George Flett

Painter/Ledger Artist
American, (1946-2013)

Biography

George Flett is one of the most prolific Indian artists in the Pacific Northwest. He has shown and won awards at notable venues across the West, including the Santa Fe Indian Market, the Heard Museum in Phoenix, the Montana Indian Market in Billings, the Red Cloud Indian Art Show in Pine Ridge, SD, and the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, WY.  He has also won the Distinguished Artist Award at July-amsh in Post Falls ID and the Arts Community Leadership Award in 2002, awarded by the Spokane Arts Commission.

About Ledger Art

Back before Indian people had access to paper, they told their life stories on elk, buffalo, and deer hides, or through pictographic rock paintings using earth pigments. When Indian people were confined to forts, prisons, or Indian schools, they gained access to ledger papers and inks, crayons, and pencils, so they used these to tell their stories. In pictographic form, they told of various traditions, of their culture, stories from their people, whatever tribe they may be from. Today the new warriors still carry on the traditions of ledger art; depicting the stories they were told. They use new art materials on antique ledger papers, remembering and holding onto the feelings of traditions within their families’ stories.