Katherine began her freelance art career in 1996, and focused on illustration work which garnered her a national following. When she moved to her first farm in Oregon in 2004, she began painting and also writing illustrated books — she has written and illustrated seven books. In time, she veered out of illustration to focus on her writing and her painting. In 2005, Katherine began showing her paintings with Sundance, and she is so grateful for the long-standing relationship. "Sundance has been so wonderful for me as an artist, and it allows me to paint big canvases and know they will see a wide audience. I love having my work there," Katherine says.

Katherine's paintings are little mysteries, often to her as well. She does not work from sketches or photos. She is a self-taught painter, and didn't start painting until her late thirties [she majored in ceramics]. Katherine says sometimes she knows what a painting is about, and other times it is partially a mystery to her — most of the time, the painting evolves, changes, gets painted over with layers of color, until finally something appears. Often her paintings have repetitive symbols — like open or closed gates — "That is often a way for me to make a boundary, or open a boundary," she says.

"I'm an emerging crone now, 65 and a HALF, and I feel I'm coming into a much deeper place in my painting. I paint when I want, and what I want. I'm free," she says.

Katherine was influenced early on as a child by many artists including Chagall and Klee which can be seen in her color and symbolism. Her father was an architect so she was surrounded by art books and pencils and such. One of her only regrets in life is that when she turned six, she snuck up to the attic and found her kindergarten painting portfolio, and ripped up all her work — she felt it was baby stuff and she was six and wanted to be adult. "I just can't stand it sometimes, I would love to see those things now," she says.

The work that Katherine does on the farm with elder and needy animals, and her work with elder people, mean that she faces loss on a regular basis. She has been helping needy animals for twenty years now, and as she says, she has dug a lot of graves and said many good byes. So accepting death, honoring death and living amongst life and death are inspirations for much of her work.

"Painting and writing my short stories, helps me understand the loss, helps me grieve and move on, and they also help others in their loss as many people write and tell me this."

"And sometimes, I walk out to the field and don’t even realize I’m being imprinted with a memory that might come out in a painting weeks later."

While her work can deal with loss, it is never dark. It is a mix of Rumi, E.B.White and Pooh.

"Nature is also my main teacher and healer. I always turn to Nature to grapple with things, to look for teachers within Nature, to let it show me the way," Katherine says. Early on in her career, she adopted a phrase, "Leaves know more than I do" because she realized that leaves just let go, every year, and they free fall not knowing where they will land and they are unafraid of becoming something else as they decompose into the earth. And as they decompose under the winter snows, there are little seeds percolating out of sight. If I ever have thoughts that things aren't happening the way I want, I remember that there are a million little things going on all around me, but out of site, and eventually something appears."

Her work consistently shares her awareness and strong belief that energy never dies. We and our loved ones and loved creatures die, but they live on in a multitude of ways, and we who are left behind learn a new language to be with them. She’s experienced it over and over, and it is symbolized in her art.

Katherine Dunn lives on her Apifera Farm in mid coast Maine. Every day when she walks out to her barnyard, there are a multitude of characters that inspire her to paint or write. Her farm is a non profit sanctuary to elder and needy creatures including donkeys, ponies, horses, llamas, ducks, geese, rabbits, goats and pigs. She also shares her animals with the local elder community with visits to their residences, often with her llama or goats. Katherine and her landscaper husband tend the farm and have been helping animals since 2004 when they first lived in Oregon. In 2016, they moved all the animals on a six day journey from Oregon to Maine and have never looked back.

"I loved our time out West, but Maine just feels like I came "home"" Katherine says. While they don't live right on the water, their farm has a vista to the cove, and salt air wafts over to their 1760 house complete with ancient apple trees and hydrangeas. The land as well as the animals is an integral part of her work. "There's a lot of mystique to Maine, and the rich history of our farm and area is palpable to me," Katherine says. She has walked to the graveyard where original owners are buried and she says one side of The Wood is friendly and one side is more guarded and eerie.