George Lorio was born in New Orleans and raised there through his teenage years; the city framed his vision of life.  To him it was, and continues to be, a place of extremes: beauty and decay, religion and ritual, custom and iconoclasm. From that experience he acquired an excitement for visual matters, colors, forms and even artifacts.  His family moved to Florida with his father’s job transfer in his late adolescence.  With that transition, Lorio's visual appetite expanded to the sensuous verdure of the semi-tropical landscape.  Natural motifs became more interesting to him. He made his art as he reflected on his experience using a metaphor of motifs derived from his surroundings.

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"My sculptures subtly arouse concern with visual prods into contemporary issues. I use a narrative of social engagement to generate discussion with my constructions. Current images comment on ecological destruction and view of renewal. My sculptures contemplate nature’s provision of trees as they are the source for human shelter, oxygen, and avian refuge. Like human skin, bark conforms to a tree. Like skin, tree bark heals with scars. The end grain of logs notes the distortions in the growth rings resulting from injury-a callus. It is similar to the swelling around a cut in human flesh. The primary surface of the sculptures is fallen branches and twigs. They are fragments of trees and are ephemeral. Constructing a sculpture alluding to a living tree with these vestigial pieces, relics, is a form of incantation: a poetic activity. energy that flourishes among all particles without judgement. Vigorous color and pattern is a driving force for exploring the dynamic negative and positive space that even connects the viewer to the work."