Creator Record
Metadata
Name |
Waterman, Carson |
Notes |
Carson Waterman Seneca Nation Snipe Clan Carson was born in 1944 and raised on Cattaraugus Reservation south of Buffalo, NY. He has been active in the contemporary Native art scene for over four decades. Following high school he enrolled in the Cooper School of Art (Cleveland, OH) and completed an Associate degree in Fine Arts in 1967. In 1968 he was drafted into the US Army and did a tour of duty in Vietnam, where he was a field soldier and illustrator with the 4th Infantry Division. Waterman returned to western New York and in 1975 became the primary exhibit designer, illustrator, and artist for the newly established Seneca-Iroquois National Museum, located on Allegany Reservation near Salamanca. He completed an internship in exhibition preparation at the Smithsonian Institution (Washington, DC) in 1976 and a second internship at the NY State Museum in 1979. He became heavily involved in art education and, in collaboration with artist Peter Jemison, co-founded the Seneca Nation Organization for the Visual Arts (SNOVA). He also served on the Board of Directors for the Association for the Advancement of Native North American Arts & Crafts which published the first Iroquois Arts Directory in 1983. Waterman continued to devote his talents to the Seneca Museum until 1988, when he opened his own gallery. From 1989 to 1996 his gallery occupied a small space on Broad Street, in Salamanca. He relocated to its current location on Main Street in 1997. Carson's work combines realism with abstracted symbols to form complex compositions that reflect on his Iroquois experience. He interprets a large cultural vocabulary including powwow and social dancers, clan mothers, animals, the Three Sisters, Skywoman, gustowehs, instruments, pottery, and beadwork designs. Other subjects include ironworkers and Vietnam veterans. He considers his practice both self expression and a vital contribution to Haudenosaunee cultural survival and resiliency. Carson is one of very few Iroquois painters to actively create on a large scale. A number of these ambitious works have been exhibited in the mezzanine of the Iroquois Museum since 1996. He has received numerous commissions including artwork for the Niagara Frontier Transit Authority and Southern Tier Expressway (c.1981); a 4 story outdoor mural in downtown Salamanca (1998); artwork for the Seneca Allegany Casino (c.2004); collaboration in the design of the award winning Allegany River Rest Area on westbound Route 86 (c.2006) and others. These projects have afforded Carson the opportunity to expand his creative vision beyond painting to include mosaic tile, stainless steel, and stained glass. In addition to his public art projects, Carson is represented in the permanent collections of the Iroquois Museum; Seneca-Iroquois National Museum (Seneca Nation Allegany); New York State Museum (Albany, NY), and Ganondagan Historical Site (Victor, NY). *Bio text cannot be used in print or web publications without IIM permission. Use for other purposes (such as research papers, presentations) should credit the IIM. |
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