Interview
Joy Hutchins
Joy is a self taught artist who’s been creating and exhibiting her artwork in galleries and online exhibitions for over 30 years. For the last several years, her passion has been creating digital art, primarily unique and edgy portraits. She is a native New Yorker, currently residing in New Jersey.
What is your background and how did you start your journey in the art world?
“I believe we all manifest, with a very unique and specific blueprint, and being an artist was the path that I was destined to travel. I lost my mother to ALS when I was seven. That traumatic event, as well as subsequent traumas in my early years, left Me struggling with suppression. In college, I majored in psychology, which had long been of interest to me, as I was attempting to make sense of would appear to me to be a nonsensical world. My childhood trauma and depression left no room for pursuing the making of art. It wasn’t until I was married, and had two small children that I had the emotional stability to take time to make art. I began drawing and painting with watercolors, transitioned to acrylic painting, and then made word sculptures with PVC pipes. I submitted work to a local artist guild about a year after I began making art. The work was drew in by a local college art professor, who awarded me a best in show. When he asked me what kind of training I’d had I responded that I was self taught. He been advised me never to pursue a formal art training because it would provide too many rules that would interfere with my intuitive style. I felt very encouraged by this and have been a prolific art maker ever since. About the same time that I started making art, I began exploring Eastern, spiritual teachings. Raised by my atheist father, I had no religious indoctrination. The eastern religions, such as Hinduism and Buddhism, resonated with me, because of their deeply psychological nature. Concepts became the foundation of my artistic style and message.”
What inspires you?
“The beauty, I perceive in all of its myriad forms, art, photography, faces, love and compassion, animals, science, and exploring the big philosophical questions all inspire me. Ultimately, the inspiration that feels my art making mysteriously arises at times before and mostly during the creative process.”
What themes do you pursue? Is there an underlying message in your work?
“My work includes four main series: Portraits, Tatts, Blends and Abstracts.
There is nothing more compelling than a face to reveal emotion and sow connection. Every face provides an open invitation to see into that beings soul. All of my portraits are photography based and digitally manipulated. They may include tattoos, text, symbols, scribbles, and neon, like flashes of light that points of the sacred light within all beings. Multiple images of a face are acknowledgment of the various selves, we all have. Each face determines the particular, artistic vision, and artistic strategy I employ. Inspired by my interest in psychology and Eastern wisdom, teachings, my artwork addresses concepts, such as duality, illusion, unity, and the nature of reality. Ultimately, I look to imbue the sacred into the ordinary and mundane.
The history of decorating the body with tattoos, goes back to Neolithic times across many cultures. At one time, in the not so distant past, tattoos denoted an unsavory mentality but the donning of tattoos is now a more broadly acceptable practice, through facial tattoos are still deemed unacceptable or improper in our current culture. My most recent series, Tatts, explores the beauty of these inked marks and symbols, and denotes man’s creative urge to decorate himself.
My blend series incorporates some or all of my series, the grand of which is photography. Portraits, symbols, text, scribbles, and flashes of neon light may be included in this collage like visual.
My black-and-white abstract series is inspired by the works of the famous artist, friends, Kline. They are created digitally and seek to illicit a strong, graphic and spiritual feel. Often ask myself what it is that I’m wanting to say, and to convey. The answer only arises at the completion of a work. During the creative process, I am not in my intellectual mind; my intuition has taken the lead. I think beauty is at the core. When we are perceiving beauty, we are in the very state of love itself. The state of love arises simultaneously with the perception of beauty. Therefore, I know a work is finished when I’ve entered into the state of love, which I believe is who we really are.”
“There is nothing more compelling than a face to reveal emotion and sow connection.”
How would you describe your work?
“I would describe my work as strong, at times, angsty, unique and edgy.”
Which artists influence you most?
“My work has been greatly influenced, from my early years of artmaking, by Franz Kline, Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and the early works of Cy Twombly. Their innovation, in their time, strongly impacted the way in which I work till this day.”
What is your creative process like?
“All of my work is digitally created. I use a variety of apps to achieve the effect that resonates with me. I play with color, add and subtract images, repeatedly, often over a period of days and sometimes weeks, until the work intuitively feels complete and right to me. I like in making art to meditation. When I’m in my creative mode, all the thoughts and worries that preoccupied, my very active, analytical mind, disappear, and all that exists in this intuitive state of peace and inspiration.”
What is an artist’s role in society and how do you see that evolving?
“Artists’ works often reflect and shape the current culture, serving as a catalyst for change, pushing boundaries and questioning societal norms. Art can elicit an array of emotional responses, and a really strong visceral reaction, which can shift one’s mood, beliefs, and actions. The current creation of digital art, born out of technology, allows art to reach a much larger audience, giving the artist a vastly broader range of influence.”
Have you had any noteworthy exhibitions you'd like to share?
“This past year, a friend of mine, and I visited a local gallery, the work of which I’d long admired. I introduced myself to one of the owners, and asked how I might submit my work to the gallery. I had not yet submitted my artwork and résumé when, a few days later, I received her email. She highlighted three works from my Instagram feed and asked if I could have them available for an upcoming exhibition. Three large artworks, 36“ x 36“ each, we presented as a tryptic in their next exhibition. At the end of the show the gallery owner move them to an interior design center, where they are cut currently on display. This was the first time in my experience, that a gallery owner pursued showing my work without my art package submission. I was delighted that the owner took it upon herself, while only knowing my name, to look me up online and orphaned this great opportunity based on the work you saw on my Instagram page!”
Website: www.joyhutchins11.com
Instagram: @joyhutchinsart
