. Some, like the pillars above, is displayed on a bridge that leads across Interstate 705 from the glass museum to several other nearby museums. (Rain discouraged much outdoor photography.)
We chose to have a look at Union Station (now a federal courthouse). The station was designed by Reed and Stem, architects of Grand Central Station in New York City, and opened in 1911. You may see a hint of one Chihuly display in the large arched window.
There are four large Chihuly pieces on display in the station rotunda, a great location for pieces of this scale. To give you a sense of its size, this shot was taken from the second floor, looking across the rotunda.
Here’s a shot looking through the big, round piece in the last photo.
Each end of the station has a large, arched window. This one looks back toward the glass museum. You might see the turquoise Chihuly pillars from my first shot, above, in the background.
These poppies are probably about two feet wide. They’re radiant.
Dale Chihuly on paper
Though he has work exhibited worldwide, the exuberant glass of Dale Chihuly is synonymous with the Pacific Northwest. A Tacoma native, the Museum of Glass in Tacoma currently exhibits a large collection of his two dimensional work on paper.
The works are as wild and vivid as their execution in glass. Tomorrow I’ll show you some of his glass on display.