We flew to SeaTac (Seattle/Tacoma Washington) on Sunday, June 17. Our first stop was the Hotel Murano in Tacoma. The contemporary hotel features a marvelous art glass collection throughout: entrance, lobby, corridors, meeting rooms, restaurants, elevator lobbies, rooms and even the bathrooms. The afternoon was chilly and gray outside, the U.S. Open golf tournament was on TV, so I amused myself for hours, treating the hotel like a glass museum. A glass sculptor was featured on each of the 21 guest room floors, so I traveled to each and admired the sculptures, read the artist statements, and looked at some of the photos showing the myriad processes.
The entrance sculpture, “Greek Orizon,” is by Costas Varotsos.
I’ve admired Toots Zynsky’s works for many years.
The next morning we walked to the Museum of Glass, via Union Station, across the Chihuly pedestrian bridge that connects the museums on Commerce Street to the Museum of Glass on Dock Street. Dale Chihuly was born in Tacoma in 1941. Although not the first U.S. art-glass sculptor, his shop is one of the most prolific and popular.
Union Station is now a court house and features many glass sculptures by Dale Chihuly.
Dale Chihuly provided many sculptures for the bridge from his collection.
Since the sky was cloudy, I decided to visually interpret this Chihuly sculpture with Photoshop.
Next stop is the Hot Shop at the Museum of Glass.