George Pratt – Honoring Him

The Northwest Stone Sculptor’s Association is proud to present to George Pratt an Honorary Lifetime Membership, in recognition and sincere appreciation of your outstanding loyalty and dedication to NWSSA. This honor recognizes your commitment demonstrated by teaching, mentoring, and supporting the NWSSA vision since its beginning.

According to Meg Pettibone, the founder of NWSSA, in 1983 she contacted you in Vancouver, BC to discuss the possibility of creating a Stone Sculpture Symposium and a stone sculptor’s guild. You spread the word to all persons working with stone in the Vancouver area about the creation of a guild. So that in September 1983, you drove a carload of interested people to Seattle for the first meeting of NWSSA. From the beginning, NWSSA was a truly international group of stone sculptors.

This unique group of people have gathered at various Symposia and meetings, shows and field trips to learn and share with each other. To a great degree it was you who helped create this culture, this expectation of being always willing and ready to provide whatever help was needed.

Tracy Powell recounts how you introduced hammer, point, claw, and chisel, the form is already in the rock, just knock off what doesn’t belong: magically simple. “George’s first and last lesson have stayed with me ever since (1992), and whenever I have had a chance to teach, I just repeat what George said and did.”

Also in 1992, Arliss Newcomb explained to you that she had never had a formal art class or instruction. You said, “Not to worry, the stone will teach you if you listen to it.” Nicky Olberholtzer explained, “I met him as a beginner who knew nothing. He picked out a sweet marble rock for me, and just said carve what I saw in it. After a couple of days of playing with it, I took it to him. It was a whale, a surprisingly good whale (looking back). I asked him what I needed to do next. He grabbed my arm, said something about “never mind about them” and took me aside to get me involved in finishing up the piece. He made me feel like a really good carver. It made my year!”

People whom you have helped, taught, mentored unfailingly mention your generosity, your patience, your depth of knowledge in working with stone. But you also have shared the “secrets” of how to sell art and how to price art. Having cajoled Barbara Davidson into attending the symposium in 1992, she was later invited to a show that you, Michael Binkley, and Babe Gunn put on. “The three artists were spiffed up in formal attire. Patrons were courted. Old patrons and new, purchased. Wine flowed. George was the ultimate host. It was a no nonsense, very successful, professional working business event. It was a huge learning experience for me.”

Lee Gass tells a similar story. “I already knew George a little before the 1st symposium in 1987. Then, George was making his living carving small marble sculptures, many of them birds,  that he sold at the Granville Island market on the weekends. He gave me permission to watch him at his table on Saturday, “from a distance”, he insisted. Seconds before three elderly ladies noticed his table, George set one perfectly balanced bird spinning on the table, then turned away, paid no attention at all to them, and listened. Once they noticed, they gave all their attention to the bird and none of it to the sculptor who was about to sell it to one or more of them. Like well-balanced tops, those birds spun for a long time and the ladies were upon it before it stopped. Only after the sale had already been completed, in effect, did George turn back and listen to them tell him about the wonderful experience they’d just had. He made their day, they made his, and they moved on, congratulating each other on their new sculptures and their new friend. What a communicator! What a salesman!”

To everyone’s delight, in 1993 you created a t-shirt design that was a caricature of what the field at the symposium looked like. It included several persons who were easily recognizable, including Everett DuPenn, Dorbe Holden, and yourself. We liked it so much that we used it again in 1994 but flipped it around.

George, you have always embodied the best of what NWSSA is about. You have volunteered freely of your time, your energy, your skills. Whether it was driving Canadians to Seattle to attend a meeting or a potluck, making detailed comments on the internet answering fellow sculptor’s questions, donating stone for beginning carvers, designing t-shirts, encouraging, always, that NWSSA continue to develop and grow, you have earned the love and respect of us all.

Thank you.

The Board of Directors of NWSSA

7-13-2022