Estelle Peck Ishigo
Estelle Ishigo (née Peck) was an American artist born in Oakland, California, 15 July 1899. She was the daughter of a concert singer and a portrait and landscape artist. Throughout her childhood, she was surrounded by music and art. At the age of four, she showed promising talent in both painting and singing, and started learning the violin by the time she was twelve. She attended Otis Art Institute, where she met San Franciscan Nisei, Arthur Ishigo; they married in 1928.[1] Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Estelle and Arthur both lost their jobs, and Arthur was subsequently ordered to an internment camp. Estelle decided to follow him and they were both later assigned to Heart Mountain concentration camp in Wyoming. During their time at Heart Mountain, Estelle used her artwork to document their lives. After the war and their release from internment, Arthur and Estelle lived in poverty for many years. Following Arthur's death in 1957, fellow Heart Mountain inmates helped Ishigo republish her 1972 book Lone Heart Mountain.[2] Estelle Ishigo died 25 February 1990 in Los Angeles, California. [3]
