Category: Creating or Constructing

Creation or Construction

 

The whole difference between construction and creation is exactly this: that a thing constructed can only be loved after it is constructed; but a thing created is loved before it exists. 

G.K. Chesterton’s “Are You Creating or Constructing?”
Drawing on Paper
Tumult, Mixed Media, Hendricks ©2021

This article came to me through a friend on LinkedIn that I respect very much, Chris Zuege. The article is by Robert Rose. Chris posts on LinkedIn often, and I always find his posts enlightening.  This resonated with me because the work I do is very off the cuff.  I often wonder as I am working and when it is done. Am I the tool or the creator? For me, this quote and article gave me an answer. I am the tool, and what I create was loved before it existed. 

I know it has been quite a while since I posted to this blog. The truth is that I was off learning. I studied color… read philosophy… learned more about  3D digital art. I will be posting more regularly again.  

Today’s post was important to me. First, to wish everyone a great holiday and an even more fabulous new year and then share my last drawing of 2021.  Its title is Tumult. It fits for 2021. 

The Painted Work—What’s mine?

 

What I saw before me was the critic-in-chief The New York Times saying: In looking at a painting today, “to lack, a persuasive theory is to lack something crucial.” I read it again. It didn’t say “something helpful” or “enriching” or even “extremely valuable.” No, the word was “crucial.”

Tom Wolfe, The Painted Word, 1975
https://www.billemory.com/NOTES/wolfe.html
Drawing working with pen and ink
Experiment … Part of the Process, Mixed Media, Hendricks©2020

The quote above was written in response to an article in the New York Times, on Sunday, April 28, 1974, by art critic Hilton Kramer.

This blog is a journal of sorts, featuring my artwork and my ideas about art as I understand it. After 67 years of living, I now get to start practicing what I believe I am meant to do. That is to do art.

As I work, read, and reacquaint myself with myself through my art and studies, I seek a theory of me. It is becoming more and more apparent that I am emerging both intellectually and spiritually through my art.

I have never been keen on the significant art pubs or the art critics. Only because, through big words and lengthy explanation of what they see or how they interpret, the work often shuts out, divides, or disqualifies the everyday joe or mary from viewing, collecting, and enjoying art.

I guess part of objecting to the art authoritarians is that I never felt like I fit in being a blue-collar Catholic boy that is gay, not queer, dyslectic, alcoholic, and Quaker. So I often had to forge my own beliefs and codes of conduct.

That being said, I do believe there has to be some theory, some idea, path, or journey the casual viewer might need to understand my work or any artwork better.

Although, Wolfe is critical of Kramers’s reference to the “crucial” need for a perspective theory. Wolfe doesn’t say no knowledge is necessary. Thus every artist usually provides an artist statement for the viewer and gallery visitors.

I guess Artchangeslives(dot)com is where I work to find the theory of Bill.

Perception—No Brown

There’s no such thing as brown light! The color brown doesn’t exist in the external reality, but only in your internal reality: it’s simply what you perceive when seeing dim orange light against a darker background.

Max Tegmark, 
Our Mathematical Universe: My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality;
Good Reads
Triangles, an image drawn by Bill Hendricks
Triangles, 5″ x 5″ Mixed Media, Hendricks ©2020t.

Still fascinated by Perception Vs. Reality

I have been doing a lot of work, surprisingly. I am still coping with learning the new media and focusing more on drawing with more control, as tempted as I am to use straight edges and drawing(technical templates). I believe a hand-drawn circle is more revealing about the artist and skill. Not that skill counts a lot, even if the world disagrees.

I suppose a bit of art speak is necessary at some point. If I have to put it in one word right now, I choose Creation, if I need to provide two words, Creation and Chaos. If I must give the reader three words… Creation, Chaos, and Order.

My friends tell me that the found paper I am working with isn’t such a good idea. They say it must be acid-free and have the ability to endure time. I understand their reasoning, and I guess to preserve the value of the work. I have two pieces of art that I did when I was very young, and when I open a drawer and see them, I think how beautiful it is that they are fading and turning a warm patina of age. By not worrying about the paper’s acidic nature, I feel I am embracing nature and time as Stefan Sagmeister did in his ‘Lisbon Billboard (2009).

I am archiving my work. Being that my drawings are small, that is easy. I have been digitizing them as well, building a body of work. I am having an opening of sorts on Second Life tomorrow.

Stay healthy… Thanks for reading,
Bill

Information about Bill Hendricks (Shadowmason)

About Me… William John Hendricks

I am what I amAnd what I am needs no excusesI deal my own deckSometimes the ace sometimes the deuces. 
~ Jerry Herman, Composer (Wikipedia)

Bill Hendricks, (Shadowmason)
Bill Hendricks, 2021, in my office at Minneapolis College.

I am a Minnesotan who has lived half my life in Los Angeles and New York City. I consider myself a digital artist. However, my work includes tactile work, such as printmaking, photography, drawing, and interactive installations. I have a print in the permanent collection of the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis, and several private collections throughout the United States. In addition, my work was included in a group show titled, The Intimate Gallery, which questioned and explored the existence of collective consciousness in Minneapolis at Gallery 148. 

My work was included in the New York City group show, Visual AIDS, Postcards From the Edge in New York City at The Robert Miller Gallery. 

I taught Graphic Design, Web Design, and fine art at Minneapolis College (MCTC) for 22 years. I also taught at Minneapolis College of Art and Design for a few years, where I earned my MFA.

After retirement, I am again pursuing a career as a fine artist. For the last three years, I have built a body of work that includes ink drawings, photography, and 3D modeling.

Currently, my work appears in Second Life in some galleries. Second Life Endowment for the Arts invited me to appear in a group show in January, where I exhibited digital prints and drawings. My work there appears using my pseudonym, Tap Quentin. You may view my work shown on Second Life Marketplace at Ephemeral Traces.

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