Governor Mike Beebe and the Arkansas Arts Council presented the Lifetime Achievement Award to Gene Hatfield of Conway at the annual Governor’s Arts Awards luncheon on Nov. 10 at The Peabody Little Rock. The Governor’s Arts Awards recognize outstanding contributions to the arts in Arkansas.
Hatfield was nominated and introduced by Sarah Mattingly of North Little Rock.
Hatfield is an accomplished artist who works in a variety of media, including watercolor, oil, acrylic and sculpture. His best-known work is the transformation of the yard of his Conway home into an art environment, the result of more than 40 years of working with recycled objects. Influenced by the surrealist artist Max Ernst, Hatfield uses discarded materials and found objects, mixing and arranging them to create three-dimensional collages. Hatfield also works in the tradition of artists whose use of discarded materials cast light on the wastefulness of contemporary society.
During his long tenure as an art teacher at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway, Hatfield taught drawing, painting, sculpture, crafts and design, as well as art history and art appreciation. Since his retirement in 1985, he has continued to work as an artist, painting regularly with a class at UCA, exhibiting his work and developing sculptures from the variety of materials he collects. His yard is frequently visited by students, not only in art classes but also writing classes. He has donated a large body of his own work and art collection to the UCA Foundation. His work is also represented in public and private collections in France, England, Washington, D.C., Little Rock and Conway.