Prior to a few months ago I had not seen George Simon in quite as few years. We had not spoken at length with each other for an even longer period… probably fifteen years or so.
I had first met George during the 1980s (the exact year escapes me now) in London. He had travelled from Guyana as part of a group of Guyanese artists to do an exhibition of their various works in London. I remember little of George’s works from those days and only came to be aware of how important an artist he was several years later.
From an artistic standpoint what impressed me most about that travelling group of artists were the little balata life-like figures turned out by George Tancredo, one of the group.