Peter Pettus was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1935. He was graduated from Princeton University, Summa Cum Laude, in 1957. He served in the 66th Counter Intelligence Corps (US Army) in Nürnberg, Germany, and spent three years as a Foreign Service Officer in the US State Department, 1960–63. From 1959 to 1990, Pettus worked in three distinct mediums: photography, pottery and painting. His book, Continental Drift, is a bound retrospective of most of that work. Currently residing in New York City and Sharon, Connecticut, Pettus writes extensively on science and art for various publications, including The New York Sun.

“Always the contrarian, Peter has systematically rejected a “careerist” path in favor of one which has focused almost entirely on the work itself, not the “successful” marketing of it. Instead of pursuing the refinement of a single concept in order to establish a signature style, he allowed himself to abruptly switch gears when a new area of inquiry opened up before him. This approach invites a rigorous effort to understand not only form, or idea, but also the meaning of the effort itself.”

Sally Pettus