Refract a 4-day (Thur-Sun) festival for glass art returns.
Many events.
I went Friday and Sunday.
10/17, Friday, noon.
Afternoon talk with Kait Rhoads at the Summit Building of the Convention Center.
Kait brought some of her objects.
Talked about the thoughts behind some of the large works.
The table is setup to project camera onto the large screen.
10/17, Friday 4pm.
A Toast to Sheraton's Historic Glass Art Collection features curator Margery Aronson and (maybe) Sheila Coppola, recount the beginning of glass art in Seatlte.
They both worked with Dale Chihuly.
10/17, 7pm,
GAS Film Festival opening at SIFF.
This
film is about the
2024 Rakow Commission of
Corning Museum of Glass by Maori artist Kirkwood.
The director Brad Patocka was present and spoke briefly.
The film is well done. Good videography.
10/19, Sunday 9am. I took the Tacoma
Shuttle Tour. Paid ~$41.
Our guide is Susan and Tiffany, long time glass art liaisons.
The real treat is
Preston Singletary as a special guest on our way south.
He talked about how he started with glass blowing and some of his artistic reasonings, as well as how he met his wife (Asa).
Too bad that Susan and Tiffany took too much time talking about themselves, didn't leave much time for Preston.
There're about a dozen of paying guests + driver's wife.
Half of us are out of town. One lady flew here this weekend just for Refract (not her first time).
We arrived at Museum of Glass ~10 minutes before it opened. It was drizzling. Had to wait outside :(
The assistant curator
Katie Buckingham gave us a tour, which was very good.
The new exhibition
Field Notes starts with large painting and a case of intricately sculptured glass beetles by Vittorio Costantin.
I was most taken by these:
flowers by Joey Kirkpatrick and Flora C. Mace; the turtle and octopus, the fish. They look so real.
From Susan and Katie, I was made aware how difficult it is to retain the vivid color of a fresh flower without burning it. They are exquisit.
There's a whole room + corridor filled with these glass fantacies made from
kids' design. Fun.
Tacoma, being Chihuly's birthplace, there's a dedicated room showscases Chihuly's work. Colorful.
We had a lengthy discussion on who to wire the individual pieces onto the chandellier :)
With the curator by our side, I certainly paid attention more then I would if I were to come here by myself.
In fact, I only visited this museum once before.
After this tour, most of us followed Susan and Tiffany to the museum cafe for coffee.
I instead, walked around a bit more and went into the hot shop to watch visiting artist
Asa Sundlund working with the team.
A young lady was doing helpful commentary to what's going on.
Museum of Glass has a team of 4 professional glass blower to help with your project.
Preston and Asa were directing their work, their daughter was taking photos. What a nice family.
The 2nd floor of the hot shop showcases many works by
Lino Tagliapietra, and the archetectual drawing of this building as the background.
Next stop,
Hilltop Artists, a glass art school for middle-high school students.
As a public school, classes here are free.
Many instructors are former students here.
Definitely helps some youth to find one avenue of energy outlet.
Our last stop is the only studio visit today.
Weston Lambert makes glass justaposed with rocks.
They are big and pretty. Look at this table, filled with rocks that he procured.
He worked in construction before transitioned to glass arts.
So he's good with tools and have all the tools.
Recently he acquired a large cold cut machine.
He does everything in this garage looking shop. Easy to talk to, very nice and humble.
On our drive back, we made an extra stop at SeaTac's Lightrail station, and most passengered got off, including two local (and Tiffany). Only 4 people returned to Space Needle.
Amazon put out some "dark" balloons. I especially like the eye ball.
I got a free tour of the new Equinox gym in Rainier Tower today.
It's gleaming. Quite a few people at lunch time Friday.
Tons of machines, freshly changed yoga mats in the yoga room. It boasts sauna, cold plunge, robotic massage.
I got a 15 minute AI massage by these 2 robot arms.
Certainly more gentle and cushioned than my sister's massage chair. But only 2 pressure points: a bit disappointing.
They are recruiting members. The membership fee is $230/month, and with a year subscription.
After googling for reviews, I decided this is not for me: you need to install an app just to sign up for a group class, and only 1 day ahead. I don't want any more apps.
You get 1 free massage per month. Seems sauna, cold plunge cost extra too.
On the way out, saw this skeleton hovering over the piano.
The holiday spirit of this event by the Friends of Waterfront is a very dampened.
A few spectators (standing in the rain), 3 people dancing over a boombox under a canopy.
This guy, kudo to him, span into the rain for a couple of moves, won much applause.
On the way, I noticed these murals, that are quite impressive.
The most interesting is two young guys in their early 20s (just graduated from UW) started this 
