John Peterson was born in Massachusetts and moved west to California in his late teens, where he attended the Art Institute of Southern California for Under-Grade studies and Claremont Graduate School of Art for MFA studies.
Always fascinated by the chaos caused by decay, Petersons early work focused on collage and creating less than perfect surfaces. Utilizing mixed media and found materials, he created impermanent pieces as a way to highlight the beauty of how all things decay and transform with time and exposure.
Petersons current body of work explores a similar theme, however they deal more directly with the impact of the loss of family and friends over the course of his lifetime. Embracing the primitive iconography and system of beliefs inherent in his Scandinavian Heritage, he depicts the deer and elk as a mode of communication, wisdom and knowledge passed between the currently inhabited world and that of where we go once we pass from this world.
Creating new “Visual Myths” is important to his work as the artist believes that far too often “we ignore the idea that there is magic in the world we live in, because contemporary values tell us to believe in such things isn’t enlightened, or in alignment with “Western Christian” values”.
John is most proud of the time he has been afforded to raise his adopted son and grateful for the love and perspective that fatherhood has afforded him.