Description
1980 Chihuly student William Morris Art Glass vase height: 10 1/2 inches, width:<br>10 1/2 inches, depth: 3 1/2 inches. Absolutely no damage or wear whatsoever.<br>This vase represents his early work he was producing at Pilchuck while gaffing<br>for Dale Chihuly.<br><br>William Morris was born in Carmel, California in 1957. He is an American glass<br>artist who has been able to change the history of art within his lifetime.<br>Morris was educated at California State University in Chico, California as well<br>as Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington.
In 1978, Morris<br>arrived at the Pilchuck Glass School and found work initially as a driver.<br>Later, he worked with Dale Chihuly, the founder of the school, and eventually<br>became his chief gaffer in the 1980s. Morris remained with Chihuly for about 10<br>years as his chief assistant before deciding to form his own studio and develop<br>his own artistic style of glass blowing.<br><br>For more than twenty-five years, William Morris has captivated and intrigued the<br>art community with hauntingly evocative and beautiful glass sculptures. He has<br>captured the imagination time and again by creating objects that appear to be<br>ancient stone or woodcarvings, not the modern glass sculptures they actually<br>are. His art speaks of human origins, myth, ancestry, and ancient civilizations.<br>It symbolizes a harmony between humanity and nature and provides a ghost-like<br>bond to the world around us – a world that is often forgotten, ignored, and<br>abused.<br><br>Morris gathers much of his inspiration from ancient cultures from around the<br>world – Egyptian, Asian, Native American – all peoples who respected and admired<br>the land they inhabited. Because of this, Morris’s artwork has become something<br>all its own: culturally distinct and yet familiar to all cultures. His pieces<br>embody a spiritual quality that sharply contrasts old beliefs with those of the<br>modern world. These objects speak to our senses and continuously beg us to<br>explore them further.<br><br>Morris achieved much success during his career and retired in 2007. He spent<br>over twenty-five years honing his skills and pushing the medium of glass further<br>than anyone, including himself, could ever have imagined.<br><br>Morris’ work can be found in numerous public collections including:<br><br>The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; Corning Museum of Glass, Corning,<br>NY; American Glass Museum, Millville, NJ; Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art,<br>Hokkaido, Japan; Musee Des Arts Decoratifs, Paris, France; Auckland Museum,<br>Auckland, New Zealand and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England.
