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Essay / Understanding the Life of William Morris
It is debated whether William Morris should be considered an artist or a craftsman because of his interest in vessels. While the creation of vessels in the ancient world was considered a craft due to the mass production and use of these vessels, Bill's vessels were not intended for mass production or purposes of consumption. To say that he is a craftsman based solely on his ships is a weak argument. He is best known for his great works. (Creative Nature 19:40) He is an artist because of the context in which his subjects are made. “It’s like every year; When Bill does it again, he pushes that limit a little further. And this is what made him not only the best glass technician and craftsman in the world, but also the best glass artist in the world. (Creative Nature 1:52)Say no to plagiarism. Get a custom essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essay Does William Morris take the utilitarian rule of ships and make them more important by focusing on them? People were really surprised by this installation. William Morris is known for his large-scale pieces, assembled as a large-scale installation. “A lot of people were shocked that he worked at that size.” (Creative Nature 20:15) So, speaking specifically about his 1998 Artifact Panel installation, yes and no. Yes, he made them more important because he was able to spend a lot of time on these little pieces to look like artifacts from the ancient world. These are “intimate pieces, they require a certain time to understand their nature”. (Creative Nature 20:25) These pieces were created to imitate ancient artifacts, not to be them. He himself says that he “is not interested in reproducing anything. Rather, they are impressions of things... You can't do that literally. You do this intuitively. (Creative Nature 22:43) Yet individual containers get lost because there are so many of them. The lighting creates double, or even triple, the shadows behind each artifact protruding from the wall, making the number of containers even more vast. This makes each individual artifact less important, and only when it is part of that composition. For me, embracing the utilitarian rule of containers and changing the way they are perceived is something only an artist can do. The strategic planning and mathematics required to place each individual ship on the panel is not traditional in the typical ancient world. It takes away their use. Doing such a thing gives William Morris the title of artist. These vessels were not manufactured for consumption purposes. Perhaps his mass production of these vessels and their display at the same time is a commentary on how glassmaking was viewed in the ancient world. Like a profession rather than an art form. Resembling the nature of objects is part of what makes William Morris an artist. He does this by making a statement about something. That's what artists do. Not craftsmen. He takes inspiration from nature, then creates whatever comes to mind. Once he starts working, deeper ideas and meanings come to him. For example, Cache from 1993. At the time, he was interested in creating very large pieces of glass. But he didn't like what he was working on at the time. So it occurred to me to combine several large pieces. This is where the idea for Cache came from. He abandoned all previous ideas for his installation and began working on this one. (Creative Nature 4:30) His idea grew with a 2 3:46)