Pete was his own Man

Kenny Hunter - Epitaph - September 2018

Pete was his own man - the Art that he brought into the world was original and significant. It will continue to reflect our lived experiences while also aligning itself back to the ancient civilisations that inspired him, to Egypt, to Greece and of course to India. His output as a Sculptor was both intimate and universal - and standing in its presence it makes you aware of your own connection to history, to nature and to other people. Pete’s creed was Art as he believed in its power to transcend language, tradition, dogma and borders. There are many and varied epithets we could use to describe Pete. Sculptor, Painter, Teacher, Student, Father, Lover, Thinker and Mischief Maker - the one that feels like the best match for me is Seeker.

Since his passing I have asked myself why did he first go to India and what was he looking for?  From today’s perspective we can now see it was such a pivotal move in his life - He has described this journey himself as an act of leaving behind or escaping. Did he regard his own culture as too parochial and temporal and so went to India looking for the universal and the timeless? Perhaps that’s an overly romantic assumption as Pete provides us with a more measured and open-ended answer in his own writing for an exhibition at the Glasgow School of Art in 1997. He states that he travelled to India to experience ‘otherness’, to follow unfamiliar trains of thought’ and to learn from a culture that was personally foreign to him. He further described his decision to visit India as an attempt to build or more accurately repair a sense of self.  Happily India gave him what he was looking for, replenishing his reservoir of ideas and catalysing a prolific period of work that saw him return again and again with a different mindset and a renewed self belief.

Pete’s passion for India and the study of Art were undeniably key elements to his identity, but I believe it was the fever of making itself that really sustained and compelled him in life. I know Ursula and Tom and all of his close friends will testify to this – that he lived for studio life, in fact for many years he lived in his studio, he lived for the dirt under his fingernails. He was consumed by the days that flew by like minutes as the sculpture he was working on demanded every thought and every sinew strained, when he was in the midst of those creative periods, when he was onto something, when we hadn’t heard from him for days, weeks – well - happiness doesn’t enter in to it - he was ready to suffer. To be totally engaged – at these times when hand, brain and heart are working as one - a sense of human wholeness becomes tangible - It is this brief and alluring altered state that Artists chase all their lives – knowledge of it allows us to endure.

Writing about his 2001 residency at Hunter College in New York, Pete borrowed this quote from Goethe “The Flower is a leaf mad with love” x 2  If you know Pete - you know this quote describes both him and his work. His unrelenting passion and will drove him to have an exceptional life and he has left behind for us an incredible sculptural legacy infused with positive energy – Pete was vital.

Pete was not one for grand declarations of affection – he expressed his love through action, when he played with his grandchildren, when he cooked a meal for friends, when he came around to tile your kitchen or help you hang a garage door. Pete was authentic, Pete was vital, Pete was a seeker, Pete was his own man.

Kenny Hunter, September 2018