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Peggy Koop attended 12 schools before she graduated from high school.
As one of six children in a military family, she was a world traveler
by the time she was 17. She is thankful for this childhood because
of the opportunities it gave her to meet and make friendships with
people with divergent world views.
Major influences: Peggy’s mother, an artist and a school teacher,
introduced her to art, not only the visual arts, but the performing
arts as well. Fine craftsmanship and skill with your hands were
highly valued, and handmade gifts were prized. Peggy said her mother
taught her how to be adventurous. She said her father had a poetic
heart and was an English major in college, which she always thought
odd for someone who spent 23 years in the military. She learned
though that it became his career because of circumstances rather
than choice when he sacrificed his scholarship to graduate school
to study Chaucer and enlisted in the Army during World War II. After
the war, more children began arriving, and he had plenty of mouths
to feed, so his military service turned into a career. Peggy said
she got her love of poetry and reading from him. He gave her the
gift of patience.
So, what has this got to do with her work? Everything. She attended
college to major in art, switched to English, and spent 30 years
as a writer. She never gave up her love of the visual arts, particularly
drawing and sculpture. Over the past decade, she revisited them
to find a completely different approach with the combination of
design and textural sculpture on cloth. She continues to seek the
universal in her work, which brings to play the early lessons of
childhood. However, she is patient that the adventure is a slow
unfolding that cannot be rushed. |
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