Milwaukee Art Exclusive: Cara Hutchison

             Milwaukee Art Exclusive: Cara Hutchison

I had a chance to sit down with a local Milwaukee artist by the name of Cara Hutchison. She was very excited to get into the interview, and so at this Starbucks coffee shop on the east side of Milwaukee we decided to jump right in. I asked her about where she was originally from and she smiled excitedly and began to express her feelings on her hometown New London, Wisconsin.

“ What I like most about where I came from is what I took for granted when I was there. It’s that small town feel. You can go out into the country and hangout in the woods. That’s something I really miss. I was kind of the odd ball kid, in New London, that liked art.”

 The conversation then turned its focus to the art opportunities available in Milwaukee. She goes on to say:

“ The things I like most about Milwaukee is the art scene and that I have all these art opportunities here. You get to be around these people who have the same interests.” 

We talked about how she comes to find this Riverwest art scene through the connections she made with other artists and professors while attending UW-Milwaukee. Cara expresses that networking in Milwaukee provided more opportunities for her than she would have found at home.

There were many things that inspired and sparked Cara’s interest in art. She first goes on to answer that exposing question: Why art?

 “It was always my gateway for expression. Some people write in journals and some people do poetry and what not, or they get into sports, and that’s like their therapy. Art was my therapy.”  

Passionately she addresses her adoration for art in saying: 

“You can always reinvent yourself in art. I can change it up, I can do whatever, I can experiment with things and if I don’t like it I can paint over it, or something. I can fix it somehow”

I got a chance to talk to her about her academic experience on the road to becoming an artist.

 “I studied at the lovely UW-Milwaukee. At that point my whole plan was going into graphic design. I took a graphic design course and I hated it. It wasn’t art for me. It wasn’t tangible enough. It wasn’t something I could get my hands dirty with.” 

Cara explains further why she had to turn her focus to a different subject on expression. 

“I’m not having the actual experience of making it (the art piece). When you make the mistake you have to figure out how to fix it. It’s not like a click, or undo…when you make mistakes it evolves (your work).” 

Lastly she adds:

 “I really liked UWM because I was exposed to almost every different medium.” 

As you see when we look at her pieces she is very adept at expressing her self through whatever medium she chooses to use.

Cara turns our attention to the connections that she had with the Door County art scene, and how tourists just love to go to Door County for the wholesome art experience. She says: 

“You’ve got all of the tourist that go up there so it’s a good market for sale. My real connection up there was the glass blowers. My roommate at the time (while attending UWM) was blowing glass and she was working with these two practicing artists.” 

Cara goes on to talk about how this leads her to Door County to live for a summer, and the new medium she experienced. 

“Through living in Door County briefly for a summer I got to work with them, so I got to blow glass with them.” 

When she described Door County’s location in Wisconsin she became really excited, with a big smile on her face she shouts:

“It’s up in the thumb!”

We then talked about who her favorite artists were right now she had a few favorites in mind. 

“ Stain glass windows with Frank Lloyd Wright, I have an interest in that right now. I’m teaching a lesson on that right now, so it is always in my brain.” 

She lists off some more qualifiers enthusiastically, such as Kehinde Wiley and Trenton Doyle Hancock. I asked her about her favorite galleries to visit in Milwaukee. Cara had one, specifically in mind. She mentions Art Bar with a big smile on her face, as being one of her favorite galleries in Milwaukee. 

“I like the Art Bar because they have a little theme (art exhibits) and they’re always switching it out.”

As the interview begins to come to a close we begin to talk about the things she likes to do when she’s not creating art. Cara goes on to say:

“I do like to take myself to brunch at Stonefly on Sundays. They’ve got art up all the time. So it’s nice to see art there. My favorite hangout spots when it’s nice out? I like to walk by the river, the river walk, and the lake. I like to go over by the Holton Bridge, over by the lakefront building.”

 She expresses her love of the scenery in these areas. Then she says: 

“The Bremen has become some kind of hangout spot for me in recent time because it’s close to my home.” 

She giggles as she hints at the fact that it is in short walking distance. Cara then throws in one more of her favorite spots. 

“I really like the Horny Goat too, because of the whole atmosphere of being outside, and they have a fire place.”

I then went on to ask Cara about a memorable reaction to her work. This brought up a beautiful story of artistic expression. She tells me the story of an assignment that she had in class where she was asked to read an article and then create a piece of work that expresses the conflict. 

“ The word in the article I highlighted was sandwiched. It was sandwiched in between.” 

Cara was addressing the issue of drug trafficking from countries like Venezuela and Columbia, through Mexico, to America. The article talked about how Mexico was sandwiched in between these distributing countries and America. Cara then creates this image of a sandwich spread apart with an American flag on the top bun. On the bottom bun was Venezuela and Columbia, these coke producing countries. She then illustrates money coming down from the American end and guns as well as bullets coming down from the South American end. Lastly, there is a tomato in the middle of all of this with the Mexican flag on it. She goes on to tell her the response of her professor.

“ I remember that one comment that I got from my professor. It was like never in the many years that he had been assigning this article had he ever had such a creative interpretation of that (subject) for a design. So I felt like I was really…flattered. That was definitely the most memorable one where I felt really good about what I had done ”.

Another memorable moment of Cara’s had to do with one of her art exhibiting experiences. We talked about her exhibiting at Inova Studio in 2011. She had all good things to say across the board about her interaction with this gallery. 

“ I thought it was a really nice show and I thought it was displayed well. Also, they kept the show going longer then expected so it did really well. It was very easy. I didn't have to worry about much. It was all handled, you drop it off, they put it up, and it was fine.”

To wrap up our interview I asked Cara about her dream project. She says to me: 

“ I think it would be really interesting to do something large scale, maybe something outside, like a mural. I would like to do a mural on the ground. I would love to do something having to do with fibers and having to do with outside, and somehow making that an interactive piece that people will interact with every day.” 

I finally asked her about traces of Milwaukee in her art and if she wants to ever have her work shown in any other cities. She chuckles and then calmly, confidentially says:

“Of course. That’s the whole goal right you want to get your art out there. You want people to be able to see it. You want to have them be effected by it no matter where they are.” 

She then goes on to disclose her feelings on expressing Milwaukee through her art.

“Everybody sees the art museum, everybody sees the U.S Bank building, everybody sees the Miller Park Studios, but I kind of want to get into those places that are gems in the local eye. You know, maybe something that not everybody sees every day. I want to highlight those places or those things that I see everyday.”

Cara Hutchison is a very talented artist who intends to continue creating art through her interpretation of the world she interacts with everyday. She’s a brilliant artist to look for in the future. When Cara is not creating art she is teaching forensic art to students in the Milwaukee Public School system. The Art Shore Salutes you and looks forward to our next interview with this magnificent artist.