Annie Downes Catterson - Artist Statement

Much of my work has developed from my interest in Native American legends and indigenous art forms. Although I work in several different media, my focus has been predominately on the woodcut relief print. Over the years, I have illustrated four books of Cree Indian legends, which I transcribed from the ethnographic notes, myths, and legends that my father, P.G. Downes (1909-1959), a North American Indian ethnologist, writer, and Northern explorer, collected in the 1930's. Kyass, 2011; The Legend of the Mimigwesseos, 1999; Wisakyjak and the New World, 1991; and The Story of Chakapas, 1987 were published by Penumbra Press in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The images in the series are large black and white woodcut relief prints and comprise my ongoing exploration of the totemic qualities of animals and the natural world. Monoprinting is another medium I explore in my work. The immediacy of this technique, in contrast to the slower process of the woodcut, allows me to respond more quickly to the flux of a particular aesthetic moment. In both processes, my interest is ultimately grounded in nature and reflects my interest in animals and rural life.

Originally from Concord, Massachusetts, I spent my childhood exploring the woods and wetlands, fields, and rivers that were my backyard. In the early 1970s, I lived on a farm in southeastern Ohio. As an Undergraduate, I studied at the Massachusetts College of Art and The Ohio State University. I received my BFA from OSU in 1976 and my MFA in printmaking from OSU in 1979. In the summer of 1982, I enrolled at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. While there, I lived on a Salish Indian reservation, where I found a comfortable affinity for the northwestern Canadian coastal region and renewed inspiration for my art.  I received my MEd from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1985. I began my teaching career as a graduate student at The Ohio State University. I first held a graduate assistantship and then a graduate associate. From 1981 to 1983, I taught Visual Art at St. Paul’s School in Concord, NH. From 1986 to 2014, I taught Studio Art at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools in Chicago, Illinois, for twenty-eight years. After retiring from the University of Chicago, I moved back to my hometown of Concord, Massachusetts, where I continue to work as a professional artist.