• Black Firewood
  • The Architect
  • Hiros Woman
  • Cold Flame
  • Blue Stool
  • Marigolds
  • Temple Window
  • Yoni 1
  • Rainbowl
  • Double Butt
  • 3 Mountains
  • Blue Mountains
  • Hipster (Blue)
  • Firewood
  • Green Post
  • Red Woman
  • Red Horizon
  • Red Venus
  • Doublebutt (Blue)
Black Firewood

Peter Millett

About the Artist

PETER MILLETT
Artist Statement

At some point, as I work with these shapes, they begin to speak to me. I only have to listen and they will tell me what to do.

Growing up in the suburbs of Chicago, with an architect father and a musician mother who produced Community Theater, I was surrounded by artistic activity. There were always sets being constructed or rehearsals going on. I loved the magic of transformation, the suspension of reality and the creation of a totally believable theater world. My artwork was encouraged and through a community art league I began drawing the figure at age 14.

Through my studies at Rhode Island School of Design, I concentrated on the human form. In 1970, I developed a series of metal sculptures using multiple figures. I was interested as much in the space between the figures as the figures themselves. I remember being stimulated by the tribal and ancient art we studied in the art history classes. My eyes were truly opened after graduation when I hitchhiked across North Africa. I had never seen such things. I loved the textiles, the way the people made everything they needed, the intensity of the people, the intensity of their religion, the architecture and especially the mosques.

Not long after settling in Seattle, the figure dropped out of my work. I began exploring a geometric language of shape and space. I made drawings and constructed collages. In 1975, I made a series of floating "water carpet" sculptures of diagonally cut or ripped lumber. The geometric pattern of the repeated shapes floating in the water-patterned ground was fascinating to me. I continued my exploration of geometric abstraction with folded sheet metal and screening. I have made pieces in steel and bronze, but wood is the material I am drawn to the most. I draw constant inspiration from the Native American artwork that is so plentiful in this area. I stand in awe of their mastery and wonder at their lucidity of expression.

My work, though spare, is not minimalist, but rather modern. I seek to distill emotional energy and experiences. I like my work to impact a space the way a melody can trigger a feeling or memory. Non-literal¦non-verbal.