Horsefeathers Cultivates a Community of Artists

Story by Melanie Jones

Cathy Pegues remembers her first gallery show with her cousin, Karen Musgraves. It was on their maternal grandmother’s wall when they were just kids. “She would encourage us to do everything, and then she said, ‘I’m going to display it,’” Cathy recalls. “We had our whole wall when we were very, very young.” Karen adds, “It wasn’t chronicled in The New York Times, or anything, but she was proud of us.”

The pair — now full-fledged artists and owners of Horsefeathers Gallery & Gift Shop — grew up in an artistic family. Their grandfather was a writer, and their mothers, who are sisters, are both artists. “Grandmother probably wouldn’t call herself an artist,” Cathy says. “But she’s the one who inspired us to take something out of nothing and create something to love. We learned a lot from her about how to build, how to construct

Their childhoods were not spent in front of a screen. “I would say we were always expected to not sit there and watch TV,” Karen says. “We either had to get outside and build something or make something or do some creative art.” “I don’t think either one of us ever thought we were artists,” Cathy says. “Everybody just always told us we were good at it, whether we were or not, so we never lacked for confidence.” Karen sees that creative spirit in her immediate family, too. Her husband, Craig, runs a print shop, which requires him to be a graphic artist to design brochures, flyers and more. Her daughters are creative, too. Her youngest, Kelly, wanted to be a fashion designer, but once she got to college, she found a passion for photography, which she now does full time. “She’s got a great eye for that,” Karen says. Her oldest daughter is seven-time-Grammy-winner Kacey Musgraves, a country music star. “Of course, she’s talented in singing and songwriting, but she’s also talented in the visual arts. She’s got a knack for that, too.” Raising families of their own didn’t keep Karen and Cathy from traveling across the country displaying their work at art shows, but that pace took its toll. “That long-distance kind of running was a little tough,” Cathy says. “We decided we’re getting too old for this, so we wanted to be closer to home.”

The pair opened Horsefeathers Gallery & Gift Shop in Mineola in October 2022, and they find tremendous joy in it. They display their own artistic creations and those of other local artists, mainly family and friends. Visitors to the gallery will find everything from paintings done in oils and acrylics to candles, sculptures and fiber art. And Cathy and Karen have tried their hands at all of it. “We never run out of new things we want to.”