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January 28, 2008 / Portland, Oregon
Media contact: Wendy Miller, 503.235.4681
Artist website: www.lindahutchins.com
Linda Hutchins Awarded Second Individual Artist Fellowship
From Oregon Arts Commission
January 28, 2008 (Portland, OR) — Portland based artist Linda Hutchins has received an Individual Artist Fellowship award from the Oregon Arts Commission. The Commission selected thirteen artists to receive Fellowships for 2008. Hutchins is one of only eight second-time recipients of this award. Her most recent work appeared in exhibitions and installations in 2006 and 2007 — at Pulliam Deffenbaugh Gallery in Portland, OR; Gallery One in Ann Arbor, MI; and Southwest School of Art & Craft in San Antonio, TX.
The Commission's Fellowships assist Oregon artists in the development of their work. Artists may use the $3,000 grants to complete work in progress or embark on a new body of work; undertake research, study or travel; or experiment with new materials or media. This year, applications from 113 artists were reviewed by panelists who recommended funding based on quality of work, a record of sustained professional activity and achievement, and future promise.
Experiencing Hutchins' work elicits a contemplative response that transcends one's perception of three-dimensional space. Panelists describe Hutchins' pieces — drawn either with ink, or, in the case of the recent installation drawn with her grandmother's silver spoon directly onto the wall — as "meditative, sensual algorithms." "For the past few years I have created work through processes that are not only labor intensive and time consuming, but also highly repetitive," says Hutchins. "To repeat anything over and over — as a meditation or a discipline — is to grasp at the infinite."
Aware of the balance between intuition and intellect in her work, and curious about the right-hand/left-brain connection, the artist stands on a threshold of inquiry. Hutchins is preparing a new body of work that expands her drawing process. Until now she has executed her intensive drawings solely with her dominant right hand. Now engaging her left hand with its attendant loss of control, she seeks to navigate the territory between accident and intention, and make it visible through her drawings.
Hutchins received a BSE in Computer Engineering from the University of Michigan and a BFA in Drawing from Pacific Northwest College of Art. In addition to two fellowships from the Oregon Arts Commission, she has received grants from the Regional Arts & Culture Council and been an artist-in-residence at Caldera. Her work is in private and public collections including 4Culture, the King County Public Art Collection, the Multnomah County Public Art Collection and Museum of Contemporary Craft. Her past exhibitions have garnered national press coverage, including a cover article in American Craft Magazine, a review in Art in America and critical attention on the blog PORT. She is represented by Pulliam Deffenbaugh Gallery in Portland, OR. At the gallery, Hutchins' work will be included in a group show in September 2008 and featured in a solo exhibition in 2009.