If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
~ “If” – Rudyard Kipling
I can tell you 101 things that have kept me away from this blog, but with the help of people and, most recently, the Mighty Mo helped with a few more adjustments, I will begin to post more frequently.
I have been organizing the images I can post for the last few days. I have been drawing, exploring various tactile media, and focusing on 3D software for the past two years. I am at the point where I can start showing my work. So my last push is to get the blog up and running again.
Bear with me; you will see more of my work and other posts soon.
Bill Hendricks’s current work, artist, images are the most recent work of digitally enhanced images. These could be referred to as either photo impressionistic work or expressionist.
“Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there someday.” ― A.A. Milne (https://bit.ly/3qJnksd)
Art gives a sense of order, life is basically chaotic, and there’s a tension between them. A sense of order comes from chaos and contains a bit of it, but it’s the sense of order that is important in a work of art…
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.
Clouds and churches share the horizon as storm light and reflection blur the line between earth and sky.
Yesterday wasn’t a wash-out. Got a few things done. Checked on the dsl service in my studio. Scratch. The wires weren’t ran yet. Keeping things in perspective… I am not dying, poor, or fighting a war made by people that never served or worse yet got deferments or used daddy’s connections to get them out of serving.
The Republican’s and the war mongers seem to have found an answer to ensure they have lots of troops to fight their battles and keep the rich kids out of the fray. This current budget… the current budget decreases financial aid to poorer and middle class students. The end result for those folk is if they want to go to college they have to join up and fight wars that others chose– usually over oil. it is very sad. So my little dsl problems are nothing. Hope you’re staying warm… snow in Minnesota today.
