The 2013 4 Bridges Patron Pin

Peggy Petrey, Artist

The 2013 4 Bridges Art Festival™ patron pin is designed by Chattanooga resident Peggy Petrey. Her art is driven by color and texture in creating jewelry and mixed media art which for this year was polished and fashioned into a piece of jewelry that can be worn as a pin or a pendant.

Artist Statement:

Texture color and story fascinate me most; when these three come together, they become the fertile ground of my imagination. This is where I leap into the miracle of creation, adding elements throughout the process that feed the narration of a great adventure.

I employ the same techniques in creating my mixed-media work as my wearable art; utilizing various processes. I build in layers then remove them in ways that reveal something unexpected, even to me.

My abstract jewelry begins as a discarded license plate. After preparing its surface, I layer on painted colors; once the layers are built, the fun begins. Exposing rough segments of each layer, an abstract painting emerges. Through cutting and shaping, I give the metal new life as a cuff, a necklace or a pair of earrings.

In my mixed media, I look closely for the story of each piece; it is revealed in poignant words and yesterday’s pictures.  As it becomes itself, each piece reveals the relationships we have with ourselves and each other.  When my mixed media work is assembled as a group, I find that it surprises me like a gathering of old friends; each with it’s own personality and embellished with objects discovered over the years.

As the artist, I have a connection with each piece and the person who will one day possess it. I never assume I am complete; this is also true for each of my pieces, be they abstract, wearable art or mixed media, they engage both the past and the future as they find their way into what they will become…and who will choose them.