Even if creepy crawlers are not your thing, there is plenty to see and appreciate at Field Notes: Artists Observe Nature, a new exhibit at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma. The installation features 18 contemporary glass artists who have meticulously captured the delicate details, astonishing patterns, and vibrant colors of insects, birds and plants.   

One of the stand-outs of the show is the display of 310 lampworked glass insects – each life-sized and entomologically correct – by Italian glass artist Vittorio Costantini.  Born in 1944 on Burano, an island in the lagoon of Venice near Murano, Costantini’s father was a fisherman and his mother a lace maker – common professions for that generation.