Today we’d like to introduce you to Danielle Hutchens.
Hi Danielle, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I’ve been creative my whole life, with my mother being an art teacher, she always encouraged us to keep working that muscle in whatever form it could be expressed.
I spent my early career building brands. Growing tired and jaded by long days at the computer, I decided to take a ceramics class with my best friend–a decision that has now completely changed my everyday life and the way I approach things. Time would soar by when I was in the studio, and that feeling became way more important and more real than anything I was creating on the screen.
Connecting with ceramics led me back to my painting practice as well. Slowly I started making time for painting in the mornings, ceramics in the evenings, sandwiched around my day job designing. Until eventually, that day job phased out and the other two took over. It took me years and internal work to step into being a working artist., but it all started with that group class in Echo Park.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I was fortunate to have good jobs and I worked really hard throughout my design career so I built up enough financial support to help make transition more stable and less risky.
Most of my struggles were around my own mental blocks and ways I would resist making art. Some of the blocks were around the stories in my mind that I had collected about being a working artist and what that looks like. There are a lot of stereotypes around the starving artist and the artist as a victim. So I had to show myself that wasn’t the only story. I also had to continue to build trust in myself and that my expression matters, even when I hadn’t found my particular style yet. So treating it all as practice helped take the pressure off the end result.
So yeah, I think at ground level I’d say the path was not smooth at all, but then as I pull back and look over the past years the bumps in the road fade out and In retrospect, it all appears like a smooth, inclining, path.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’m a painter and ceramicist, workig from my studio below my home in Topanga. I use a sustainable practice which I feel brings an earthy essence to both my painting and ceramic pieces. Nature has always been my muse and now recently my material.
My ceramics process is intentionally sustainable, and now I am finding ways to make my painting practice as environmentally neutral as possible too.
My process includes sourcing pigments from hikes and mixing with nontoxic binders like walnut oil. I’ve also been experimenting with recycled clay as color on unprimed canvas – fusing my practices and media together naturally.
What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
My intention with my art is to make myself happy. And if it trickles out and makes someone else happy, then there’s, even more, to be grateful for.
Contact Info:
- Website: bydaniellehutchens.com and canyonceramicsco.com
- Instagram: @bydaniellehutchens
Image Credits
Molly Haas (all studio shots and artist photos)
