By DOUG MACKEY

Flush with the success of their recent Imagine Van Gogh exhibition, Tacoma Arts Live brings us the equally ravishing Imagine Monet. Although to be fair, when you attend TAL’s latest offering at Tacoma Armory, you’'ll hardly need to use your imagination at all—for you’ll enter a waking dream state, and the imaginings will be those of the founder of the impressionist art movement, Claude Monet.

If you’re unfamiliar with Monet, don’t worry. The exhibition’s creators, Annabelle Mauger and Julien Baron, have conceived a “discovery room” designed as a didactic journey through Claude Monet’s life and work, which viewers enter before stepping into the main exhibit. A darkened corridor with ten illuminated panels explores his life and times, while a fascinating video invites you inside the process of creating the digital immersive experience. Take your time here. What you learn or remember will inform the pleasures to come.

Then it’s to the main event. Featuring over 200 masterpieces, the 35-minute immersive exhibition begins with Monet’s 1872 painting Impression, Sunrise, continues through Monet’s Haystacks and Rouen Cathedral series, and closes with the epic Water Lillies series. Thoughtful touches enhance the experience: Evocative music of the era, clouds of stream accompanying the images of train stations, falling snow setting the scene for winterscapes, and blowing petals denoting springtime. The exhibition only asks that you slow your pace and allow yourself to be enveloped in the directors’ and Monet’s creations. You’ll be amazed at how a few deft brushstrokes can so sublimely represent a flower, a woman’s hat, a child in a boat, the sun.

French directors Mauger and Baron based their exhibition on one conviction; the experience must establish a direct, raw relationship between the work and the spectators, be they children or adults, novices or seasoned art lovers. Imagine Monet fills the space, with 360-degree projections on the walls and floor, completely immersing visitors in a universe of images while retaining the total freedom to wander and explore their surroundings. Benches are arranged in the middle of the floor, for those who prefer to sit. Whether you walk freely or just sit and stare, you’ll be able to dissolve into the work of the renowned father of impressionism.

Once you’ve left the immersion room, you’ll enter an area that evokes a Parisian sidewalk, offering books, gifts, and refreshments. Have a seat in the craft area, where kids and adults alike can create their own water lily design with the watercolor markers provided. A garden-themed photo booth features hats, scarves and parasols fit for les belles dames de Tacoma!

TTowners: If you missed Vincent, please don’t miss Claude.