Peg's News:

2007-10-06

The Watercolor Cat Book Tour!

Peggy is about to go on a local book tour with Shelly Mecum for their wonderful book "The Watercolor Cat". Peggy has her FIRST book signing (or book stamping in Peggy's case) at Barnes and Nobles this coming Monday, October 8th from 2 to 5pm at Ala Moana. Please join us!



The books will be available in bookstores Monday and anyone that lives outside of Hawaii can order the book through Barnes and Noble or Borders Books and Music stores. They make great Christmas presents!!!

For more information please contact us.

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2007-10-04

The Watercolor Cat on KHON2!

>> Link here to view a news clip about "the Watercolor Cat" on KHON!

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2007-07-01

ISLAND ART 2008 - THE PAINTINGS OF PEGGY CHUN!

Island Art feature Peggy's Art in a 11"x11" Deluxe Wall Calendar.

Chlorine-Free / 100% Plantation Pulp Paper
Filmless Printing with Soy Based Inks
Packaged with Cardboard Stiffener and Shrink Wrapped

>> Link here to go to the Island Art Store!




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2007-05-13

Students color Peggy Chun's world - Honolulu Advertiser!

>> Full Article/Pictures: http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2007/May/13/ln/FP705130376.html

Students color Peggy Chun's world

By Lee Cataluna
Advertiser Columnist

Upstairs in a sunny classroom, the kids toil away at work that could easily seem tedious but in their minds, is something close to rapturous.

Lying in a hospital bed in her home, an artist envisions the canvas that she cannot paint, and gives detailed instructions for its creation, though she cannot speak.

An hour or so a week, every week for months, students at Holy Trinity School in East Honolulu have been painting thousands of tiny squares of paper. They're close to 60,000 squares now. They have cut each square from sheets of paper and carefully colored them according to weekly directions.

It is like a master class, though the master has never been to the classroom and the subject being taught varies from art to math to medicine, even religion.

Miles away in her Nu'uanu home, beloved Hawai'i artist Peggy Chun gets updates on the project from Holy Trinity teacher Shelly Mecum.

"Each one is a little masterpiece to her," Mecum says. Though the finished squares vary wildly from one kid's paintbrush to the next, "there are no mistakes."

The squares will be used like tiles in a mosaic. The finished image will be Father Damien, the Catholic priest who devoted his life to serving the Hansen's disease patients in Kalaupapa. It is a piece Chun has wanted to paint for a long time, since before she was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, a disease that gradually took away her motor functioning.

"She's so appreciative," Mecum tells a kindergartner bent over a square, focused so intently on getting the orange right. "You're helping her make a painting."

Chun was diagnosed in 2002 with the disease that took the lives of her mother, grandfather and twin sister. Now, five years after that diagnosis, she is paralyzed except for her eye movement, unable to breathe on her own and tended to by a cadre of paid caregivers and volunteers around the clock. As the ALS progressed, Chun managed to find ways to keep painting, first switching the brush to her left hand when her right hand became affected, then, when that didn't work anymore, holding the paintbrush in her teeth while a caregiver moved her head. Later, when she couldn't control the muscles in her mouth to hold the brush, she'd paint with watercolors dabbed on the tip of her nose. Chun also learned to paint using a computer program that recognized the movement of her eyes. Now that doesn't work, either. She can't close her eyelids anymore, and her eyes get too dry for the computer to read.

So the kids are doing the painting.

Eighth-grader Joshua Aiu lets a kindergartner sit on his lap while he explains the assignment.

"You put the first color on, and then your brush goes in the water, and then the second color."

The instructions on the whiteboard say, "Wet on wet, base color: cadmium yellow lemon. Drop in color: cadmium red light."

The little boy follows Joshua's instructions, and turns his face up to him for approval. The two have the easy closeness of brothers as they paint the squares, sometimes leaning against each other, sometimes jabbing each other in the ribs or letting an errant flick of the brush get a bit of paint on the other, just for fun.

"We're being her hands, helping her reach her dream," Joshua says. kindergartner Julian Lagarde, his little apprentice, has managed to sneak some yellow paint onto his cheek. "It should be everyone's duty to help others reach their dreams."

Chun's familiar watercolor prints of old plantation houses, mangoes and whimsical cows hang in the classroom. A CD of music composed for her by Daniel Ho plays while the children work. The ones who have met her — members of the school choir went to sing for her at her house — tell stories about her.

"She let us fish in the stream in her yard," seventh-grader Ali Calhoun says. "She's so awesome."

"At first, I thought, why isn't she smiling? Isn't she happy to see us?" Ali says. Chun can't smile anymore. "But then I looked in her eyes, and she was smiling inside."

To communicate now, Chun uses a spellboard. She looks at a letter while someone holds the board in front of her. It's almost a guessing game to decipher what she means. "Is it K? Is it L? It's L."

A second person writes down each letter, and everyone in the room helps figure out the sentence. It's grueling work for Chun, but her trademark humor shines through.

"She spelled out, 'Do my laugh,' " Ali recalls, "and then one of her caregivers did the exact impersonation of what her laugh sounded like. 'Ha ha ha ha!' It was so amazing."

Mecum and Chun worked together on a children's book that will be released by Mutual Publishing this fall. Mecum, who authored the popular "God's Photo Album," wrote the text to go along with Chun's paintings, which tell the story of her life through the eyes of her cat. The creative partnership and friendship is what brought the Damien mosaic project to Mecum's class at Holy Trinity. Over the months, all 106 students in the school have painted the little pieces. Mecum takes the finished pieces to Chun's bedside and brings her spellboard instructions back to the kids.

There isn't any sort of external deadline for the finished portrait of Damien. It will be finished when it's finished, and will be displayed where it is called. Like Damien himself, it will represent compassion, endurance and unbending faith. Over the next several months, Chun's friends and caregivers will help to assemble the tiny squares into the mosaic, following a detailed numbered grid that Chun has planned. She will spell out the instructions, letter by letter, and the thousands of pieces will be glued, one by one.

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com

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2007-02-01

Peggy's latest artistic adventure is "Nose Painting"!

Each of Peggy's original nose paintings retail for $300 and up and are available for purchase and commission via The Peggy Chun Art Studio & Gallery. Each painting comes with information about the process, written by Peggy. Here is what she says:

"I am a watercolor artist. I was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) in 2002. When the ALS caused me to lose the use of my dominant hand, I began painting with my left hand in 2003. When my hands
could no longer hold a brush, I painted holding a brush in my teeth in 2004. When my mouth could no longer hold a brush, I painted digitally with a computer that I could control with my eye movement in 2005 and 2006. Now, due to my inability to blink, my eyes are too dry to paint with my computer. But my creativity knows no bounds.

One of the things I miss the most, is the touch and the experience of painting; the sensual nature of the paper and the paint.  So, as the next phase in my artistic evolution, I have begun 'nose painting' with the help of painting assistant.

I work with an assistant who does all the preparation and is fully involved in the painting process. We begin by my choosing a palette for a particular concept.  My assistant sets out the paint in order of the progression of color I think will work together, usually 5 complimentary colors. All of my nose paintings are done 'wet into wet'.

Next we choose from an assortment of 'nose strokes' I have already described in detail and organized on a chart.  This chart eliminates the tedious work of having to spell out directions each time on my communication spell board. To begin, my assistant paints the tip of my nose with the colors I¹ve chosen as the base colors. Next, she picks up the paper and moves it parallel to my nose using the stroke I¹ve chosen.  We continue to use the paints and the strokes in the order I have chosen. Each time I change colors, my assistant has to wipe the paint from my nose and dry it before applying the next color.

Inevitably, while painting I begin to see images emerging that cause me to change my original plan. This is challenging because we have to work fast to keep the paper from drying. I find this to be the most exciting part about painting abstractly. I name my pieces based on what I see and feel, but take great joy in hearing what others discover in my paintings. I hope you enjoy these original nose paintings. I have never felt more
challenged as an artist and am pleased to share this part of my artistic journey with you."

For more information on Peggy's Nose Paintings please contact us.

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2006-11-08

"Altar Show" celebrating the "Day of the Dead" at the Pegge Hopper Gallery

Many of you were curious about the piece that Peggy did recently for the
"Recuerde - Remember" show at the Pegge Hopper Gallery.

This "Altar Show" celebrating the "Day of the Dead" is running now through November 25th
at the Pegge Hopper Gallery at 1164 Nuuanu Avenue. Call 808-524-1160 for more information.

For this show, over 25 artists including Peggy (with the help of the uber-talented Kelly Jones!) have created altars, a Mexican tradition that honors those that have passed and celebrates the continuity of life. This
"Day of the Dead" celebration takes place on the first 2 days of November.

Here is Peggy's description of the finished altar: "LADDER OF LEVITY" a mixed media installation by PEGGY CHUN and Kelly Jones. An Expansion of the Artist Path Towards Collaboration Because of the generosity of my family, countless friends, and many people I may never meet, I am able to continue creating on several levels. This piece, titled "LADDER OF LEVITY", is the result of the effort of many. I am able to type instructions with my eye response computer, designing a concept that has to be communicated only through the written word.  What a challenge for me, the non-stop talker!  I used to teach with enthusiastic gesturing and of course uninterrupted instruction. This new means of translating an image presented me with an almost insurmountable roadblock.  Fortunately, Kelly and my other assistants were able to understand and the adventure began. View the photos at: http://pegslegs.shutterfly.com Enjoy!