Renasant Art Show Features Work By Yalobusha Native
Cathy Vaughn
Renasant Art Show Features Work By Yalobusha Native
Art work by Yalobusha native Cathy Rowsey Vaughn is on display at Renasant Bank as the latest rotating show highlighting local talent.
Born in Water Valley, Vaughn grew up and lived in Coffeeville for 26 years. As a child, she recalls her mom would buy her and her siblings coloring books to keep her “entertained” for hours.
“I loved to color as a child growing up. and continued to enjoy coloring as I became an adult,” Vaughn said. When she moved to Grenada in 1990, working and attending Holmes Community College, she enjoyed coloring to relieve her of stress from school studies.
In 1992, she transferred from Holmes to Ole Miss to continue her education and took some art classes in pencil drawing and working with charcoal. In 1997, Vaughn graduated from Delta State University, with a bachelor’s degree in social science with emphasis in geography.
“The reason I switched my major from education to geography was that I loved being outdoors and enjoying God’s wonderful Art work!” Vaughn added. She also took a photography class while attending Delta State, to learn how to capture God’s “amazing” photos.
In 2008, after teaching school for 10 years, she married Clay Vaughn and moved to Flowood in Rankin County.
While living in Flowood, she took a Bob Ross Class (famous painter on PBS-ETV Station). Her instructor’s name was Colleen and she took her class for two years. Later she took another art class in Pearl. Her instructor, Diane, helped her get to where she is today.
“In some of my paintings I have combined Colleen’s and Diane’s knowledge and painted some unique pictures,” Vaughn explained.
Today, she uses her geography degree, her camera, and the knowledge gained from instructors to take pictures that capture her eye as she travels all over Mississippi and other states. “Some of the photos I take with my camera are challenging to paint. In the end, as I stand back from my easel and look at the view I’ve just painted on canvas, I tell myself that it was well worth it,” Vaughn added.
(Editor’s note: Cathy Vaughn’s parents and brother (Billy, Betty and Bill Rowsey) live in Coffeeville and her sister, Sheila (Rowsey) Schmitz lives in Water Valley. My father-in-law, R.C. (Hal) Vaughn, lives in Coffeeville, and her mother-in-law was the late Gloria Vaughn.)
