Kentucky artist Rodney Hatfield has spent decades building a rapport with his audience, starting with a music career that blossomed in the ’60s and has since seen him performing with some of Lexington’s most memorable bands: The Hatfield Clan, the Shysters, the Metropolitan Blues All-Stars and, most recently, Tin Can Buddha. After being introduced to the harmonica at a young age, Hatfield took to the instrument with passion, laying the groundwork for his life in music. He soon found his niche in the Lexington music scene, harmonica in hand, jamming and recording music with a rotating cast of local musicians and eventually performing in bars and clubs across the country. He became a gifted front man, singing, playing harmonica, and becoming well known for infusing every show with witty banter and references to characters he invented in his fruitful imagination.
Somewhere over the course of that creative journey, Hatfield became more serious about pursuing another creative outlet he had enjoyed since childhood: drawing and painting. Initially shy about sharing his visual art with the world, he explained, “As long as I was making art in my apartment and only my friends were looking at it, I felt okay. But the idea of exhibiting publicly really made me nervous.”
Some friends finally talked him into participating in an art exhibit at the now-defunct Lexington restaurant Alfalfa, which was a popular gathering spot with a commitment to supporting and exhibiting their work. “It was great. The response was all positive, and it gave me a lot more confidence,” Hatfield recalled. Once his art began to gain wider attention, he found the need to separate his musical persona from his work as an artist. So, he invented an alter ego and began painting under the pseudonym “Art Snake,” a play on the scholarly academic concept “Art for art’s sake.”
While Hatfield is still, on occasion, a band front man, his artwork has become his main focus. This month, a new exhibit featuring nearly 50 new works from the unique visionary — including about 24 smaller, 6x6-inch paintings — will open at New Editions Gallery.
A creative child growing up, Hatfield describes a rural childhood with a lot of freedom to explore. He grew up on Blackberry Creek in Pike County, surrounded by family, friends and a rich tradition of storytelling that has served him well as both a musician and visual artist. He does not remember a time when he didn’t draw.
“Someone gave me a crayon, I guess, and I never stopped,” he recounted with a laugh. As his youthful talent developed, the self-taught artist became the go-to at school to provide art for various projects. Hatfield admits he was not a model student and recalls being kicked out of art class on a couple of occasions for cutting up and, as he describes it, “creating a disturbance.” After high school, he moved to Lexington to attend the University of Kentucky and ended up making the city his new home for decades to come, pouring his passion and talent into a creative life brimming with music and art. Many of the characters he met in his daily life and while playing music late into the night would show up as figures in his work.
Now a seasoned and successful visual artist, Hatfield’s playful yet calculated explorations in color, texture and mixed media have helped him evolve into one of the most revered and collected artists in the region. In addition to Lexington and Louisville, his work has been shown in Chicago, San Fransisco, Atlanta and Scottsdale, and he has exhibited consistently in Santa Fe, where is currently represented by the Susan Eddings Perez Gallery. His relationship with Lexington’s New Editions Gallery goes back 22 years, with Hatfield showing work in group and solo shows. New Editions Gallery owner Frankie York says of Hatfield, “What an honor it has been to represent him for so many years. With roots going back to the Hatfields and McCoys and an outstanding art and music career, today Rodney has become a true Kentucky legend. His deep fan and collector base continue to grow, as he continues to authentically represent the world around him. Whether on canvas, paper, panel or in conversation, his artistic voice is clear and strong.”
Hatfield’s work these days consists of both large- and small-scale paintings, drawings, assemblages and all manner of mixed media pieces that art lovers adore. His work is so diverse in subject matter and palette that it’s not easily described. Often toggling between abstract and figurative, his subjects range from the recognizable to the fantastical, coming straight out of Hatfield’s imagination (though he also credits a little magic in the process). A diversity of style and subject matter that defies pigeonholing has become his trademark, and he likes it that way. Color figures prominently in his work, with shades so unusual you might swear he’s invented new ones. The playful and sometimes bizarre titles Hatfield gives his pieces can serve as a jumping off place for viewers to write their own stories accompanying his work.
When he is at the easel working, Hatfield admits the outcome is often a surprise. Or to better describe it, the finished project is not entirely up to him; the compositions just happen the way they do. His experience expressing and improvising musically has aided his visual art process, he said.
“Art comes from a mysterious place,” he said. “The creative process I use in painting is a lot the same as with music — performing a solo or being deep in a painting springs from the same place.”
“Iska’s Dream” is a 48”x60” painting that will appear in Hatfield’s upcoming exhibit of new work at New Editions Gallery, on display Nov. 17-Dec. 23. Image furnished by Rodney Hatfield
Hatfield’s exhibit of new artwork, “One Man Band,” will be on display at New Editions Gallery from Nov. 17-Dec. 23, with an opening reception taking place during Gallery Hop on Friday, Nov.17 (5-8 p.m.). The artist recently took a few moments to answer some questions for us about his life and his work.
Tell me about growing up. How did art and music enter your life? I grew up “on Blackberry Creek,” as they say where I’m from, in Pike County. I loved playing in the creek when I was a kid and some of my earliest memories are of making things out of the clay from the creek bed. I have a vivid memory of digging clay out of the creek bed and making things, so I guess you could say that’s when it started. In first grade, a drawing I did won an art contest. The drawing was of a train disappearing in the distance with people running to catch it. The last guy in the line of running people was a guy whose suitcase had busted open and a pair of red polka dotted boxer shorts was flying out. I guess they liked that and thought it was funny. People liked things I drew so I continued to draw a lot through high school and was always asked to help out with things that needed illustrations.
As far as getting my start in being interested in music, my family always listened to music, and my dad and uncle played. I grew up with bluegrass music like Flatt and Scruggs. Then I got a harmonica and really became obsessed. I loved it. Later of course I found rock and roll and the blues.
My parents were maybe a little worried when it became clear I wanted to be an artist and musician, but they never tried to turn me away from my creative pursuits. They understood my love for it all. I’ve heard the stories of artists whose parents discouraged their talents, and I feel lucky that didn’t happen to me.
You have such a unique style and your subject matter is so diverse and unusual. How do you come to do the work you do? I am often asked how or why I do what I do. I don’t really have a choice. I don’t plan or spend a lot of time thinking about the work. The head is the least thing involved with this. Thinking is the enemy of art. Art has to transcend thinking.
Tell me about your process. Every time I sit down at the easel it’s like the first time. It’s very spontaneous. I liken it to a song. A song has structure — chords, bars, a solo. A painting has canvas, paint, brushes, palette knives; that’s the structure, but it’s all free form. I have to slow the tempo down. If you can do that, something that was a blur can become a story.
What inspires you? Who are influences? Musically, I also have more inspirations than I can name. Visual artists I love would have to include Picasso, Miro and Chagall. But there are so many I admire, and inspiration comes from many, many places. I have seen artists in New York and Santa Fe that knock my socks off. I come back to my studio, and I have to reel it in because it’s one thing to be inspired but you don’t want to imitate.
Your figures seem to inhabit a different world. This stuff already exists. You just have to put yourself in this place where you can find it and discover what’s in your head. A favorite quote from William Butler Yeats hangs in my studio, “The World is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.”
Your work is so beloved and cherished by your collectors, and there are many people who have collected your work for decades. Why do you think people connect so passionately to your work? It’s kind of a mystery. I think this whole idea of transcending everyday thinking and finding this other place that connects us all is part of it. Everyone has their own politics and life issues, but if you can get past all that, you come into this place where it’s all one. Maybe the attraction is “the familiar in the unfamiliar” — a place people recognize, but not in an everyday kind of way.
Name a favorite movie of yours. The first thing that popped into my head was a Fellini movie, “Amarcord.”
Where do you think your talents in art, music and humor come from? Do you recognize these things in other family members, or did you leave your family scratching their heads? They were definitely scratching their heads. Like I said, my family didn’t discourage me, but they often wondered about me.
If you hadn’t become a visual artist and a musician, what’s something you might like to have tried? Rodeo clown.
“Mueras de la Noche,” 20 X 20. Image furnished by Rodney Hatfield