William Pettit -Painter, Poet, Humble Lover of Food & Music

William Pettit first contacted me in 2006. I love that gmail archives all my conversations. Our communications revealed we had quite a lot on common. We are both native to Philadelphia, we're alumns of Tyler School of Art there's our love of Italy and of course, MEAT. While one can relate to how he isolates his subjects to focus on the abstraction within representation, his work takes on a richness that seems clearly linked to his admitted "looking at renaissance style still-lives ".

Here's some of his earlier works from around that time:

As we've maintained contact through the years I've watched William's paintings of meat cross-connect to his other bodies of work, no pun intended, as abstraction has merged with his meat.
These are from the fall of 2008:

Poured hearts. 20 x 30 cm each, oil on canvas. (layered, liquid)

CELESTIAL BODIES. Paintings 2008

"I dream the Body Cosmic,
From Muscle and Bone to Tissue and Liquid. Structure dissolves, like an Ortolan’s.
From Earthly Subsistence to Biological Decomposition and Spiritual Transformation. A Zero in Limbo.
From the Storm the Chaos the Eruption which, ordered, Formed life. Structure returns, like Ice’s.
Of Celestial and Terrestrial Bodies, Space & Transcendence.
COSMOS. Ghosts of Infinity." -Bill

5 x 7cm (about 2 x 3 ") each, oil on stretched canvas. (micro stained smears).

below is from a series - Celestial Bodies, Part II. The Eight Planets Mon Sep 15, 2008

As a father, painter, teacher, poet and song writer, he keeps pretty busy obviously. You can find some of William's other work online as well as his art work.

* here's a link to his work featured on the great site: EAT ME DAILY.