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."
