Scott Hutchison

Artist Statement

Hutchison combines traditional painting and digital technology to create animated portraits, which are displayed on small LCD panels, or projected, large-scale. Dozens of individual paintings portray the artist's face, changing only slightly from one image to the next. When the images are unified digitally, an animation is created.

While paint and animation dominate the technical side of Hutchison's work, conceptually, Hutchison explores identity and introspection through an examination of his portrait or segments thereof. Some works illustrate an expressionless face, while others show his mouth with extreme, often threatening expressions. The viewer is left to guess which of these works reveal the artist's true character, and can contemplate the notion of a shifting personality, as Hutchison's face changes slightly, or contorts drastically.

Hutchison's work consists of multiple painted self-portraits that, although similar, possess slight variations of color and brush-mark. When animated, the paint appears to move across the surface, resulting in a portrait that is in constant flux. Eyes blink, mouths chatter and teeth chomp while colors flash across the painted surface, but disclose none of the artist's thoughts.

Biography

Scott Hutchison received his BFA in painting from Drake University (Des Moines, IA) in 1992 and subsequently pursued a year of independent painting and study in Bath, England. After receiving his MFA from George Washington University in 1999, Hutchison continued painting in his Arlington, VA studio. An exploration of the human figure through paint continues to be the leitmotiv of Hutchison’s work. For several years, Hutchison’s figures existed in surreal settings, embedded in colorless landscapes. More recently, color has crept back into his paintings, and a long-standing interest in animation has become part of his creative process. Hutchison is currently working on animations, employing paint rather than graphite.

Scott Hutchison has exhibited extensively throughout the Washington metropolitan area, including numerous solo exhibitions. Fall 2003, his large-scale nude paintings attracted the attention of NBC, where his work was covered in a news feature.