In an effort to pass the time and stay engaged during the pandemic, many have rediscovered hobbies or found new creative outlets over the past year. At Westwood Commons, a DePaul Senior Living Community in North Chili, resident Peggy Aradine has stitched and quilted her way through the past year.
It’s no surprise Peggy is an-all around artist. Raised in Brighton, she was surrounded by the arts. Her father made and sold violins, her mother was a seamstress who taught stenciling and hand painting on furniture and boxes, and her brother was an industrial arts teacher. Peggy began taking art classes at Brighton High School and later went on to attend Geneseo Teachers’ College (now the State University of New York at Geneseo) where she got her bachelor’s degree in elementary special education with a minor in art.
A former fifth and sixth grade schoolteacher in the Churchville schools for 17 years, Peggy taught private and group watercolor and oil painting classes to both adults and youth at her house. She has dabbled in many forms of art in her lifetime, including painting, many of which she’s gifted to family, sold, or displayed in her room. Of all the art forms she has tried, Peggy said she enjoys cross stitch and quilting the most. She has created hundreds of pieces throughout her life, completing four since COVID-19 started.
In addition to being an avid artist, Peggy and her late-husband Hank traveled the world over including Turkey, England, Scotland, South Korea, Alaska, Hawaii, and even took a cruise on the Panama Canal. A proud grandmother of five and great-grandmother of two, Peggy and Hank both worked at the Genesee Country Village and Museum, with Peggy being an interpreter there for 25 years.
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