ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Kevin “Chopper” Peshkepia was born and raised in Detroit Michigan.  
He is a first-generation American; product of an Albanian father and an American mother of German-Irish descent.  Chopper attended the 
University Of Michigan.  He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 
English Literature in 1991.

A competitive swimmer from the age of 7, Chopper earned his nickname 
from the lifeguards at the local pool who teased him about his swimming 
stroke.

Like most children, Chopper started drawing at an early age and soon developed an appreciable passion for it.  His visual arts were distracted
by the sonic arts with the onset of puberty when he formed his first rock
band.  Chopper worked and lived for the next 20 years as a full and 
part-time musician. 

To supplement his income during this time, Chopper worked as a soda 
jerk, baker, marketing executive, disc-jockey, fast-food restaurant 
manager, voice-over artist and repo man.

In 2005 he left the music business and returned to the visual arts after successful cataract surgery - - “It’s a romantic notion to want to be Ray Charles or Stevie Wonder until you actually start going blind.  I’d rather be Van Gogh.  I can live with half an ear.”

Today Chopper works as a full-time artist and lives in Silver Spring, 
Maryland with his wife Shannon and their two Jack Russell Terriers.

PAUL Z E L L (1913-1973)

Paul Zell was my maternal grandfather. Grandpa Zell  was the Art Director for Michigan Bell for a number of years up until his death in 1973.
These two paintings - a self-portrait and a Michigan lake scene are two of  a small number of his works still in our family's possession.