G. Alan Wright was born in Seattle, Washington on March 31, 1927 and died at the age of 55 in Seattle on October 23, 1982.

In late 1944, at the age of 17, Alan volunteered for the U.S. Marine Corps. He was stationed in Hawaii and deployed to the Philippines where he was shot in the leg. He spent months in a military hospital in Honolulu recovering from his wound and malaria. There he met his first wife Irene, who was also a Marine. After the war they married in 1946 and purchased a small waterfront property on Haleiwa Beach near Honolulu.

As Alan had a deep love for the arts he enrolled in the Honolulu Fine Arts Academy where he studied painting and serigraphy under the tutelage of Willson Stamper and Ralston Crawford. During this time Alan built a modest house with studio on his beach property and lived there with his wife until they returned to the Seattle area in 1950.

Since nature was an important source of his artistic inspiration, Alan and Irene moved to Preston, Washington to live in the country. There he created a large number of his sculptures. His early pieces were done in stone; later bronze (lost wax method) became his preferred creative medium. He created many small sculptures best described in an article written by Alfred Frankenstein of the San Francisco Chronicle on April 6, 1967:“Wright is a distinguished virtuoso in most of his work, the shapes of animals and birds beautifully simplified, with a fine instinct for the essential, characteristic gesture of each creation.”

In 1962 Alan was commissioned by D.E. Skinner to create a sculpture for the Seattle World’s Fair. The result of that commission is the ‘Great Gull’ a 450 pound welded bronze albatross set in the fountain at the Pacific Science Pavilion of the Seattle Science Center. While living in Renton he served on the Renton Mayor’s Art Commission from 1962 to 1965.

In 1964, after an illness his wife Irene passed away. They had been married for 18 years. In 1969 Alan met and married Gunhild Raben, a graphic artist from Germany. In 1973 they became the proud parents of twin boys, Warren Harvey and Kevin Raben. Gunhild Wright and both sons currently reside in the Seattle area.

Alan was a nationally known artist and sculptor. His work was displayed in numerous museums, galleries and art shows all over the United States. His sculptures are in a number of public buildings and many private collections. His animals and birds and beautifully simplified. His style is unforgettable, as he sets out to reduce the personality of each of his creations to its essence.