Loudoun Campus Art Gallery

Scott Hutchison
Animated Portraits
November 19 - December 14, 2007

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, not drawn, but painted in oil.

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.

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