Like his work, glass artist Dale Chihuly stands out in a crowd. With his black eyepatch and willful hair, he is Seattle's own fiery fusion of Picasso and Warhol. When he was growing up in Tacoma, his kindergarten teacher at Sheridan Elementary held up a ceramic pig Chihuly had adorned with bright red, blue and yellow spots as she told his mother, "You know, you just might have an artist on your hands!"

As a child, Chihuly used to race up hills in the North end with his mother and brother to catch the dazzling color and light show of a Pacific Northwest sunset. Small wonder that the artist says the symphony of color and form that he creates in glass is always an outgrowth of the natural world - sunsets, to be sure, along with the treasures of the sea and vibrant flower gardens.

Photo credit: Jessica Corey-Butler

Although the artist has mounted ambitious installations throughout the world for many years, from Jerusalem to Ireland, Chihuly Garden and Glass, the long-term exhibition, café and gift shop that opened next to the Space Needle in Seattle Center in 2012, could be called the epitome of fine art glass, as it embraces nature.

A Light-filled Cathedral-like Conservatory called the Glasshouse

One of the artist's largest suspended sculptures, a 100-foot long crescendo of color, greets the visitor upon entering the 40-foot tall Glasshouse that is the centerpiece of the Seattle exhibit. What follows are eight galleries of  his most significant series like Cylinders and Baskets, Seaforms, Macchia, Venetians, and Persians, along with three walls of his paper drawings. These often serve as a kind of blueprint for his glass.

As art historian Gayle Clemans describes it, one of the most unusual installations here "features glass forms of varied shapes and vibrant colors spilling over the edges of two large wooden boats."

The layman can begin to appreciate a little of what goes into such creations by reflecting on Chihuly's observation that "Most people don't realize it, but blowing a piece with a range of colors is extremely difficult because each color attracts and retains the heat differently."

While blowing the early pieces of this series, he also realized the importance of adding a layer of white between the interior and exterior colors of a vessel in order for the colors to "pop," without blending into one another. Don't miss the short videos available in the Theater for more insights.

Sanctuary in an Asphalt Jungle  

The garden which surrounds the Glasshouse intertwines gorgeous plantings with the artist's otherworldly glass sculptures, a kind of fairyland refuge amidst the bustling city that surrounds it.

Although the sculpture titled "The Sun" anchors the area between the exhibit and Seattle Center, it is the symphony of gardens and glass that soothes the spirit. Here "plantings" of Niijima Floats, Ikebana, and Crystal and Icicle Towers add to the magnificence of nature's flowers, trees and grasses. Be sure to allow enough time. It is hard to break away.

Get details at http://www.chihulygardenandglass.com to avoid Special Event Closures.