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)
“Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get the work done. If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightning to strike you in the brain, you’re not going to make an awful lot of work.”
Chuck Close, 101 Quotes for Artist that need Inspiration
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Hendricks © 2021, Confusion, 5″ x 5″, mixed media
Show up… An Advice for me.
I took a bit of a break from drawing. Mike and I are snow-birding in San Diego. The weather has been great; while not drawing, I am working in Second Life. I am enjoying that digital world. Art is still front and center, and my work seems to be expanding but yet following a path. I am surprised myself by the direction.
After deliberately studying color, color is slowly growing and being more prevalent in the images. The colors I am using are very limited, which is a problem, and puzzle. The Micron pens are available in green, ultra-blue, orange, brown, blue, purple, black, sienna, and red. I think I chose a very odd media.
I am convinced I will not seek a gallery to show or sell my work. The body of work is building, but there are so many artists who technically express themselves so much clearer, but I do like documenting my work.
Happily, I began this blog and avoided investing a lot of time building a <a href=\”https://mnartists.walkerart.org/\” data-type=\”URL\” data-id=\”https://mnartists.walkerart.org/\”>MnArtist, Walker Art Center</a> site. After many years, they are changing the focus and intent of this site. Sadly, many of these artists are losing years of blogging and expressing their ideas. I don’t think the Walker Art Center gave this enough thought. I believe it disrespected the artist who provided much content to this site and institution.
With art it’s cerebral, but there has to be a time to let go. In any craft, you learn the basics. And then you just go. An opera singer or jazz musician run scales all day and when it comes to performing they just sing or play. So photography was like that, you learn about lighting. You have the rudiments of the craft within you and then you just let it flow.
Ming Smith, member of the Kamoinge Workshop by way of an email from the Whitney Museum, NYC
Perfect timing! Just received an email from the Whitney, as I was examing the importance of intentionality. I believe it can be divided into at least two separate and distinct areas. Craft and knowledge of media and the artist\’s intention, whether it is to express an idea, story, subconscious muse, emotional outburst, an inner feeling.
My intention as an artist is evident. As clear as it was in grad school, a study of reality and perception… in short consciousness. Craft, on the other hand, I don’t know if an artist ever ceases to study the craft and technical aspects of producing art. I told a friend this morning that my retirement feels as if I have returned to college.
This semester has been a mixture of theory, dabbling and learning Blender, drawing, exploring the media I wish to use at this moment, learning more about color, and studying anatomy as taught by Loomis. I am seriously concerned about my grades this semester. LOL.
Thank you, the Whitney & Ming Smith
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…
Alfred Brendel http://www.alfredbrendel.com/ Art Quotes
Pattern seekers, us all. Filing and ordering… Trying to make sense. Many answers, but are the questions correct?
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.
I have also created and exhibited digital work under two established identities:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.