Native American glass artist Preston Singletary blurs the lines between the traditional and the contemporary; his heritage and his modern life. As a member of the Tlingit tribe, he creates works that depict his family’s animal symbols, such as the wolf. But these highly refined pieces use modern techniques to recontextualize these ancient symbols for the modern experience. As such, he is adding a new chapter to the Native American story – one that takes into account both its rich history and its current reality. Singletary does not lament; he accepts and celebrates. Watch an interview with the artist here. His work is in the collection of the Corning Museum of Glass, the Heard Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, the Seattle Art Museum and now, on the 20th floor of the Hotel Murano.

-Dale

“I use the vessel as a way to enter the work, a starting point if you like, but the vessel also acts as a metaphor for the container of ideas,” so says Bruno Romanelli. This glass artist has pared his work down to its bare essentials: cylinders, disks and cones and he infuses them just one simple color – or no color at all. The result is that his pieces are so easy to “get” that you could walk right by them. That would be a mistake, because, as he says, “Each piece is an exploration of the relationships between form, color and material.” Very true. If Piet Mondrian had been a glass sculptor, he would been Bruno Romanelli.

–Dale

The guys over at Exit 133 have done a very cool thing. They interviewed our very own Tessa Papas, curator of our hotel’s art, and Costas Varotsos, the man behind the 100-foot-tall sculpture in our front yard. They videotaped the interview. Check it out right here.

–James

Her name is Mary Ann, but you can call her Toots. I like this woman already. Toots Zynsky was one of the 16 original students to come out of the Pilchuck Glass School back in 1971. Known for her innovative technique for fusing glass called “Filet de Verre”, Zynsky’s bowl-shaped pieces utilize fine glass threads of ripe, luscious colors that look like spun glass. Her work is represented by more than thirty five museums world wide, including the White House Collection of American Craft. In 2005 she was one of the first artists to have artwork commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art. See her contribution to the Hotel Murano by stopping off on the 17th floor.

–Dale

What a wonderful sense of humor. Too often, the air in the art world can get a little stuffy as artists try to secure elusive grant funding, gallery owners try to persuade clients that the artists that represent are doing something “important” and critics… well… try to justify their paychecks. Enter Flo Perkins. She spent years crafting exquisitely rendered floral pieces from blown glass. And then she had her eureka moment. Leaving that behind, she began creating sculptures of everyday objects, such as traffic cones and bowling pins. Make no mistake, these are beautifully executed. Yet, under her hand, such pieces as this one, “Conefrontation,” will also make you giggle. Can’t wait to see what’s on the 16th floor.

-Dale

After a slight delay, the Costas Varotsos sculpture outside the hotel is standing tall and proud. Now that it’s in place you can see why there’s been so much talk. This really will put our hotel – and the entire city of Tacoma – on the map. Installation had to be put off for a couple of days when it was discovered that the brackets on the steel and glass sculpture didn’t line up with the holes in the side of the building. That’s been resolved (obviously) and we now have a new landmark. Woo!

- James

Somewhere between the precious realm of figurine art ala Lladro and the crazy mixed media planet of Robert Rauschenberg lies a tiny world inhabited by glass sculptor Susan Taylor Glasgow. Time stood still in this sun-dappled nook around 1952, and her pieces celebrate that era of frilly aprons, towering wedding cakes and torpedo bras. To my knowledge, she’s just about the only artist who works in “sewn glass.” After kiln-forming several separate pieces, she literally sews them together and the effect is like cross-stitching – a perfect analogy for the faux domesticity of the Leave it to Beaver era. Step off the 15th floor and her work will be right in front of you.

-Dale

Dante Marioni is a glassblower’s glassblower. He says that his work “is, if anything, about the art of glassblowing itself.” Before you get stuck on the self-reflexiveness of that statement, take a look at some of his work. His pieces – often formal structures that refer to Greek and Roman vessels – are intrinsically about the process of glassblowing. He stretches the technique to, literally, the breaking point, and then dials that back half a notch so that the object can actually survive on its own outside the studio. In the glassblowing world, the artist must work quickly, decisively and with courage; otherwise an attempted sculpture can fail. That can end up costing a lot of money. It’s a jagged edge, a world in which you must go for broke – without actually going broke. Find Marioni’s work on floor 14.

-Dale

“In producing this body of work, it was important for me to incorporate my interest in fibres, my love for the natural Australian landscape and my commitment to creating works that document a personal journey.” That’s how Cobi Cockburn describes her new series of works that will be showing at Bullseye Gallery Beginning February 19. She adds, “These patterns were inspired by the harsh colors and soft movement of low-lying grasses found throughout Australia” along with its “beautiful old trees.” Her work celebrates such simple, natural beauty. You’ll soon be able to see what she means by this when you step off the 12th floor elevators.

-Dale

This just in from Tacoma Gnome:

Our very own Bridge of Glass is going to be featured in a series of national ads purchased by the Tacoma Regional Convention and Visitors Bureau. Looks like they’ll start running just in time to give our new beds a shakedown cruise.

-Dale