Big Birthdays And How To Ignore Them
So, last Thursday was my birthday. A BIG birthday. One that seems incredible to me...how did I get to be that old??? To make me feel better about all things age related, I decided a short trip was in order. And, as luck would have it, I received an email from my very favorite hotel, The Inn At The Market in Seattle with an offer of a package deal including admission to the Chihuly Glass exhibit and monorail passes to get there. That was all the encouragement I needed, so we booked a short trip to Seattle and called it my birthday celebration.
The Chihuly Exhibit is at the Seattle Center, near the Space Needle, and it's huge! We had seen the temporary installation a couple of years ago at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, and I figured this would be just slightly larger. Wrong! There are several rooms devoted to different types of Chihuly glass art...The Northwest Room which is inspired by American Indian art, The Sea Life Room, The Persian Ceiling (incredible!), Float Boats, and several others. In addition there is a huge glass house which contains one continuous "vine" of beautiful glass flowers. And, after all that, there are the gardens to explore. Needless to say we spent a wonderful afternoon enjoying this amazing exhibit. If you have the opportunity to see this, you should absolutely do it.
Included in The Northwest room are several of Chihuly's baskets. These are wonderful large vessels containing anywhere between three to five smaller "baskets." The colors are primarily warm bronzes and golds, and the curves and shapes are sensuous and beautiful.
In the center of the next room was a huge (probably 18 feet tall) sea life glass sculpture made up of hundreds of spiral pieces in various shades of blue which cradled bright gold depictions of sea life.
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From the sea life room we entered a hallway, about eight feet wide and twenty feet long. The attraction there was the ceiling. It was clear glass, on top of which had been piled hundreds of beautiful glass pieces in vibrant shades of red, orange, yellow, green and so many other colors that were created by the overlap of separate pieces. |
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Probably my favorite section is the float boat, an old wooden boat filled with spherical floats in the brightest of hues. All the elements are sitting on a shiny black floor, in a mostly dark room...and the result is just eye-popping.
And, there is so much more to the exhibit...
Mille Fiori |
The Macchia Forest |
Chandeliers
The Glasshouse...
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And the gardens...
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After sorting through my photographs to put this blog entry together, I realize that it's almost impossible to convey just how impressive, beautiful, and intriguing this exhibit is. I absolutely loved it, and wish everyone could see it.
