The inspiration for Tennessee artist John Petrey’s Dress Series of sculpture is rooted in his childhood experience.
“I was raised as an only child in Southern California. My mom ran a beauty salon. After school, I would walk to the salon and watch a lot of TV until it was time to go home,” explains Petrey. “I tuned in to a make-believe world portraying perfect people, in perfect families, living in a perfect society–Ozzie and Harriet, Father Knows Best, Leave it to Beaver, and I Love Lucy. It didn’t matter what problem they had, it was solved in 30 minutes. There we were in the ’60s, the Vietnam War was going on, the drug culture was growing–but on TV, everything was perfect.
“In those shows,” the artist adds, “the women appeared perfect, always dressed to the nines, very pressed, and of course wearing pearls as they prepared breakfast. The Dress Series personifies the woman of that era.”