KEARNEY COUPLE FINDS INSPIRATION IN ART, EACH OTHER
Photo from MarthaPettigrew.com Martha Pettigrew with Clydesdale Bust. By Sharron Hollen The North Platte Telegraph		NORTH PLATTE, NE - Had it not been for hardship and hard times, Martha Pettigrew might never have claimed her place in the art world. Had it not been for those same setbacks in Del Pettigrew's life he might never have realized the artist within himself. Martha and Del Pettigrew, Kearney, are exhibiting their sculptures at the Nebraskaland Days Governor's Western and Wildlife Art Show on display today and Sunday at the Quality Inn and Suites.
The show, featuring the work of 30 professional artists, is open free to the public from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m. today and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. When Martha and Del were married in 1978 the plan they had for their lives was to raise and train thoroughbred racehorses. For 12 years they did just that. Then the bottom fell out of both the agricultural economy and the Pettigrews' ag-related business. When all was said and done the Pettigrews had $37 in their pockets. Climbing into their old pick-up the couple set out for Colorado with one of their few remaining possessions - a sculpture of a racehorse that Martha had done. Their destination was a Colorado foundry where they finagled a 30-day payment waiver to have the sculpture cast in bronze.

"I'm a darned good salesman and we were just naive enough to think maybe we could make our way on Martha's art," said Del. He contacted people he knew in racing and sold two of the bronzes plus a commissioned piece.

"I called Martha and told her she was a professional artist," says Del with a laugh. The couple lived near Lincoln at that time.

From the beginning it had been Del's intention to be his wife's promoter and to help with the sometimes heavy, manual labor that's involved in sculpting.

Martha, who had a degree in fine arts, for many years had set aside her art for the sake of raising a family. Del, who had always had an interest in art and who had, since childhood, shown a talent for it, had also set that aspect of himself aside. The two agree that probably always, in the back of their minds, they thought that someday they would bring it to the forefront.

Operating on a shoestring budget and with Del as the promoter and Martha as the artist, the duo began attending art shows. The first year they sold six or eight pieces of Martha's work.

"We squeaked by on peanut butter sandwiches and slept in the van at shows,'' recalls Martha. "When sales got a little better we'd spring for a Motel 6 when we went to a major show."

It was in one of those motel rooms, as Martha was working on a new piece, that Del picked up the clay and began making his own sculpture.

"I turned and saw what he had done. It was really good," Martha recalls.

There is no similarity in the art created by Martha Pettigrew and the art created by Del Pettigrew.

'That's why we work so well together. Neither of us could do what the other does," Martha said.

Martha's work has a sense of abstraction and simplicity that almost always portrays women engaged in everyday tasks.

"They have a sense of pride, dignity and serenity and are intended to evoke an emotional attachment with the viewer," Martha said.

Del's work, on the other hand, is drawn from animals and wildlife as he sees them in their surroundings and then expresses that sight in an impressionistic manner.

"They are done in an unfettered surface texture rather than being models of meticulous manipulation of the clay," says Del.

The Pettigrews acknowledge that as artists they are currently "making a pretty good living" and one that is a far cry from their "starvation status" beginnings; that the 92 pieces they recently sold at a single one-day show far outdistance those half-dozen pieces sold the first year.

They do, though, clearly recall the hardships that brought them to this point.

"To show emotion in art, to really make a commitment to your art, you have to experience some difficulties," says Martha.

The Pettigrews, Martha and Del, smile at one another.

"An artist is always unemployed until his next sale," says Del.