Chihuly Heaven in Seattle

if you’re a Chihuly fan, the Chihuly Garden and Glass museum is calling your name. it’s right in the heart of Seattle, next to the Space Needle and EMP at Seattle Center. i was in town for the First2Board Seattle Sessions (p.s. so great to finally unvirtualize so many tweeps!) and my MegaDO/Sessions friend Jana wanted to visit it — i gladly went along.

while his oeuvre (look at me with my ten-dollar word!) doesn’t appeal to me on an artistic or emotional level (see tweet below), i do appreciate the skill and mastery it takes to create them, having seen his work at the DeYoung in San Francisco* as well as at the Bellagio in Las Vegas.

* i knew i saw many of these pieces before, but i couldn’t remember where until i did a twitter search just now which proved i was at the DeYoung for this exhibit. sadly, link rot has caused the snipurl to disappear, so who knows what picture (i’m assuming) was on the other end of that.

Chihuly (yuck, not a fan) and the deyoung tower http://snipurl.com/35mby

— Jonathan Khoo (@jonk) July 26, 2008

the Garden and Glass museum admission is a bit pricey at $22 for non-locals as it’s not that big (save a dollar by purchasing online), but if you’re a fan it’s definitely a place you’ll want to visit, price be damned. i’d allocate no more than 2 hours for it, and that’s likely pushing it. speaking of seeing, here are more pictures — as always, the rest are on Flickr.

i ended up using the visit as a way to practice working my camera, since really, his stuff does make for pretty cool photos.

there’s a film series at the very end — which imho should come at the beginning — seeing his installations in outdoor settings, placed in and around cities and forests, now those are great. it loses a LOT in a museum setting like this for me, though.

sidebar: food a couple years ago, the evening event at a Microsoft conference i attended was held at Seattle Center, inside a large building called the Armory, which is a…well, hipsterish food court. thanks to Yelp reminding me that it existed, as i was able to get some barbecue, which i’ve been craving forever. and not to brag, but i was retweeted by one of the bands that played there that night as entertainment 😉 — you may know themfrom that song.

wait, so tonight's #bldwin party is at a food court? O_O http://t.co/kwrdcpkQ

— Jonathan Khoo (@jonk) November 2, 2012

We look so metal! RT @jonk: Last @best_coast song: "Boyfriend"!!! Yay!!! #bldwin pic.twitter.com/WFpWzK8d

— BEST COAST (@best_coast) November 2, 2012