wp-content/uploads/2020/06/mechanical.png Mechanical – Pen and Ink
Continuing to work… Sol LeWitt, the conceptual artist, seems to consider that planning is an essential part of a work of art. Producing it appears to be the only element to transfer the ideas encapsulated in the work. For me, at this stage, planning is becoming essential. But not quite sure where this work is leading me or why. I have a hunch, but it is not clear to me now. The color pencils are presenting a challenge and using other software as opposed to Adobe’s offerings. It does feel good supporting those that are daring enough to take on the Goliath of software. For those interested Affinity Photo, Affinity Design and Blender are the software I am using.
Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time
Nikki Rowe
wp-content/uploads/2020/06/red-green-formed.png Untitled-4.5″x 4.5″, Color Pencil and Digital
Looking back over my earlier posts have lost their images. I had a choice to correct the glitches, that I am disappointed losing or continue forward. I chose to continue forward.
I haven’t forgotten them they live on in my soul and behind these digital pages in a database on some server someplace. They are images that informed my current work.
The difference between false memories and true ones is the same as for jewels: it is always the false ones that look the most real, the most brilliant.
wp-content/uploads/2016/02/img-3351-2048-e1455541316647.jpg Left behind in a Memory
Memories are often a jump off point for creating a poem, lyric, or other piece of art. They can be enhanced, altered, enlarged, and explored. In fact, they are often only a representation of what we wish could be true. You might wonder why, I spend so much time rearranging and recreating a simple photograph. Just as we each have our own perception of the world, shaped by the past, present, and physiology. This is how I like to remind myself that this is my unique view of the world. Not reality, but my reality.
My name is William John Hendricks, and I work professionally as Bill Hendricks. I am a Minneapolis-based artist and retired art and design educator. My work moves between drawing, painting, printmaking, photography, digital media, 3D modeling, interactive installations, and virtual environments.
Bill Hendricks, 2021, in my office at Minneapolis College.
I have also created and exhibited digital work under two established identities:
Shadowmason is my longtime online and digital-art identity, including my work on ArtChangesLives.com.
Tap Quentin is the name I use for my artwork and exhibitions in the virtual world Second Life.
These names represent different periods and settings within one artistic life. Shadowmason and Tap Quentin are both parts of my history as William “Bill” Hendricks.
Artistic Practice
My work moves between tactile and virtual forms. I am interested in what happens when the handmade and the digital meet—when systems and structures become containers for emotion, imagination, and spirit.
After retiring from teaching, I returned fully to my studio practice. My recent work includes watercolor, gouache, ink drawing, photography, mixed media, and digital modeling. Across these forms, my work moves between observation, memory, and imagination.
Memory has become increasingly important in my recent work. I lived in New York City during the 1980s and into the 1990s, where I worked at All State Art, Circle’s TR Gallery, and Desired Printing. I was part of the gay community during the AIDS epidemic. My memories of Christopher Street—of friendship, loss, survival, and the extraordinary creativity and joy of that period—continue to enter my work today.
Exhibitions and Collections
My work has been exhibited in Minneapolis and New York and is held in private collections throughout the United States.
My exhibitions include The Intimate Gallery at Gallery 148 in Minneapolis, a group exhibition exploring collective consciousness, and Postcards From the Edge, presented by Visual AIDS at the Robert Miller Gallery in New York City.
In 2026, my work returned to New York through Collective Z Gallery. Marsha P., a work rooted in my memories of Christopher Street and Marsha P. Johnson, was exhibited during Pride Month on the Lower East Side. My work is also represented through Collective Z Gallery on Artsy.
My interactive digital work Interpreted, Obscured and Sought (2005) is archived by Rhizome ArtBase, whose collection documents significant works in the history of internet-based art.
Teaching and Education
I earned my MFA from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD). For more than two decades, I taught Graphic Design, Web Design, and Fine Art at Minneapolis College, formerly Minneapolis Community and Technical College (MCTC). I also taught at MCAD.
Teaching shaped my understanding of art as a continuing conversation among thought, feeling, experimentation, and craft.
Virtual and Digital Work
In Second Life, I exhibit as Tap Quentin. My virtual projects include digital prints, drawings, constructed environments, and work presented through Ephemeral Traces.
The name Shadowmason connects my earlier internet-based work, my digital practice, and the history of ArtChangesLives.com. Shadowmason and Tap Quentin are not separate people or disconnected identities; they are parts of my broader artistic history.
Current Work
I continue to make art and write from Minneapolis. ArtChangesLives.com brings together my studio work, photographs, digital experiments, reflections, and observations about how art shapes the way we understand our lives, relationships, and communities.
