RICHARD HUTTER received his degree from the University of Wisconsin--Stout, magna cum laude, in 1987.

HUTTER creates imagery by drawing with architects' tools (such as a french curve) and by collaging found elements from old technical books, magazines, postcards, and the like. Formal concerns predominate over symbolic or emotional ones, informed by Minimalism and Pop, with a nod to Dada. Tactility and an obsession with surface are evident in all his work: encaustic-like waxy acrylic paint on found-wood constructions; sticky and mottled passages on lithographic monotypes; along with matte porous-looking surfaces on found-paper collages.

Floral still life has been the primary theme in HUTTER'S work since 1993. Instead of a representational approach, however, he prefers an abstracted, "architectonic" view of his subject. This ongoing body of work dealing with the flower form has evolved slowly over the years. HUTTER began using a 4-lobed shape, which had emerged in his sketchbook while researching Japanese popular culture. With this 4-lobed shape he created varied explorations in abstraction of the flower form: by repetition, by enlargement, by fragmentation, by slivering into a shadow of itself, by tipping patterns back into perspective space to suggest landscape, among others.

More recently, HUTTER began using found diagrams and photos of gears and other mechanical parts to suggest floral still life. Another recent development is a new form resembling a beehive – which itself refers to an evolution of a flower's essence – but is actually proportioned on the spires of the shrines at Angkor Wat in Kampuchea, and so re-connects his work to architectural ideas. This led to using found diagrams of mechanical parts whose forms suggest architecture, particularly structures with spiritual or religious connotations.

The most recent development of HUTTER'S explorations in floral still life is a comma-shaped form based on the paisley pattern, layered on collages of vintage floral wallpaper on birch panel.