Georgia Blizzard was a sculptor in clay who came from an American family with roots in three diverse cultures: Apache, Irish, and Appalachian. When Blizzard was a child she was taught Native American firing techniques by her father. She made clay toys with one of her older sisters, Lucy May, and baked them in the sun. As young women, the two sisters made imitation Indian relics—pots and pipes and the like—and sold them to unsuspecting tourists as authentic objects. Returning to ceramics later in life, Blizzard created a wide array of non-functional sculptural vessels—even if created in the form of a vase or a pitcher.

Blizzard is a published poet—interestingly, some of the artist's most devoted collectors are poets—and on the bottom of Mourning Urn is her poem articulating the story of death incised in the clay: