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Our Sculptors |  | With thanks to Abaco Life, Winter 2005-2006....Perry Petry lives aboard a 40' Bristol sailboat, the Shambhala, which he shares with an orange tabby named Mama Cat. Their anchor is dropped in Hope Town Harbour. Each day he rides his Whaler to a small one room studio in Fry's Mangrove, a cove tucked into the west side of the cay, just south of the lighthouse. A permanent resident of the Bahamas for over 30 years, he was raised in Venezuela, Canada and Holland before his parents settled in the Bahamas when he was in his mid teens. Eight years ago he arrived in Hope Town and met Russ Irvin, a long-time resident sculptor who owned a waterfront home and studio there. Perry had always dreamed of one day becoming a sculptor himself, and while he had worked with acrylic paints in his teens, he had no experience with sculpting. When he showed reat interest, Russ agreed to teach him the basics. Following a brief introduction to Russ's chainsaws, handsaws, cutters and chiseling tools, Perry's sculpting career was born, and from then on, the art came so naturally he found he could teach himself. | |||||||
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Perry, a practicing Buddhist who meditates daily, attributes his natural abilities for sculpting to spirituality. "The work comes through me, as if I am channeling from God. I can go on and on for hours and lose track of all time. Eventually, when I start feeling dizzy, I know that I need to stop and eat something." Perry gathers his wood from various sources around the island. Every two to three months, or depending on need, he will set aside a day to scour creeks and beaches for wood from the dead trees of mahogany, buttonwood, red mangrove, casuarina, torchwood and any other hardwood that he finds that could be chiseled into a sculpture. He prefers not to kill living trees to use as material, but will on rare occasions break branches from a live tree. He also obtains wood from residents on the island who tell him of fallen trees, pilings or even foundation posts from old houses that might be used for sculpting. Inspiration for Perry's sculptures comes from a variety of sources, most notably his own interacting with nature. His daily commute out of the harbour and through part of the Sea of Abaco provides many surprise encounters that he portrays through sculpture, including eagle rays jumping and manta rays swimming above a shallow reef. When he is not sculpting, Perry can be found sitting at Cap'n Jack's, sipping a Stoli on the rocks or smoking a Marlboro. | |||||||||
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