Wednesday, August 6, 2014 — Iris had to go back to work. ILona came to the hotel and, for our adventure, we took the bus into Seattle. This time we got out near Union Station, saw a little of the edge of the International District and went looking for galleries.
The first we found was Foster/White. We had a long chat with one of the curators, who explained what the gallery looks for in its artists. She had some interesting glass pieces. Unfortunately, my photo does not do justice to the David Schwarz piece, blown, etched, sand blasted…
Then we were in a local gallery — interesting work, but maybe not for ILona.
We wandered through town and ended up in a little park / plaza, with a farmers’ market, some large wood sculptures and a huge, ivy-covered building. We had lunch in a little cafe, trying a local amber red beer.
After lunch I dragged ILona along to the Traver Gallery, 110 Union Street. This had been closed Monday. The gallery was in the midst of getting a show ready to open the next day (Thursday). We were invited to the opening (and I plan to go).
Among the pieces, the gallery has Dante Marioni:
Lino Tagliapietra:
Dale Chihuly:
Carmen Vetter (kiln-formed glass):
along with others. Those were the pieces that made the biggest impression. The show will be for a young Danish artist, Tobias Møhl, but he was still figuring out his installation.
Then we went around the corner to the Vetri Gallery, also owned by William Traver. Several of the pieces had been changed since Monday. I liked the flowers by Mikey Cozza:
And this “folded” kiln-formed piece by Karen Mahardy was pretty cool:
Then it was the bus back to Tacoma.
ILona went home, and I went to the theater district in Tacoma to look around some more. I found this cool fish fountain:
The Hotel Murano has quite a bit of glass around it:
The hotel itself has interesting geometric shapes…
My tour ended back at Ammar’s for another red beer, this by Elysian Brewery, with the special name “The Mens Room”, and some delicious Greek fries and hummus.
diane's fused glass 