George Mossman Greenamyer

George Mossman Greenamyer, sculptor and professor emeritus of the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston, died on Apr. 26, 2023 from complications following a fall. He was 83.
He is survived by his wife Beverly Burbank of Marshfield, MA, brother Richard Greenamyer of California, and step sister Jodi Volpe of Pennsylvania. George was a member of the Society of Friends (Quaker) in East Sandwich, MA. In lieu of a service, his life and work will be celebrated at his sculpture collection and workshop in Marshfield, MA.
A scholarship in George's name has been established at MassArt. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be sent to the MassArt Foundation in his memory or visit MassArtGiving and select "In Memory of George Greenamyer.
George was born in Cleveland, OH in 1939. In his youth, George attended a summer art camp, which opened the door to his life as an artist. At the Philadelphia College of Art (now The University of The Arts), George majored in 3D Design and studied under the influential ceramic artist Bill Daley.
In 1964, he was one of a handful of artists who founded the Pulpit Rock Artists Community in Woodstock, CT. In the following years, George participated in a show at the American Craft Museum in New York, creating a ceramic cookie jar resembling a beehive. He was also commissioned by furniture designer Vladimir Kagan to create unique pieces, including a ceramic table with glass top and etched copper plates that were then inlaid in wood furniture. During this time, he began working with steel sculpture, wanting to make larger pieces of art.
George started teaching ceramics at the Haystack School of Crafts in Maine in the late 1960s. At Haystack, he noticed that the hand bell, used to notify students that it was mealtime, couldn't be heard across the whole campus. George offered to build a steel bell tower as a replacement. Using saplings joined together for scaffolding, he and a team erected it in 1970. It was his first steel commission.
When a temporary position as a substitute ceramic instructor opened up in the late 1960's at MassArt, George jumped at the chance. The role confirmed a love for teaching and after attaining a Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of Kansas in 1969, George joined the college full time as a ceramics teacher. It was not long before his extensive knowledge of 3D materials and techniques became known, and he was given the responsibility of developing the sculpture department to include MassArt's first metal foundry, forge and metal fabrication shop.
Quick with a joke while teaching, George would say of his students, "If they're laughing, they're listening." He was an outstanding and beloved teacher, challenging his students with high standards. His honesty in critiques of student work was both feared and appreciated, and his classes were among the most sought-after at MassArt. Hundreds of artists and art educators count George as a primary influence on their careers. George was a cornerstone of the sculpture department at MassArt for decades.
In 1977, he won an Artists Fellowship Grant from the Massachusetts Arts and Humanities Foundation and a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Grant. In 1979, he became a research fellow at the Center of Advanced Visual Arts at MIT. A few years after it was founded, George joined the World Sculpture Racing Society. At events, including the Cambridge River Festival in 1985, George competed with other sculptors. Dressed in tuxedos, he and a few friends would push the heavy steel sculptures along the route. Hoping to arrive last, George would periodically stop to to comedically oil the wheels.
In the early 1990's, George created a large ice sculpture for two First Night celebrations in Boston. For four years, he was tapped by the Laumeier Sculpture Park in St. Louis, to build structures made of enormous ice blocks for their annual winter solstice celebration. The frozen structure, encasing a hidden pile of firewood, would be lit late at night, producing a mesmerizing spectacle. In 1995, he was one of 18 artists who created a miniature golf hole for Strokes of Genius and in 2007, one of 12 artists that created sites for model trains called Trainscapes, both at the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park in Lincoln, MA.
George leaves behind a monumental catalog of public and private work. George's commissions resemble a three-dimensional story book, colorful, simple to understand and crafted for the everyman. Sometimes mechanical, powered by the wind or a machine, sometimes lit internally, each steel sculpture stands as a reflection for its surrounding location. His sculptures of Americana took George across the United States. Alongside his wife and business partner, Beverly, George competed for public art commissions nationwide and won 31. A more complete list can be viewed on the Smithsonian Institution Research Information System (SIRIS) and at http://greenamyer.com.
Much like his approach to life, George imbued his art with sly humor. After researching the location with the help of the public art committee, he would tease out unique stories. For all of his kinetic works, he teamed up with a very skilled mechanical engineer to plan out the sculpture. George would also hire the most skilled MassArt graduates to assist in the metal fabrication shop alongside him. George would forge the figures and any other items that needed shaping, which were a highlight of most of his sculptures.
Locally, some of his early sculptures can be seen at the Art Complex Museum in Duxbury, the deCordova Museum and Sculpture Park in Lincoln, Boston University at 121 Bay State Road, and the Fuller Museum of Crafts in Brockton. Commissions won through public art competitions can be seen at the Ventress Library in Marshfield, East Cambridge Parking Facility, along the rails at the MBTA Back Bay station in Boston, North Shore Community College in Lynn, and in Roslindale Center in Boston.
His wind-driven, kinetic sculpture entitled "All Things Belong to God," can be viewed at MassArt on the Huntington Avenue plaza. It's one of George's pieces that depict the artist as God.
After retiring from MassArt, George volunteered to help preserve the Mayflower ship in Plymouth. In 2013, he stopped participating in public art competitions in order to spend all his time focused on his unfettered, "personal" sculptures. There are a total of 16 sculptures (12 of them wind-activated), dating from the 1970's to 2023 installed at the property in Marshfield. Nick Capasso, Director of the Fitchburg Art Museum, defined George's later work as "Protest Art."
"These sculptures are where I get my chance to voice my strongly held views about the American society's ills, be they religious, political or cultural. This work often has a moralistic message and I am not afraid of preaching or offending others," George said. "I like it punchy, rough and not vague."