Hawaiian Art | Island Art - Hawaiian Artists Showcase

Peggy Chun is known in Hawaii for her beautiful and often whimsical artwork. Her work can be found in both private and corporate collections across the globe. This watercolor artist, now fully paralyzed by ALS, or Lou Gehrig's Disease, captures the "spirit of aloha" in her paintings and thrives on sharing her love of the islands (and life!) with the world. These days, with only her eye movement unaffected by the disease, Peggy now paints digitally with the help of a computer. She is, after all, the Unstoppable Peggy Chun!

Born in Lawton, Oklahoma, Peggy has been a resident of Hawaii since 1969. Throughout her career, Peggy has worked primarily in watercolor, but has also explored a variety of media over the years, including acrylic, oil, pastel, photography, and collage. At the start of her painting career, Peggy studied under the guidance of well-known Honolulu artist, Gloria Foss. She continued her art education at the Honolulu Academy of Arts. Peggy has been an active member of the Hawaii Watercolor Society and has enjoyed teaching countless painting classes over the years.

In 2002, Peggy was diagnosed with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease; the same disease that took her twin sister, Bobbie, their mother, and grandfather. Bobbie, who passed away in 1987, was a well-established artist herself and was the inspiration for Peggy to pick up her first paintbrush in 1989. She has been creating ever since.

Currently, there is no known cure for ALS. But this debilitating motor neuron disease has yet to slow Peggy down. Peggy does not allow ALS to slow her creativity. In 2003 she lost use of her right hand. She simply painted with her left. In 2004 a weakened left hand sent the paintbrush to Peggy's teeth.

Now that Peggy is totally paralyzed except for her eye movement, she communicates and digitally paints with a computer system called ERICA from Eye Response Technologies. This system has given her a renewed sense of independence as well as the most important thing for an artist - creative expression! "After all," she says, "you don't paint with your hands, you paint with your heart."