My artwork encompasses a wide versatility of style and medium with diversified techniques in three disciplines- drawing, painting, and printmaking.  I tend to work on a large scale but small enough to comfortably fit private collections.  The work is an interpretation of the images and influences in my life, rendered in several styles, with expressionism being the main influence and an importance on the figure in the subject matter.  My pursuit of expression in the visual arts has always dealt with self exploration as a sentient artist and the intuitive process of creating.  Beginning without any preconceived ideas about how the image should look, the intuitive process of creating becomes a conversation between myself and the artwork.  It expresses the combination of my spiritual and physical being.  The combination of these aspects of life is represented in the work by the medium (the physical) and the illusion of the subject (the spiritual).  As in my own life, sometimes the physical is more prevalent and sometimes the spiritual dominates.  © 2006 Don Hetzel   

Don Hetzel’s work is mainly large scale drawings and paintings.  He has a wide versatility of style and use of mediums which includes oil, tempera, acrylic, watercolor, and graphite.  Don views his stylistic tendencies to be expressionistic in nature.

Hetzel has produced and exhibited artwork for 30 years in Iowa , Illinois , Arizona , and South Dakota .  He has received numerous awards, including Best in Show in 1996 at the Iowa Artists State Juried Exhibition, Best of Show in 2003 at the Iowa Kathryn Hart Exhibit, and was honored in 1998 in the Who’s Who Among American  Teachers for his art curriculum and education of budding masters to the art world.  Selected corporate collections include CRV Associates Inc., Northbrook, Illinois, Cargill Inc., Chicago , Illinois , Frogman’s Press and Gallery, Beresford , South Dakota , Dr. Jerry Jochims Orthopedic Clinic, Burlington , Iowa , and Dr. John Lee Medical Clinic, Keokuk, Iowa.

In 1976 Hetzel received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of South Dakota and in 1979 received a Master of Arts from Western Illinois University .  He was born in Lemmon, South Dakota in 1952.