Multimedia Graphics Poet / Experience Designer

About

Jane Hutchins has been 



Before drafting tables, X-Acto knives, and rubber cement were replaced by computers, Jane earned her BFA in graphic design from Iowa State University. Most recently, she gained her MFA in creative writing from Stetson University. Born and raised in Marion, Iowa, Jane has lived and worked in London, Chicago, San Francisco, Washington (DC), Cedar Rapids, and now, DeLand (Florida) where she calls home. 

 
About Jane’s current work:

As a multimedia graphic poet, Jane Hutchins is exploring the ‘tangles’ of life. She’s working on an experimental memoir influenced by feminist writers and artists who have examined women's lives in intimate ways.  In it, she plays with formatting, introducing graphic arts, drawings, and triptych writing structures to illustrate the various modalities of her life experiences as a woman. It is the messy middle of an excavation through awakening. It explores and reflects on normalized behaviors within heterosexual marriage, identity dilution, misogyny within family structures, untangling social, cultural and familial conditioning, gray divorce in a patriarchal legal system, death, grief, motherhood and the inevitable passing of time. It’s a documentation to make meaning of a life utilizing creative avenues for putting voice to years of conforming and silence. 

Each art piece Jane creates is inspired by life experiences and the wisdom gleaned from them. Her design concepts can be broken down into three components: entanglement, untangling, and re-defining of Self. Or, as artist Louise Bourgeois’ mantra suggests, “I Do, I Undo, I Re-do.” Written poetry lays the foundation for Jane’s heavily layered visual pieces. The layers consist of automatic drawings, digitally altered photography, symbology, AI generated textures, and the words from the poetry itself. Her goal is to create art that, on the surface, is abstract and often playful; but the more one dives into the layers, the more one feels the depth of emotion being expressed. Through vivid color, graphic movement, and vulnerability in the words, she hopes the viewer feels invited to reflect on the impact and meaning their own “tangled” experiences have had in their evolution.