Burial Raft

William Morris grew up discovering arrowheads and potsherds left by Native Americans in the caves and wilderness of Southern California. He studied art at California State University in Chico, and, at the age of 20, he traveled to the Pilchuck Glass School in Washington State to study with the famed glassblower Dale Chihuly (American, b. 1941). Since his first solo show in 1980, Morris has become one of the most influential artists in American studio glass. Throughout his career, he has explored themes related to archaeology, prehistory, life, death, and the natural world. Burial Raft is part of a series created in the early 1990s, when Morris was still making his “Canopic Jars” and developing his “Suspended Artifacts” sculptures. Each piece from the “Burial Raft” series consists of a glass canoe mounted on a steel stand that is filled with an arrangement of glass bones, spears, and other artifacts associated with death and transformation. The blown glass in Burial Raft has been given texture through hot-applied glass powders and acid etching. Morris prefers the way light interacts with these roughened surfaces, which closely resemble the surfaces of bones and ancient artifacts. The last Burial Raft of this series was created in 1993. Signed: “William/ Morris /1993,” engraved on base of boat. Published: Gary Blonston, William Morris: Artifacts/Glass, New York: Abbeville Press, 1996, p. 34. For more information, see Isabel Allende and James Yood, William Morris: Mazorca, Objects of Common Ceremony, Seattle: Marquand Books, 2004; and James Yood and Tina Oldknow, William Morris: Animal/ Artifact, New York: Abbeville Press, 2000.