Art City
RUSSELL JAFFE
www.LittleVillageMag.com
Photos by Michael Kreiser
I
f you really think about it, it takes generations of strong people to recognize, cultivate and promote that thing we call art. What have been cave drawings, daring derivatives, assorted doodles, Dadaist deconstructions and everything thereafter have been pushed forward by the powerful passions of true art bosses answering the calls of the mysterious heart’s forces. Jeff McNutt, the mind and manpower behind McNutt Gallery in Iowa City, a space tucked into a strip off Stevens Drive en route to the Waterfront Hy-Vee, is a man who truly answers such a call. And he’s no stranger to our home sweet home; “I was Herky the Hawk in ’87!” he says with a laugh. “I was the big bird in the suit.” “I’m very proud of what I do,” says McNutt, owner of his namesake studio and arts showcase. An Iowa native calling Iowa City his home for over two decades, he represents 23 artists across the nation as a consultant and seller of their work, and also sells his own art. “I love the people who have supported me and will continue to support what I do; my Hawkeye work builds off of history and I try to build off materials or things that have a layered effect.” He stands in front of a factory landscape piece smudged with black scrawlings like a calligraphy of crow’s feathers. “This is from a 1909 brickyard belonging to a family that’s commissioned me. The original brick has been crushed down into a pigment and the scribbles on it are from a notebook from the patriarch, the head of the family business.”
18 May 15-June 5 2013 | Little Village
WARM RECEPTION Lindey Anderson greets visitors to her show, Flags (pictured above), among the first events to take place at McNutt.
For McNutt, history and community converge at a breaking point of art, namely in the form of reappropriated original building materials, like brick and metal that are broken down and used in his paintings. He’s worked on pieces for Kinnick Stadium and Wrigley Field, among others. “Half my brain is sales repping, but the other half is art,” says McNutt, who took a nearly 10-year break from art to work full time and raise a family. “I started out trying
to be an artist and I did a marketing internship at Disney. That led me to wanting to create animation for them, and I moved out to LA in ’91 ... I had a friend who worked for Warner Brothers, specifically the show Tiny Tunes [Author’s note: if you haven’t heard of Tiny Tunes, work harder to complete the void in your life.] He introduced me to people and I home schooled myself with animators. I wanted to do children’s books and I eventually realized I wanted to paint ... What I ended up