In the final percussion/drawing session for Echo Chamber, Mary Law and I strike the walls with silver thimbles on all our fingers, following the rhythms of Steve Reich's Clapping Music (1972). With each stroke, a little silver wears off and leaves a mark on the wall, a visual trace of our engagement with the music and each other. (more...)

Linda Hutchins: Echo Chamber
littlebigspace, 1341 Thousand Oaks Boulevard, Albany, California
April 6 - May 4, 2013
Opening reception Saturday, April 6, 3-6 pm
Open Saturdays 11 to 3 and by appointment
contact: littlebigspace@gmail.com

The rhythms of Steve Reich's Clapping Music (1972) provide the structure for my silver wall drawing installation in the tiny gallery littlebigspace. Reich's minimalist composition is written for two performers to play entirely by clapping. I practiced the shifting part of the composition on my own today:

The rest of this week, leading up to the opening of the show Saturday, a succession of friends will join me to strike the companion rhythm on the opposite wall while I continue to practice the shifting part you see here. Wearing silver thimbles on all our fingers and striking the walls instead of clapping, we mark the walls with silver from our thimbles, leaving a visual trace of our engagement with the music and each other.

I took advantage of a sunny day and good skylight to photograph the "Five Sketches" drawings accumulated to date. There are 56 in all, silver on prepared paper, each 16"h x 24"w. The spare ones are single run-throughs, each movement on its own sheet. The denser ones come from practicing or rehearsing over and over on the same sheet, sometimes for a week or more. In some of these the movements stay on separate sheets; in a few, all five movements come together in one drawing.

Drawn with all ten fingers while speaking to an audience

One of the through-lines in my work is focus. I create in ways that challenge me to focus intently, and that make my focus visible in the finished work. I want to capture the tug of war between focus and distraction, to make my mental state—my consciousness—apparent. When the results become too regular or easy, I look for ways to up the ante. This is part of what leads me to draw with both hands, and it's part of what drives me to draw in performance. Performance requires focus in the face of the ultimate distraction: the audience. If intense focus alone in my studio is too easy, how about in front of an audience? I want it to be difficult; otherwise, it's not focus.

Thanks to Brian Libby, whose Facebook link to an article about anxiety and mental preparation in competitive sports (!) got me thinking about this.

Five Sketches Premiere
Salon Concerts, Austin, Texas

Sunday, January 20, 4:30 pm*
Monday, January 21, 7:00 pm*
Tuesday, January 22, noon, Scottish Rite Theater, 207 West 18th Street, Austin, Texas (free, no ticket required)

Five Sketches is a collaboration with composer Kathryn Mishell at the intersection of chamber music and drawing. I play the percussion part of this new work in concert with Karl Kraber, flutist, and the composer at the piano. (more...)

All that work and then, finally, something levitates.

(Leanne Shapton, Swimming Studies, p. 224)

Apart, Along, Together
Portland Building Installation Space, Portland, Oregon
October 22 - November 16, 2012

Drawing performances Monday, October 22 through Wednesday, October 24, noon - 1 pm
Completed wall drawings on view through November 16

Here's more from the press release: (more...)

15-minute Phrase Rhythm (William Blake), silver on wall over accumulated vinyl type

Cross Section 2012
MK Gallery, PSU, Portland, Oregon
October 13 - November 23, 2012
Opening reception Saturday, October 13, 2012, 5 - 8 pm

Pat Boas invited me to collaborate with her for this year's PSU Art Alumni exhibition. We created this wall drawing, 15-minute Phrase Rhythm (William Blake), with silver thimbles on all our fingers.

out of the flowering ribs by Endi Bogue Hartigan, images by Linda Hutchins

Endi Bogue Hartigan and I just completed this chapbook with poetry and images from silver and rust, our December, 2011, collaboration at Nine Gallery. It is available for purchase at Endi's reading at Division Leap Bookstore October 11, 2012, 7:30 pm, or by contacting Linda Hutchins Studio.

You never know going in what the highlight(s) of the TBA Festival will be. I'll have a different take in two weeks but here's what I'm most looking forward to right now (more...)