THE NEED TO CREATE

Lakewood's Jean Hutter is always making art

Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 04/29/07

BY BOBBI SEIDEL STAFF WRITER

Jean Hutter's studio is both testament to the many forms art can take and proof that one artist can do many forms very well. The large room at the back of her Lakewood home overflows with Hutter's creativity: realistic watercolor landscapes, bold abstract acrylic paintings, handmade jewelry, figurative collages, and more. "I have this need to create, to make things, to learn," Hutter says, half shyly, half matter-of-factly, as she sits on a sofa in the family room next to the studio. "One day I'm painting and the next, I'm doing collage, and the next, I'm doing jewelry," says Hutter, whose red hair falls in long waves around her oval face. "I used to think that was a bad thing. I used to think I didn't have focus. "But to be quite honest, I do have focus. Why shouldn't I try everything? If I went to a buffet, I'd want to try everything," she says with a slight shrug and a smile.

As Hutter speaks about her work, one of her three Maine coon cats watches from across the room while Domino, a black-and-white Norweigan forest cat greets visitors. A former computer programmer and Web and graphics designer, Hutter has been a full-time artist since around 2000. Her work has been in juried shows and is in private collections. Her original, realistic watercolor landscapes are sold on eBay, "but for shows and for myself, I do acrylic and mixed media," Hutter says.

"She doesn't realize how talented she is. I bought a number of her paintings for my office — scenes by the water," says neighbor John Gumina of Lakewood, adding, "She has an abstract painting that I love that's going into a show."

Hutter's abstract paintings spring from impulse unfettered, at least in the beginning. "I start with liquid inks as a base. I pour it, and I'm not thinking of anything," Hutter says. "I'm letting the painting do its thing. Then you come to the part where you know you're in trouble, and you're going to make it or not. "I have layers and layers and shapes, but I don't have a cohesive design. I have "stuff.' "I live for that because now I have to take control and start thinking and pull a design and a painting out of it."

Realism and abstraction

The abstract "MAGICAL NATURE" overflows with shapes in deep blue, gold-orange, dark pink, with snail-shell swirls moving about. The work includes acrylics, crayons and inks.

Vicky Culver, a Howell artist who creates photo collages, bought one of Hutter's abstract paintings three years ago. "It's exciting visually, and there are ambiguities about it that make it look different each time I look at it. It's blues and browns. I couldn't bear the thought of anyone else buying it," says Culver, director of the Guild of Creative Art inShrewsbury. "She's equally important with realism and abstraction."

Hutter also has been creating compelling figurative collages for three years. "They're a mixture of watercolor and acrylic. I start with an abstract base and glue wallpaper, newspaper down — to give me texture and something interesting as a layer to look through," she says. "Then I put a figure on top of that. Sometimes I paint the figure. Sometimes I collage the figure. Sometimes I do both. "I might put layers on top of that. I don't want the figure to look like a paper doll sitting on top of the background. And I don't want it to be a portrait."

She began making jewelry after she started stringing beads as a way to relax. "With me, nothing is a hobby. It's got to be all or nothing," Hutter says, smiling. A necklace that she calls "The Last Kiss" is made of red sponge coral beads and a gold polymer clay heart. She also uses semiprecious stones and original glass beads.

Then, there's the limited number of what she calls "altered books." "I made three specifically for myself, and I made one as a gift," she says, opening a book whose pages were turned into layers of images, textures and words.

"She is able to have more than one vision. She finds art in everything," says Jane Betz of Metuchen, a painter who has known Hutter for 12 years.

"I'm always making art, even if I'm not painting," agrees Hutter, whose husband, Richard, rides a Harley-Davidson. "We'll be riding somewhere, and I'll say, "Look at that silhouette against the sky!' "

Still, Hutter used to think her art was pure expression, no emotional inspiration. "But I showed a neighbor a series of paintings four years ago, and the paintings were all red. She said they looked like they were bleeding. I thought: "Wow. Isn't that interesting!' I had never painted in red before. But it was a time both my parents were ill and ended up in a nursing home," Hutter says. "I definitely think they (the paintings) may be abstract, but a part of you comes out and goes into a painting."

Hutter also created a limited-edition, sold-out deck of tarot (fortune-telling) cards. "As far as tarot, I've been interested forever. I bought my first deck in the '70s. I don't live my life by it, no, not at all." Hutter is one of 22 American artists each asked to create a card for a deck based on classic literature for The Tarot Museum in Bologna, Italy. "They assigned me the Wheel of Fortune," says Hutter, who has based the card on "Around the World in 80 Days" by Jules Verne.

Hutter, a native of Scranton, Pa., who has lived in Ocean County since 1974 says she has been drawing — and rescuing stray cats — all of her life. She studied watercolor in the late 1970s, creating realistic landscapes and seascapes, then moved into acrylics and abstract paintings. She's not sure why she made the change, she says. But then, for Hutter, art is a never-ending journey. "Now I want to incorporate figures into my abstract work. I'm not doing it yet, but I eventually will get to it!"