Pat Pettit

Pat Pettit

I have always loved to make things. There is nothing so satisfying to me as taking raw materials and giving them form. So after a long career as a builder of custom furniture, it felt very natural to make the leap into creating art.

My earliest pieces were made mostly of wood and found objects, but my fascination with the possibilities of corrugated cardboard has since led me to explore paper and cardboard in all their forms and varieties, with a particular focus on discarded packaging and shipping materials.

I love to salvage and re-purpose things that other people throw away, accumulating bits of this and that until I discover what it wants to be. I often let whatever is in front of me suggest the piece, rather than starting out with a fixed idea. Form, shape and texture are what spark my imagination. A pile of wood scraps might remind me of rock strata or a city skyline, and the infinite malleability of cardboard and paper means that I can play and invent and transform as far as my mind can take me.