Artistic improvisation has always been my guiding light. Depth of engagement is everything;  whether fleeting or enduring, it allows me to establish genuine connections and create pieces that reflect the authenticity of the bonds I make with my subjects.

 

Making art is as much a physical experience as it is intellectual and creative.  I embrace the idea that there are positive aspects to even the worst things that happen to us. Being legally blind in my left eye was initially a challenge, but it ultimately led me to the unexpected gift of unrestricted vision, both metaphorically and physically.

 

Initially, vision loss motivated me to turn to photography as my medium of choice, but my work has since evolved far beyond that initial inspiration. Blindness served as a crowbar that disassembled my limitations and led me to experience creative impulses that express the complexities of human conditions and emotions in a multitude of media. 

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BIO

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Chehalis Hegner's work was featured in the exhibition Hokusai, Inspiration and Influence at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2023) and at the Seattle Museum of Art (2024.) She has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in the US and Europe including: The Griffin Museum of Photography (MA), Turn Park Art Space Museum & Sculpture Park (MA), The Photographic Resource Center (Boston, MA), Catherine Edelman Gallery (Chicago) The Art Institute of Boston, Maryland Art Place (Baltimore), St. Gauden’s National Historic Site (Cornish, NH), The Cultural Center (Varigotti, Italy), Perspective Gallery (Evanston, IL), Interlochen Arts Academy (MI), The MIT Museum (Cambridge, MA), The Rey Center (Waterville Valley, NH), University of Massachusetts (Lowell), University of Texas (Austin), Institute of Contemporary Art (Portland, ME) and The National Gallery of Art in Kosovo.

 

In 2005 Hegner received her MFA in Photography at Lesley University's College of Art and Design in Cambridge, Massachusetts. 

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She received awards in two categories in the  2020 and 2018 Julia Margaret Cameron Awards. In 2010 she received The Gjion Mili Photography Prize (Kosovo.)

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Publications include solo features in Fotonostrum Magazine, Portfolio Magazine, Shadow and Light Magazine, and Tangram magazine's Going Into Wonder, photographs on the creative process and kinetic sculptures of Arthur Ganson. Her photographs have appeared in SHOTS fine art photo magazine, select book title covers, and Sotheby's catalog, featuring her portrait of William Louis Dreyfus. 

    

Chehalis served as a faculty member within the Department of Art and Design at The University of Massachusetts until 2015. She is currently a full-time artist and co-founder of Halo Hill, a startup near Chicago whose mission is to foster arts programming and the environment. 

    

Hegner serves on jury panels, is currently a private photography mentor and workshop instructor at Halo Hill Studios. She was a member of ASMP and SPE during her academic university career. She served on the boards of The Hegner Family Foundation and The Photographic Resource Center at Boston University, where she focused her efforts on strategic planning, development, and programming. 

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