A contemporary figurative artist, Cathy Hegman is the winner in Visual Arts for her show “Pandemic Perceptions.” Originally from Yazoo City, Mississippi, she lives in Holly Bluff and has two full-time studios there.
“My art is my life both literally and physically,” she says. About her enigmatic figures, she says she has “a penchant for the unknown, the parts of life and painting that simply refuse to be defined.”
Hegman started painting in 1984 while pursuing a BA degree in Interior Design from Mississippi State University. Her paintings have been included in numerous exhibitions, both national and international, and she has had solo exhibitions in a long list of galleries and museums. She presently serves as Vice President of the Mississippi Art Colony. She is a member of several art societies including the Mississippi Watercolor Society. She is the first Mississippi native to receive a Gold Medal from the American Watercolor Society. She is represented in galleries around the world and can be found locally at Fischer Gallery in Jackson, Mississippi.
“Cathy Hegman is from this land, the Mississippi Delta, and her works are stories in paint,” said one reviewer. Her figures often include dogs or other animals, revealing an early interest in becoming a veterinarian and living on a farm. Background landscapes to foreground figures are inspired by her life spent in Mississippi. “Mississippi affects me more than I even know,” she says.