The Artistry of Chihuly Glass

My main reason for going on my recent trip to Seattle was to see the Chihuly Garden and Glass center located on the grounds of the Seattle Center.  The museum is a maze of darkened rooms, each strategically lit to bring out the radiant colors of the glass creations.  Each room told a story of Chihuly's history with glass making from early inspirations to his elaborate creations to his sculptures and paintings.

Entering the room featured in the first three photos nearly took my breath away.  I spent quite a bit of time circling that raised platform full brilliantly colored glass in a huge variety of shapes and sizes.  I kept saying to myself "how can I capture this masterpiece of color and shape".

The next room was equally mesmerizing.  I call it the boat room.  There were two boats, the one above is filled with plant-like shapes of glass.  The reflective floor mirrored the boat as though it was floating on water.

The other boat was filled with orbs in dazzling colors and patterns.  They made me think of a cluster of planets in some galaxy far, far away where worlds of extreme colors exist and float like jewels sparkling in the black sky.

The two boats together created and almost overwhelming display.

Another room featured Chihuly's huge bowls each carefully lit to highlight the colors and patterns in each piece.

Two other rooms were filled with a vast array of chandeliers.  This one had an ocean theme and resembled a geyser of water shooting up from the deep waters filled with sea creatures. 

One like this one was at the very first Chihuly exhibit that was at the Desert Botanical Garden almost ten years ago.  It makes me think of the unusual cactus blooms that fill the garden in the spring.

Finally the darkened rooms opened up into this huge glass conservatory topped with a massive glass chandelier made up of plate-like disks in shades of yellow and orange.  

From the conservatory the display continued into a lush garden.  I'll have to do another post about the garden or this post would be way too long.  

As you can probably guess, I was completely enthralled by everything I saw.  Finding the right words to describe the beauty of this place is close to impossible for me.  I could spend days here.