How is Life Perceived Through Glass?

"He had only to open his eyes; but a weight was on them; a fear.  He strained; he pushed; he looked; he saw Regent's Park before him.  Long streamers of sunlight fawned at his feet.  The trees waved, brandished.  We welcome, the world seems to say; we accept; we create.  Beauty, the world seemed to say.  And as if to prove it (scientifically) wherever he looked at the houses at the railings, at the antelopes stretching over the palings, beauty sprang instantly.  To watch a leaf quivering in the rush of air was an exquisite joy.  Up in the sky swallows swooping, swerving, flinging themselves in and out, round and round, yet always with perfect control as if elastics held them; and the flies rising and falling; and the sun spotting now this leaf, now that, in mockery, dazzling it with soft gold in pure good temper; and now and again some chime (it might be a motor horn) tingling divinely on the grass stocks - all of this, calm and reasonable as it was, made out of ordinary things as it was, was the truth now; beauty, that was the truth now.  Beauty is everywhere" (Woolf 69).  

In this passage of Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf is illustrating the perception of nature and the seemingly small instances of beauty.  Beauty is found in ordinary exemplars, but only if individuals, such as Septimus, can perceive it through his or her "pane of glass" (Woolf 87).  Dale Chihuly demonstrates this perception through his stunning artwork and installations.  

Dale Chihuly is a glass artist.  To explain, he uses glass as his primary medium in his works because "The process is so wonderfully simple, yet so mystifying" (Chihuly).  Chihuly is inspired by glass, since "Glass itself is so much like water.  If you let it go on its own, it almost ends up looking like something that came from the sea" (Chihuly).  This simile is similar to Woolf's beliefs of water that waves are like the life cycle, beautiful and continuously ebbing and flowing.  

One of Chihuly's famous installations is Artpark Installation.  Artpark Installation, located near Niagara Falls, is an outdoor installation comprising of "handblown sheets of stained glass in simple arrangements" (Chihuly).  Although it is simple, this installation comes to life with "The magic ... in the light" (Chihuly).  In other words, the glass gives "physical expression to light" (Chihuly).  

Artpark Installation 

Artpark Installation 

Artpark Installation's location near Niagara Falls emphasizes the representation of water as the life cycle.  Glass, or perception, influences life.  Perceptions discern beauty individually.  Life is beautiful through a clear glass, but perceived differently through a colored glass affected by "pane" (Woolf 87).