Tacoma & Seattle (Road Trip Pt. 6)

Tacoma was such a fun, glassy pit stop. It really got me excited for working at Chihuly’s school- because the city was filled with his glass! I was only here for a night and a day, so it was a short trip, but it was awesome.

When I told my mom I was headed up there from Mount Rainier, she said I had to stay at Hotel Murano.

It is a fancy glass hotel in downtown Tacoma- it was a bit out of my artist price range but my mom got it as a treat for me because she said I had to stay there.

She was so right!! It was such a nice treat.

Each floor was dedicated to a modern glass artist.

I ended up meeting 3 of the artists who had a floor devoted to them during my time at Pilchuck!

Preston Singletary’s Work

One of those artists was Preston Singletary, whom I met earlier in Santa Fe and then saw again at the 50th anniversary of Pilchuck.

Preston is a Tlingit Native American whose work celebrates his heritage and history. I am a big fan of Preston’s both hot sculpted glass and cast glass pieces. Really, he is one of my favorite artists so I can’t even tell you how starstruck I was meeting him twice.

Also when I got back to DC after this trip, I saw his show “Raven and the Box of Daylight” in the Smithsonian Native American Museum.

He is a wonderful artist- this was such a cool experience.

Dante Marioni’s Work

Another artist was Dante Marioni, who is such an impressive technical glassblower.

He was the artist in residence during 2 weeks of my time at the school. He was incredible to watch. He works so fast, with such precision- it was such a treat and good learning experience. It was also pretty surreal- he was so kind and attentive even though he is such a big artist. He said he really enjoyed my paintings which was so cool!

Toots Zynsky’s Work

Toots Zynsky was the third artist from this hotel I got to meet! She taught a class at the school but since I wasn’t in it, I didn’t get to spend much time with her. I did get to listen but her artist talk which was awesome.

She was one of the early pioneers of glass and glass casting. She makes those beautiful threaded fused forms. She created this amazing process of pulling thousands of small strings of glass and then fuses them all together. While her kiln comes up to glass moving temperature- she opens it and kinda pushes it around to get those organic textures.

I really love her work- I find the way it reflects and plays with light is amazing.

I explored the glass bridge in downtown Tacoma. It was so colorful- so huge. The scale is definitely my favorite part about Chihuly’s work.

I tried to go to the Museum of Glass- I was so excited to see it but sadly they were closed the day I was in town!

There was a big Glass Art Society Conference in Tacoma earlier in the year- so I saw how incredible the museum and museum’s studio was through instagram- but sadly couldn’t see it on this trip.

After Tacoma, I drove up to Seattle to stay with some of my moms family- my Aunt Barb and Uncle Ralph.

It was so full circle- when I was in my senior year of high school my mom and I visited Barb and Ralph for me to visit University of Washington. I don’t know why I was thinking about UW for undergrad since it was so far away from Jacksonville, but it was such a fun visit.

That visit, nearly 5 years prior was my first experience with glassblowing.

We went and visited the Chihuly museum, and there was a glassblowing demonstration going on. The glass was so inspiring and amazing but I honestly didn’t think about it again until I got to college and learned University of Miami had a glassblowing program.

I love Seattle- for the food, culture, art, and nature. I am so happy I got to see it in a bright sunny sense since my last visit was in November!

Barb and I took her granddog (I think his name was Chippy but I can’t really remember) to the beach at Golden Gardens Park. It was a lovely time. My aunt Barb is so calming to be around- I love that about my mom’s side of the family.

After we had a nice time at the park- I went to go see Pike’s Place Market solo. I ended up getting some chowder for lunch and eating it looking at the water! Was so nice.

I also wanted to ride the ferris wheel, so I did that. Was kinda scary but fun and quick! I also of course saw the nasty gum wall. That was gross but cool haha

The next day before I headed up to work at Pilchuck my Aunt Barb explored downtown Seattle with me, looking for all the glass galleries that we could visit.

I was really excited to see Lino Tagliapietra’s work in person. He had an awesome gallery space.

We also went to Din Tai Fung- which I had been dreaming about since our last visit in 2017. They hand make dumplings and buns that are just delicious! It was as good as I remember- and its a chain so you can find it a lot of places.

I love the Pacific Northwest. I was really glad I got to explore Seattle & Tacoma a bit more.

Seattle was my last stop before driving an hour north to go to basically adult summer camp for glassblowers! That was an amazing month I will write about next week.

Thanks for reading,

Grace