Glass was created centuries ago. Glass beads were made in Mesopotamia as long ago as 2500 B.C. The process used then is basically the same that is used today. Glass is worked as a hot fluid, and then carefully cooled to be transformed into transparent or translucent objects. Not only is glass a window to view the outdoors, or a vessel for drinking from or holding liquids, but it is also a decorative art.

Toots Zynsky is an American-born artist. She first realized her love for glass art at age eighteen, and thirty-three years later, she is still creating and exhibiting her work worldwide. Not only has her fascination with glass created art, but Toots has also founded the Pilchuck Glass School and Urban Glass. This is where, in 1980, her glass design technique was perfected.

The technique that Toots Zynsky developed is called "filet-de-verre", which means fused and thermo formed glass threads. A friend designed and built a thread-pulling machine for her, which allowed Toots to produce large amounts of longer and finer thread in several colors. This technique, along with her passion for art glass and her own creative mind, is what has led to her work of today.

This sculpture at the Tampa Museum of Art is entitled Night Street Chaos. This tulip-like shape is a piece of a series of artwork entitled Chaos. A chaotic street scene in Paris originally inspired her. This particular work was created in 1998 of fused and thermoformed glass threads.

The vibrant colors and the irregular shape give movement to this piece. I can picture it slowly and methodically swaying back and forth with just a slight rolling movement. It's as if the glass were a brightly colored piece of coral, just deep enough under the ocean that you can see it, but when you reach down, you cannot touch it. It is intriguing, however, because what I see as calming, the artist sees as chaotic!