How do I start my paintings? It depends; but usually I begin by making marks or writing in a white canvas or splashing pigment and color very fluidly in the blank space. I also love to paint outside, like literally outside, with my canvas on the ground and touching the grass. I'm not a fancy painter as you can see.

I loose myself in the moment, I move my hands without constriction and just let go of the paint. Movement and energy is a very important part in my process. My expectations are always low, because is not about what I will do to the painting, but what the painting will make me do next.

This kind of relationship with the painting and the exposure to the nature elements, like wind and sun, and even dirt and grass, it's what I love the must about the process. At the end, the result is just a bunch of uncertain emotions that guided me to see beyond the materials I used.

I'm currently painting and exploring for an upcoming show in May, and will give you more details very soon. For now, just remeber to be free!!!

I recently visit to the Maitland Art Center Gallery and discover the espectacular work of John Petrey. John is a sculpture from Chattanooga, he says "I'm constantly re-formulating the process of my creative thinking. I'll observe something that strikes a chord with me, tuck it away in my mind, and later it becomes an inspiration to me. As a result, my art can be lighthearted and whimsical or deeply symbolic." His serie The Dresses is simply spectacular.

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.”

Varying in size and scale from table-top pieces to life-size, the dresses are constructed of vastly varying and intriguing combinations of largely found materials–bottle caps, poker chips, playing cards, old siding and barn wood, roof tiles, old metal gas station signs and letters, yardsticks, twigs, aluminum flashing, vintage pressed tin ceiling tiles, and even brightly-colored plastic eating utensils.

“I love the unexpectedness of these materials and being able to manipulate them into something they weren’t originally meant for,” explains Petrey. “The combination of textures, colors, and substance allows me to create a nostalgic look on many levels.”

This exhibition will be in The Maitland Art Center Gallery until December 31.

Categories

The process of the Unknown

The Magic of John Petrey