Surrealism, Automatic drawing, and the Spirit

The old frontiers are disappearing and others opening up; we are witnessing the end of the idea of art as aesthetic contemplation and returning to something that the West has long forgotten: the rebirth of art as collective action and representation, and the rebirth of their complementary opposite, solitary meditation. If the word had not lost its strict meaning, I would call the new art a spiritual art. A mental art, then, which will demand of the reader and the listener the sensitivity and the imagination of a performer who, like the musicians of India, is also a creator. The works of the new time that is aborning will not be based on the idea of linear succession but on the idea of combination: the conjunction, the diffusion, the reunion of languages, spaces, and times. Fiesta and contemplation. An art of conjugation.

Octavio Paz,
Alternating Current

Going with the Flow, Hendricks ©2021

As I work with photography, digital, and tactile media, I am continuing to work to understand time, space, and matter and our perception of reality. Still harkening back to Plato’s Allegory of the Cave and my understanding of the brain acting as a receiver for our consciousness’s data can understand and act upon. It is only a small fraction of reality.

Thus, I blend  Realism, Surrealism, and Impressionism blended experience to understand better my relationship to what I may call reality. 
Please visit my most recent gallery of drawings before April 2021.

Author: Bill Hendricks -- Shadowmason

I’m a Minneapolis-based artist working in watercolor, gouache, oil, drawing, and mixed media. After teaching art and design for many years, I returned to making art fully. These days, I spend my time drawing, painting, experimenting, and paying attention to what shows up. I often work small. My work moves between observation, memory, and imagination. Some pieces lean surreal. Some stay close to what is seen. What interests me is what begins to emerge when I stay with the work long enough. On my blog, you’ll find both my artwork and my reflections. I’ve come to see they are connected. What I learn in the studio often changes how I see my life, my relationships, and my community. In that way, art has become more than making objects — it has become a way of understanding and being in the world. View all posts by Bill Hendricks -- Shadowmason