Sad News....

(photo credit to Mary Louise Schumacher of the Journal Sentinel Sentinal)

George Ray McCormick, a self-taught artist and patriarch of the Milwaukee African American arts community, died suddenly Thursday of a brain aneurysm. He was 64.

George joined our gallery in April, 2009. His metalwork has been featured in The Flying Pig Gallery and Gardens since then. He will truly be missed, even though we knew him for such a short time. Here is a press release that I had written regarding George, his work and his guest artist appearance in the gardens for Pat's birthday celebration:

Eclectic work created with eclectic materials by a mind open to eclectic ideas. George Ray McCormick, Sr. of Milwaukee, WI, has always believed that “you’ve got to have a look of your own.” Over the years, McCormick, Sr. has done just that. His creativity has taken numerous forms, from porcelain dolls, wood carving and sculptures, low-relief carving, to his latest, metalworking.

“The welding came in 1999. I was asleep and a voice, which I say is God, spoke to me at four o’clock in the morning and told me to go study welding. And I answered that.” Although he had always been afraid of welding being all too familiar with the burns on his stepfather's skin when he would come home at night, George gathered his courage and took an introductory welding class. As soon as he held the torch burning at 6,000 degrees Fahrenheit, he knew he was meant to be a welder.

Typically using steel in his metalwork, George often uses discarded metals. One of the important parts of metalworking is his personal connection to the art form. The metal sculptures represent a part of him and his life. He comments, “...I used to be like the discarded metal—in the streets and not doing much good...but now, I make art. What I was given was worth more than money.”

A resident of Milwaukee since 1950, McCormick, Sr. was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi in 1944. His work is exhibited in galleries, museums and universities throughout the Midwest. He has been invited to participate as a guest artist in numerous folk art festivals, including the Wisconsin Sesquicentennial Folklife Festival, The National Folk Art Festival sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution, the Kentuck Festival of the Arts, and the Folk Life Festival Exchange Program exhibit in Chiba, Japan, sponsored by the Wisconsin Arts Board.


Rest in peace, George - you will be missed...