One of Chattanooga's most...interesting artists
Some artists are like a force of nature, like a big art hurricane barreling at beach eyes. One bright shining example of this is Matthew Dutton, whose work has been a driving force within Chattanooga’s art community for over two decades.
From working with and inspiring artists, to teaching classes and generating new opportunities, he has devoted much of his time to furthering the arts. At the same time, he has worked full time, and created an incredible body of work that goes back all the way to his childhood.
“Some of my earliest memories are of drawing dinosaurs and monsters,” he says. “I used to make my own wooden toys on my father’s construction sites out of scrap materials, and often took things apart to see how they worked. I have been keeping my hands busy my whole life.”
Dutton finds inspiration in different places every day. “I am tuned into seeing things that perk my aesthetic, whether it is the texture of an old fabric, or the faded yellow of a vintage toy,” he tells us. “Sometimes inspiration hits me when I least expect it, and I try to bring it back to my studio for reflection.”
His studio practice was nurtured by a series of teachers and professors, starting with Jack Denton from Hixson High School. “He made creating fun and often pushed experimentation with materials and techniques,” remembers Denton.
At the college level, he was inspired by Ken Page, Michael Holsomback, Mark Bradly-Shoup, Dan Bethune, David Young, Phillip Andrew Louis, Gavin Townsend, and Junita Tumelaire, to name a few.
“I absorbed all that I could from teachers and peers, building up my personal inventory of skills and applying them, learning as much as I could as quickly as possible,” Dutton notes.
Dutton is inspired by curiosity and experimentation, and chooses not to settle for a single style or subject. As he works, he balances materials and processes that he knows with new experiments that have unknown results.
“After a few tests, I take with me the things that work well and fold them over into the next test, while discarding undesirable outcomes,” he explains. “For example, I do a lot of silicone mold making and cast using urethane resins. Once I had a good handle on what the resin is ‘supposed’ to do, I began trying to push the material into non-traditional directions. I remove the form from the mold prematurely, so I can manipulate the casting while it is still in a semi-liquid state.
“This allows me to distort and change my original positive cast, and to customize the positive object into a new form. I play with resin additives to effect curing time, and pigments to vary color and opacity. I then call upon other types of materials and techniques to combine with a casting to create a plethora of textures and finishes.”
From a variety of learned material manipulations, he gains the ability to assemble a cornucopia of processes. “I try to juxtapose surface treatments that interact with one another in interesting combinations,” says Dutton. “Something craggy flowing to something supple like skin... soft animal fur adorning plastic shiny pop. A consolidation of opposing ideas expressed through material placement and selection.”
This diverse knowledge base is manifested in a myriad of projects. From building Legos with his five-year-old son, to exhibiting abroad, Dutton stays busy. He currently has work showing in CA, NY, PA, Germany, and here in Tennessee.
He recently launched an online shop that showcases small affordable works at mduttonart.bigcartel.com, and he just wrapped up all of the materials for a top-secret installation project that will be revealed this Spring in downtown Chattanooga.
He has been appointed to a new position that will allow him to help other artists with growth opportunities, and also has irons in the fire for the Main Line Ink Harry Potter Tattoo Convention happening in March, more contributions for the next Chattanooga Film Festival, possible Hunter Underground action, a group show at AVA, and shows coming up in the summer in Long Beach, Orlando, and MI.
Bear in mind that he is doing all of this in addition to working as a preparator at the Hunter Museum. This work entails lighting, painting the gallery walls, installing, framing and matting works, packing loaned works and assembling exhibitions both digitally and physically.
“The preparator is the work horse part of a curatorial museum team,” he says. “The preparators are involved with most of the things that have to happen behind the scenes to make the museum look ready for the public. Not only are new exhibits under our care, but gallery rotations and outdoor sculpture maintenance and preservation, fund raising, event auction prep, and much more. We’ve got a good team that works together to keep the machine rolling.”
See more of Dutton’s work at mduttonart.wixsite.com/matthewdutton