Amy Caterina was born in 1973, in Niagara Falls,
NY. Caterina received her MFA in Photography in 2002
from California State University Fullerton. In 2002, she co-founded Rat Powered Films
with fellow artist Bob Pece, an organization dedicated to the presentation of
art films from around the globe. In 2005, Caterina started knitting and began
Pseudo-Sod, a series that quickly emerged as a major component in her evolving
oeuvre of mixed media installations. She was an artist-in-residence at the
Huntington Beach Art Center. She
displayed mixed media knitted “grass” covered deer and moose, beside cemetery
plot sized sections of “grass.” The Pseudo-Sod car cover was also photographed in
various locations throughout Orange County. In 2008, Caterina was the artist-in-residence at
the CSUF Grand Central Art Center in Santa Ana, California, opening her first
solo exhibition titled, “This Used to be Real Estate, Now it's Only Fields and Trees.” In 2012, she built the Doomsday Bunker featured in the exhibition "Faux Real" at Laguna Art Museum.
She currently teaches filmmaking, digital arts and photography, and art history at several Southern CA colleges and also works as a freelance curator. Her residencies include: Grand Central Art Center, Montalvo Arts Center, CA, University of DeKalb Illinois, Coastline College, CA and the Orange County Great Park, CA. Last fall, she completed “In Case You Get Lost,” a permanent installation in the Orange County Great Park Visitor’s Center of over 400 photographs produced during her residency there from 2011-2013. Caterina is currently documenting the Southern California desert / suburban interface and co-curating a zine project with artists who have dogs with short legs.
She currently teaches filmmaking, digital arts and photography, and art history at several Southern CA colleges and also works as a freelance curator. Her residencies include: Grand Central Art Center, Montalvo Arts Center, CA, University of DeKalb Illinois, Coastline College, CA and the Orange County Great Park, CA. Last fall, she completed “In Case You Get Lost,” a permanent installation in the Orange County Great Park Visitor’s Center of over 400 photographs produced during her residency there from 2011-2013. Caterina is currently documenting the Southern California desert / suburban interface and co-curating a zine project with artists who have dogs with short legs.
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Bob Pece is a visual artist, curator and filmmaker whose
independent films incorporate live action and hand drawn animation. His
short films include imaginative characters derived from his gallery works,
which have been exhibited throughout southern California since 1973. He
received a Master of Fine Arts degree from UC Irvine in 1977. In 1994 he
began outdoor film screenings at Griffin-Linton Gallery in Costa Mesa, which
eventually led, in 1997, to co-curating the internationally recognized Arizona
State University Short Film and Video Festival with John Spiak, which celebrated16
years of success. In early 2011 he was juror, programmer and technician for Pomona’s
Smogdance Film Society, and is currently exhibiting and curating at the SCA Project
Gallery in Pomona.
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Rat Powered Films
Bob Pece and Amy Caterina are Santa Ana-based Rat Powered
Films. Beginning in 2002, Rat Powered Films curated and screened dozens
of film/video events throughout Orange and Los Angeles counties, the most
notable being 6 Booths in 7 Weeks, in 2003 and Take Off Your Coat, Stay Awhile,
in 2006 at Santa Ana’s Grand Central Art Center and Rats is a Four-Letter Word
in 2009 at the Yost Theater in Santa Ana. RPF received a grant from the
Downtown Santa Ana Business Council and National Alliance of Mental Illness
Orange County. They have several film projects in the works including
Consumption, a collection of short films interviewing people who work in the
field of mental health, consumers, and people who have experienced the stigma
of mental illness, Art-as-Anodyne, interviews with men and women in conjunction
with A Window Between Worlds, a non-profit organization dedicated to using art
to help end domestic violence, and a series of interviews featured at CSU
Fullerton in Spring 2011 as part of an exhibition chronicling the history of
the art department. In early 2011, they were members of the jury panel
for the Smogdance Film Society Short Film and Video Festival. They are working with University of DeKalb,
Illinois to present a springtime festival.
