Category: United States

Glass in Color

Posted on by Annie

As promised, here are my favorite “not black and white” artworks from the Corning Museum of Glass. The combination of technique and brilliant colors in these pieces mezmerized me. This was probably my favorite piece, a flock of abstract boats made by a Venetian while living in Seattle. These pieces float in the air, moving ever so slightly in unseen slight winds. No idea why the title “Blood Sugar” but the chaotic and yet somewhat organized display of bottles, vases, and glasses is just so appealing to me. When this artist hears music, she sees colors. Once I learned that,…

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Sunday Special: Glassworks

Posted on by Annie

I’m an hour from Corning, New York, this week, and visiting the Museum of Glass there has been on my bucket list for years. Today was the day! And it was even more amazing than I had hoped. There was so much that I’m going to do two posts, one today focusing on form and the other on Tuesday, focusing on color. The shapes made out of glass by newer artists were breathtaking. Both the one above and the one below were exquisite. The one above has a video that goes along with it, showing that the artist took the…

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Oregon Lighthouse

Posted on by Annie

Three years ago, I visited Cape Disappointment, where the Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean in a roil of sandbanks, heavy tides, and ever-present fog that were responsible for many a sunken ship in the last few centuries (see photo at top of this page). The southern side of the river belongs to Oregon, and it’s where John Jacob Astor funded the first white settlement, which became known as Astoria. The northern side belongs to Washington State, and it’s where two lighthouses reside: Cape Disappointment Light and North Head Light. The latter has been the primary navigation for the channel…

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Columbia Gorge

Posted on by Annie

The Gorge is burning and it breaks my heart. It was such a beautiful place and now it’s in flames, up and down the Columbia River on the Oregon side, and jumping across to Washington side today. It’s stranded hikers on local trails, closed the Pacific Crest trail as it runs through Cascade Locks in the heart of the Gorge, and shut down I-84 for miles. From one day to the next, it grew from 3000 acres to 10,000 acres. And all because, allegedly, some teenagers threw fireworks off a cliff. If you’ve never been there, here’s my photos from…

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Glassworks

Posted on by Annie

Ah, a glass museum less than two miles from my current campsite! The display covering the history of glass in New England was interesting, yes, but when I got to these sculptural, technical pieces, by the artist Sidney Hutter, I was in heaven. As he puts it, he works “…in form, color, and light.” Yes, indeed he does! His glass creations captivated me. Each one is 16-20 inches high and incredibly detailed, as you can see from the closeup below. Sometimes a vase isn’t a vase, it’s a sculpture that challenges us to see beyond the familiar and appreciate form…

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