Glass art forms of all kinds radiate in a rare art show at MUSEO.

The once-a-year Whidbey Island Glass Invitational is now displaying works by more than 35 top glass artists — and most live and work on Whidbey.

The show is overwhelming even to MUSEO owner Sandra Jarvis.

“It’s pretty astounding to have them all in one gallery,” Jarvis said.

“They all show at individual galleries, nationally and internationally, but to have them in one gallery together is pretty exceptional,” she said. “In fact,

I think it’s extraordinarily exceptional.”

The gallery exhibit gives the island community a chance to show off the eclectic combination of top-notch artists who live here. And Jarvis said it’s fun to watch visitors from big cities like New York, Chicago and Los Angeles walk into the exhibit and discover their favorite artists.

“They walk in there and they say ‘You mean this person lives here? You mean she lives here? You mean he lives here?’” Jarvis said.

“And we say, ‘Yeah, they live here,’ and people are just amazed.”

People who are familiar with glass artists are sure to find some of their favorites at the glass invitational.

“We have people that really need to be counted among the top 10 in the world, as far as talent and reputation goes,” Jarvis said.

The show also features a few up-and-coming artists.

“It’s pretty exciting to have that breadth of talent in the show,” Jarvis said.

The range of skill spans a large scope of work. Each artist has their own individual technique and style of glass art.

From the small to the mighty, the more traditional to unconventional, each piece of glass art is unlike any other.

“There are so many different techniques,” Jarvis said. “There’s just an enormous variety of pieces.”

The gallery owner said many local artists pay special attention to the pieces at the MUSEO glass invitational because it’s a chance to display work in their own community in a collaborative manner.

“It seems each year the artists bring in more and more beautiful things, so the art gets a step higher each year,” Jarvis said.

She isn’t exactly sure why so many talented glass artists make Whidbey their home, but Jarvis has an idea. It may have something to do with a Stanwood-area art institution.

“With the advent of the Pilchuck Glass School, the Northwest started to draw a lot of artists out this way,” Jarvis said.

“Then property on Whidbey was beautiful and close to an urban area, where they can get on planes and fly to openings and shows and museums, plus get their supplies and shipping materials, but yet live in a very tranquil and lovely environment,” she added.

Glass art is a fairly new art form, although people have been making glass for hundreds of years. But it’s also an art form that has become extremely popular in a relatively short amount of time.

“It has so much life in it,” Jarvis said. “If you put a piece of glass in where it gets natural light during the course of the day it changes, the colors change and different things stand out in it.”

The ninth annual Whidbey Island Glass Invitational runs through Aug. 28.

“It is the only show we have for two months,” Jarvis said. “We keep this show on longer mainly because there is such a large influx of visitors in July and August, and we want to give everybody a chance to see it.”

Breeana Laughlin can be reached at blaughlin@southwhidbeyrecord.com or 221-5300.