Chihuly Glass and Gardens--Art and Nature, Enhanced
One of our favorite World Cruise destinations was an art space in Seattle! Chihuly Glass and Gardens is number one for incredible glass art installations in garden settings.
Ice is one of my favorite materials to work with because of the way it interacts with light. It inspired me to create the icicle form. - Dale Chihuly
“Winter Brilliance—the composition consists of Chandeliers, Towers, Reeds and clusters of Icicles, a form which Chihuly developed in 1996 for his first permanent outdoor installation.” (All descriptions of the art glass are adapted from Chihuly website.)
“Chihuly draws inspiration from the world around him. Sources include Washington state, the waters of Puget Sound, his mother's gardens in Tacoma, and the art of Indigenous tribes, including those who reside along the Pacific Northwest Coast.
This gallery presents selections from the artist's Baskets, Cylinders, and Soft Cylinders series along with a sampling of Chihuly's personal collection of Native American woven baskets, trade blankets, and Edward S. Curtis photogravures.”
Look at those bright colors and the visually stunning designs of these Native American trade blankets! I love this gallery and the idea that Chihuly traced his formative inspirations to his early interests and collections.
I had an incredible time in the Chihuly gallery, taking a hundred photographs while playing with the light, color, transparency of the glass pieces and composition. Chihuly’s work is impressive, and I never tire of seeing his work.
“The 15-foot Sealife Tower takes inspiration from the sea and Puget Sound. The Towers evolved from Chihuly's desire to present sculptures in spaces where ceiling structures could not withstand the weight of his Chandeliers.
The Tower and Vessels in this room include forms such as starfish, octopus conch shells, sea anemones, urchins, and manta rays.”
“Chihuly began the Persians series in 1986 while experimenting with new forms. Working with an architectural framework, he mounts larger forms to walls and suspends them as overhead compositions.
‘The first Persian Ceiling was presented in his 1992 exhibition opening the new downtown Seattle Art Museum. Lit from above and resting on a flat glass pane, the elements of the Persian Ceiling come together to provide an immersive experience in color and shape.”
“With the Mille Fiori—Italian for "a thousand flowers"—Chihuly assembles gardens of glass that include many of his series of works. The artist has said that memories of his mother's garden serve as inspiration for these "gardens of glass."“
“This installation includes two of Chihuly's wooden rowboats, one filled with Ikebana elements and another with Niijima Floats. Their origins date to 1995 in Nuutajärvi, Finland, where he experimented with temporary installations along the shore of the nearby river and tossed glass forms into it to see how the glass would interact with water and light. Local teenagers gathered the drifting glass in rowboats, inspiring Chihuly to create a new type of installation with a variety of forms including two seen here: Ikebana and Niijima Floats.
The Ikebana Boat features long, flower-like glass stems inspired by the Japanese art of ikebana.”
“Niijima Floats were inspired by the artist's trip to the Japanese island of Niijima and by childhood memories of discovering Japanese fishing net floats along the beaches of Puget Sound.”
“Chihuly has continued the Chandelier series over the years, notably in the 1995-96 project, Chihuly Over Venice, where he pushed scale and placement. Thirteen Chandeliers were hung in outdoor sites throughout the city.”
“Chihuly began the Macchia Forest in 1981 with the desire to use all 300 colors available to him in the hot shop and named it such after asking his friend Italo Scanga the word for "spot" in Italian. Thinking about the colors and intensity of stained-glass windows, Chihuly realized that the glass panes looked clearer and more vibrant against a cloudy sky than a blue one.”
“This idea inspired his experimentation to separate the interior and exterior colors by adding a white layer in between, a "cloud," and as he mastered the technical complexities, pushed the scale up to four feet in diameter.”
“Each work is speckled with color, which comes from rolling the molten glass in small shards of colored glass during the blowing process. To complete the piece, he adds a lip wrap of a contrasting.”
“The centerpiece of Chihuly Garden and Glass is the Glasshouse. A 40-foot tall, glass and steel structure occupying 4,500 square feet of light-filled space, the Glasshouse is the result of Chihuly’s lifelong appreciation for conservatories.”
“The Glasshouse features an expansive, 100-foot-long sculpture designed by Chihuly to fill the space with a vibrant palette of red, yellow, and orange.”
Sherpa and I have had the privilege of attending several full exhibitions of Chihuly’s, including those at the Desert Botanical Gardens in Phoenix and Biltmore Estates in Asheville, North Carolina. We always appreciate his stunning hanging sculptures in spacious greenhouses.
We loved walking through the gardens and noticing how the many forms and colors work so well together. The various blues of the art glass plus the blues reflected from the greenhouse, and the sky — the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
“Chihuly has shown his artwork in historic gardens around the world. Chihuly Garden and Glass was his first opportunity to collaborate with a landscape designer and create a new garden unlike any other—from the ground up.”
“The urban Garden is transformed seasonally to enhance Chihuly’s work, featuring trees, plants and flowers in striking colors that highlight the artwork’s scale, color, and form. With an ever-changing landscape, visitors enjoy a distinct experience throughout the year.”
Reflecting on our decision to opt for a DIY tour instead of the Regent-choice Chihuly and Space Needle excursion for $94 per person, we believe we made an excellent choice—for us. We bought combination tickets for the Space Needle/Chihuly Glass and Garden for $64 per person. We could tour at our own pace and enjoy local restaurant food and beer, too. Since we could easily walk to the Seattle Center, we didn’t need transportation. However, if bus transfers are important for you, then the convenience of an all-in-one package may be a good fit.
Folks we spoke with who paid for the Regent excursion mentioned feeling they didn’t have enough time to see both destinations within the time constraints. They were allowed 2 1/4 hours to explore independently after disembarking from the bus. Since Sherpa and I spent over 2 hours at Chihuly, excluding our time in the extensive and well-curated gift shop, and another 50 minutes enjoying the Space Needle, we were pleased to have had more than two and a quarter hours.
Overall, we loved our time exploring the Space Needle and Chihuly Glass and Gardens. The only thing that could have made it better? Bringing a piece of Chihuly glass home to adorn my studio.
Next up: Second day in Seattle, USA.
Your pictures and commentary brought back wonderful memories. Chihuly is amazing!
WOW! On our next visit to Seattle, we will have to go to the Chihuly Glass and Gardens!