Category: Minneapolis

Minneapolis Walkways Need to be Safe

Minneapolis Sidewalk Accessibility Matters

Hi, I am sharing this article I wrote about the condition of our Minneapolis walkways. I hope this helps spark conversations that continue and lead to real solutions for this citywide problem.

https://www.startribune.com/municipal-sidewalk-shoveling-debate-mpls-accessibility/601548203

I am grateful that the Star Tribune published my commentary. As I grow older, this is becoming a greater concern. After 15 years in NYC, I am a walker. You see so much and learn a lot.

If you can’t access the article, you can find the text in my Google Docs: Winter Walkways — And Pedestrian’s Access.

Walking Reflection — November 4

A digital collage blending red, gold, and pink autumn leaves with soft branches and floral forms. The composition feels like a playful romp with color, echoing the joy and energy of fall.
Autumn Layers — digital collage inspired by the color and rhythm of autumn.

Autumn Colors

This fall, on my walks, I’ve been amazed by the color — soaking it in, just appreciating the ability to gaze upon such beauty.

As beautiful as the colors of spring and summer are — spring with its bright yellow-greens and lupines in pinks and violets, and summer with its deeper greens and the bright yellows of marigolds or the reds of geraniums and pinks of coneflowers — not to mention the purples and blues of delphiniums — I love them too.

But autumn colors speak to me differently. There’s an excitement, a passion in them that touches my soul.

I often collect leaves and set them in my studio to inspire me — to try and equal the wonderful harmony of fall colors. This year, I decided to play as the Creator once did, and create an image — a playful collage of color, built from photographs taken along the way.

Bill Hendricks

Started with a Walk and a Photograph

Related: Minnesota DNR Fall Color Finder — a live map of color across the state and information about the 2025 season.

Cogs / The Living Machine — Process & Reflections

The 80/20 Principle

A vibrant abstract illustration depicting interconnected pipes, gears, and curved forms in vivid hues of orange, teal, and gold. The composition suggests a mechanical system that feels alive — forms overlap and flow with depth and rhythm, evoking the idea of consciousness and structure emerging from chaos.
Cogs / The Living Machine

While refining the work, I recalled a lesson I often shared with my students: the 80/20 principle. You can always keep working and perfecting, but there’s a point where the essence is present — where the piece is alive and coherent. This artwork marks that balance: form and meaning are clear without endless revision.

transformation and renewal — how structure and energy evolve through process.

Art isn’t complete until it’s shared—Wondering what you think?

Stern Expression, as the gazer peers through various dimensions.
Stern Expression — Ink on paper — 7″ x 5″ approximately

Art isn’t complete until it’s shared.
                          ~  Seph Lawless 

As some who follow ArtChangesLives(Dot)Com know, I retired almost three years ago. I knew I would begin building a body of work. So, I began drawing before retirement. At the Friends General Conference (FGC) workshop titled Photography as a Contemplative Practice, Peter West Nutting jumpstarted my process. That workshop was followed by a Zentangling Workshop with Sadelle Wiltshire the next summer at the FGC Gathering. Both workshops provided a sufficient role in giving direction to my work.

After retirement, besides exploring my artistic leadings, I supported my meeting, the Minneapolis Monthly Meeting and Northern Yearly Meeting (NYM) (Quakers), designing and producing the yearly meeting’s monthly e-news and a quarterly publication, NYM Journal, with two skilled editors Doug Kirk and Tom Darrow. The journal features poets, articles, and artwork produced and shared with members of the yearly meeting.

I am excited to share some of my work in the journal’s current issue. I hope you enjoy it; along the way, you might enjoy several articles and poems.

Northern Yearly Meeting Journal/Winter 2024

Living up to Expectations—My Own. :P

Art and Fear

What separates artists from ex-artists is that those who challenge their fears, continue; those who don’t, quit. Each step in the artmaking process puts that issue to the test.”
― David Bayles, Art and Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking

Besides my grant project, I have been finding all sorts of things to do and work on. Somewhere I read, start with the small, easy things. I like that idea.  

Fear of messing it up and fearing something does not up to my own expectations or how it will be judged, I think, confronts all artists.I read this book, Art and Fear, a long time ago. Milton Glaser, an artist I love, told me that is bullshit. Not so many words… but I got the idea so did my students.

Posting is one of my distractions, and so is creating this image. 

An image created by Bill Hendricks a photo of mine that I had fun creating.
Greeting Card — October 14, 2023 (My Distraction),          Hendricks©2023