Born in Seattle and raised there and in Japan, George Tsutakawa (1910-1997) was an internationally recognized painter and sculptor best known for his avant-garde fountain designs. Over the course of his career, he created more than 70 fountains for public places around the world. Tsutakawa studied sculpture at the University of Washington, and served in the US Army during World War II. He taught in the art and architecture departments at the University of Washington for 34 years, retiring in 1976.

In this image, Tsutakawa works in his home studio on a Sumi-e painting, a traditional Asian art form using a brush and black ink on paper. For the paintings of lobsters shown here, Tsutakawa used live models.

Caption information source: "Tsutakawa, George (1910-1997): Master of Fountains," by Deloris Tarzan Ament, HistoryLink.org Essay 5426
Caption information also derived from captions written by Post-Intelligencer staff and attached to the back of the photograph