I was born in Tampa, Florida, the middle child, to Bernard and Beth Pelletier. My father is a ferrier, as well as a blacksmith, and my mother is a nurse anesthetist. I grew up going from farm to farm, watching my dad shoe horses. On the weekends, my family would pack into a camper trailer and drive down to Lake Whales, where my father would enter bird dog hunting competitions. Those weekends were spent swimming in alligator filled ponds, riding ATVs, and looking for shade where my brothers and I could find it. I have a song, “Alligator Waltz,” that tells the story of the time my dad killed an alligator on one of those hunting trips.

Family photo courtesy of Luke Pelletier. Alligator caught courtesy of Dad.

I moved to western North Carolina when I was 7 years old. Not being from the continental South, I found myself feeling like an outsider. During the long Appalachian summers of my childhood, I found myself running around with a ragtag group of friends, skateboarding, playing in punk bands, throwing house shows, going swimming in the forest, chasing girls, getting into fights, making art, and longing for something bigger and stranger than the small town I felt stuck in. I was expelled from school 2 weeks into my freshman year for spray painting penises all over the high school with my brother and two other friends. My stint in “alternative school” only cemented my feeling of being an outsider.

I set off for the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2011. It was there that I studied under Karl Wirsum and Alexander Valentine. I developed a deep appreciation for the Chicago Imagists and their approach to making art. I primarily made paintings, but hung out in the print department because I liked the conversations around distributing art in an accessible way. While I was in school, I wrote and recorded 7 albums, changing my band name with each project, trying on different hats. I graduated from SAIC in 2015.

I moved to Los Angeles right after art school. I always wanted to live out here. I have a tune on my new record called “I Dreamed of Los Angeles” and piles of other tunes that reference the city. Early in my time here, I started dating the painter, Kristen Liu-Wong. We’ve made piles of paintings together and had big impacts on each other’s art. I came out here with a punk band. We played one show at the Viper Room and broke up. The art thing really clicked out here. I’ve traveled the world exhibiting my art. I’ve shown my paintings, sculptures, and photographs in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, New Orleans, Boston, Korea, Paris, Italy, and Germany. At some point in all the madness, Kristen married me. We were married by our friend and fellow artist, Rachel O’Donnell, dressed as a latex nun dominatrix.

In 2021, I started “Back in the Garage,” with my brother, Tristan Pelletier. The project is a video session channel that has grown into live showcases and a thriving community. From this session channel, Soggy Anvil Records was born, a Los Angeles based record label that supports visionary singer songwriters. As of late, I’ve been playing in a string band with Gilbert Louie Ray, Bill Lupton, and Patrick Torrez. In all my art, I weave personal anecdotes with fiction as I make paintings and write songs about drinking, love, crime, drugs, ambition, art, and mania. 

Luke and friends, Left-to-Right: Patrick Torrez, Bill Lupton, Gilbert Louie Ray