Peggy Kohler (MACK)

Water Giver of Life - Wooden Quilt | Acrylic paint on wood panel and canvas 2022

I paint as MACK (an acronym of all my names, Margaret Anne Campbell Kohler, all of which are too long to sign and Peggy has too many loops…so MACK it has been since 2010). You can visit my website at mackartbozeman.com. I paint because I’m obsessed with bright colors and telling stories. I use acrylic paint because it allows you to layer and brighten the paint on top of that layering (and it dries quickly, good for balancing a family and career). It also allows exquisite attention to detail, which I’m obsessed with (visible in the wooden quilt). Most of my subjects when I paint are dancing people with a story to tell and tend to be very “Folk Art” in nature (visit the website). I grew up in South Central Alaska, but for many years in the Bristol Bay area we lived in the Yup’ik Alaskan village of Koliganek (100 people). Hence, my art borrows quite a lot from Alaskan and Western cultures. I’ve lived in Alaska, Montana, Ohio and Germany…all of which contribute mightily to the “Folk Art” that has become my painting language. My “Quilt” consists of wood and canvas panels of different depths and my hand-made frames attached to the board panel. I wanted a 3D effect. This is literally a “Wooden Quilt”. Vibrant colors and a universal message of the power of water on earth. This allows me to live out my passion for quilts, though not so cozy on a bed, it will endure forever with its bright colors (unlike quilts that fade and weaken over time). Each of the images in the small paintings attached to the quilt are in the shape of a snowflake. This quilt is about water, the ultimate giver of life. The snowflake imaging throughout is a commentary on climate change. If we lose even one of those “snowflakes”, we change our course on this beautiful and fragile planet!

Peggy is a staff member with the James Care for Life.