Window in Alaska

Despite a full teaching schedule, PUC visual arts Professor Thomas Morphis keeps up an impressive level of personal involvement in the art world. His collages and mixed media works are often accepted and displayed in exhibitions both in and out of California. This year, Morphis discovered an opportunity through Alaska’s Percent for Art program, which mandates that one percent of the budget for all new government buildings is designated for art to be integrated into the building. The Kachemak Bay Campus of Kanai Peninsula College (a community campus of the University of Alaska Anchorage) was looking for an artistic project to be installed on one of eight possible sites on their campus. Artists from across the U.S. were eligible to submit proposals.

After a process of designing, sending in a proposal, and refining the design, the campus contracted Morphis to create a vast stained glass window. He constructed the window in six panels, transported and installed it himself at the campus, and participated in a special unveiling and reception.

So now there’s Alaskan sunlight streaming through the abstract design, which expands on the arched window shape to suggest the curvature of the earth and the transition of land/sea/sky.