Peggy Kondo: A Life in the Making

Celebrating the life and work of Peggy Kondo (1936–2018)

February 6–March 8, 2026
Opening Reception: Friday, February 6, 6-8pm

Peggy Kondo with her husband and collaborator, ceramic artist larry Richmond

Peggy Kondo (née Tanihara) was born in 1936 on a small farm outside of Sacramento, California. At the age of four, she and her family—who were of Japanese descent—were subject to the United States’ policy of Japanese–American internment. Kondo and her family were forcibly relocated to a series of concentration camps in Arkansas, Utah and California. Despite the many hardships of this period, the experience of internment was artistically formative for Peggy. Camp officials separated her from her immediate family, and she roomed with her grandmother, who taught her how to weave. This skill would later become Peggy’s livelihood and lead to a lifetime of creative fulfillment.
At age eight, Peggy was able to return home and resume her schooling in Sacramento. When recounting her childhood, she would sometimes  share that the years after she returned from the camps were paradoxically the hardest ones. Whereas the years of internment with her grandmother felt almost like summer camp to Peggy as a child, she endured a level of prejudice and harassment as a Japanese-American after the war that made daily life a struggle.
Back in Sacramento, Peggy finished high school and then moved to Los Angeles in 1956. She had received a scholarship to study at the Chouinard Art Institute (later California Institute of the Arts, or CalArts) where she studied with renowned painter Wayne Thiebaud, who greatly influenced her sense of  color. While in Los Angeles, Peggy also met and married her first husband, Douglas Kondo, in 1957. The couple had three daughters. Douglas was an engineer, and the family was somewhat itinerant as they moved from project to project for his work.
Peggy’s marriage ended in 1980 and she moved to the Semi Valley north of Los Angeles. Now a single mother, Peggy supported her family by selling one-of-a-kind woven garments. Many of Peggy’s clients would drive up to her studio from Los Angeles; some were Hollywood actresses, most notably Shirley Maclaine. Peggy worked as a weaver for thirty productive years. Unfortunately, however, when three decades of working took a toll on her shoulder,  she had to step away from the loom. It was then that she turned to making colored-pencil drawings, pillows, dolls, and punch-needle works.
In 2000, Peggy moved back to Sacramento and joined an artist cooperative in nearby Davis, California, where she met her second husband: ceramic artist Larry Richmond. She moved to Willow Creek, California to live with Richmond, who was teaching ceramics at College of the Redwoods as well as on the nearby Hoopa Reservation. It was on the reservation that Kondo first took a class in basketry, which subsequently became an important part of her practice. She and Richmond also began collaborating almost immediately. Richmond would create ceramic objects and vessels to which Peggy would apply her punch needle and woven works; they would conceive of the objects they wanted to make in dialogue.
In 2003, the couple moved to Bellingham to be close to Kondo’s daughter, Denise. Though Bellingham was their home, the pair travelled everywhere together. They criss-crossed the United States countless times en route to craft shows, they travelled to Guatemala, Puerto Rico, Mexico and Peru, where they explored the local fiber arts traditions, and they even went as far afield as New Zealand. As much as they loved travelling, however, Peggy and Larry mostly just loved being together: making art at home in their neighboring studios, collaborating and just going to the grocery store. Despite everything she had been through in her life, Peggy’s sense of humor was unbeatable. It is present in her artworks to this day.
In 2017, Kondo displayed her work for the first time at the Smithsonian Craft Show. After this momentous event in her career, Richmond and Kondo returned home to Bellingham and life in the studio resumed as usual. A year or so later, however, and without any indication of ill-health, Kondo passed away suddenly. The unexpected nature of her passing in 2018 made the task of mourning her loss even more difficult for the many loved ones who survive her and who still miss her dearly. Fortunately, Kondo left her community with a lifetime’s worth of beautiful, astonishing and humorous artworks that we are honored to share with you in celebration of her memory.