By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Painter Crystalyn Hutchens grew bored with canvas.
Then six years ago, her brother offered her some galvanized steel panels. As an artist, and a bit of a hoarder, she accepted them. That gift inspired a new direction in her work. The images of women she was painting – women whom she did extensive interviews with about body image and society – soon appeared on ionized steel.
That line of creativity culminated, Hutchens said, in “Metamorphosis,” an oil and chalk painting that won best of show honors at the NowOH Exhibit now on display at the Bryan Gallery in the Bowling Green State University’s Fine Arts Center.
The show features 85 works by 34 artists from five Northwest Ohio counties and will remain on display weekends and online through July 23. The NowOH exhibit gallery hours are Thursdays 7-9 p.m., and Fridays through Sundays 1-4 p.m. Parking is free after 7 p.m. and on weekends in Lot N.
Hutchens completed the painting just as she was starting her Master of Fine Arts studies last fall at BGSU. The face and hands of the model seem to be emerging through the oxidization of the steel. Hutchens loves the interplay between the steel and human flesh.
While steel is man-made, it is still “disintegrates and goes back to earth.” That continuous state of change echoes that of human flesh.
“I adore the texture I’m able to get with steel,” she said.
The steel is “almost the atmosphere” in which the body resides, the social constructs that shape our views of the body.
When interviewing the women she’s painted, Hutchens focused on what makes them feel vulnerable.
Ellen Mensch, an artist from Fort Wayne, judged the show. She found herself immediately drawn to Hutchens’ painting with its complementary colors of deep orange and bright turquoise. It was only as she moved closer that she realized the orange was oxidized steel. She was even more intrigued.
“The combination is a really unique choice to make rather than going with something easier to paint on,” Mensch said.
The title reflects both the figure emerging through the paint as well as to the material it is painted on, “the transformation from this usually discarded and ignored piece of metal that you may find in a junkyard transformed into something that’s very beautiful and up on a wall in an art gallery.” Mensch said “I kept coming back to this piece over and over, and eventually I knew it had to be my choice.”
Mensch also praised Donna Marie Beauregard’s painting “Melanie’s Bruise,” for turning something ugly into a beautiful image that shows the body’s ability to heal itself. She gave the painting the BGSU School of Art Award.
BGSU faculty member Tom Muir received the Toledo Federation of Arts Societies Award for “Beekeeper’s Neckpiece,” a tribute to Muir’s own avocation as a beekeeper. Mensch said she appreciated the simplicity of the piece made of wax comb, walnut and cord.
Bowling Green Arts Council Youth Art Award went to Chloe Kozalfor her print “Sent with Love.” Mensch said the combination of wood cut print and the mustard colored matte “pops out.”
She was also taken with the sentiment of the title and the subject matter. “It seems like something special and important to me especially in this year we’ve had, just showing some love for somebody and reaching out … is very lovely.”
Other winners selected by Mensch were:
First Place 2-D: M. M. Dupay, “She Was Navigating a Different Kind of Spectacle.”
Second place 2-D: Randy Bennett, “No Parking.”
First place 3-D: Amy Fell, “Mossy Stones.”
Second place 3-D: Alyssa Radtke, “Unstable Vessel.”
Honorable mentions: Emily Wigglesworth, “Agency Over Identity”; Brennen Otersen, “Vitality”; Anna Yates, “Until the Meter Stops Running”; Jennifer Sheriff “Afterthought”; and Andrew Vogelpohl, “Ticklish Spot.”
Viewers can vote for the Popular Choice Award on the show’s website through July 11. The award will be announced July 15.
Mensch said she likes the show’s range of techniques and the experience of the artist. She received her MFA from BGSU in 2020, and worked as a gallery assistant. This was, she said, her favorite.
Hutchens, who now works as a gallery assistant, echoed that sentiment. “Its’s great to see the community of artists in the area. I loved seeing the different age groups. It’s a really fun show.”
Hutchens said she has moved away from steel, and is now focused on drawing and painting the human figure on more traditional surfaces. After exploring other women’s views of body and culture, now “I’m trying to make my work about myself.”
With the images on steel she was playing with a sense of chaos. “Now I’m focusing on a sense of clarity,” she said. The bodies are depicted in a controlled space. Yet often there’s a sense of discomfort as she reflects her own invisible, chronic disease. Other women, she said, have picked up on that.
Hutchens hasn’t abandoned steel though, just put it aside. She likes it too much and misses the smell and the texture, and looks forward to bringing her new discoveries to steel.
