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The Nature of Being — An Artistic Investigation

Understanding Ontology and Metaphysics

Post-modernism concerns itself with the very subjectivities first posited by Husserl (and Heidegger), in that facts are not rigid but rather shift according to an individual’s interpretation of the world around them.   Therefore there is a need for a greater understanding of the systems and hierarchies’ individuals have established to understand the world.
~  Bhuvinder S. Vaidc
   (Onot0logy—The Nature of Being)

Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods
Dr. Susan O’Neill of Simon Fraser University

Labyrinthine-- A project for Second Life Endowment for the Arts
Labyrinthine– A project for Second Life Endowment for the Arts

Artist Statement — Bill Hendricks/Tap Quentin

Tap Quentin (a.k.a.) Bill Hendricks is a Second Life (SL) and Real Life (RL) Artist and has shown at SLEA’s Sky Gallery twice. He holds an MFA from Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Bill came to SL 16 years ago. He was fascinated by the global community and the creative space he found to experiment, play, and present his work. Second Life has always fascinated me because the very concept of this virtual space tweaks our perceptions of what reality might be and is. 

Tap Quentin will use this opportunity to stretch his imagination and technical abilities further to communicate better the aspects of the nature of being. This concept can be simplified into “questions about the nature of reality. Second Life is not a game but a community that allows a global community to test and poke at the fabrics of reality, cultural or physical. 

In this work, I have created a labyrinth rather than a maze. Some say a maze is where you find yourself, and a labyrinth is where you come to know yourself. 

Being Male: a 3D Second Life Installation

“The metaverse is an unprecedented opportunity for people to connect, create, and share experiences together” – Dr. Philip Rosedale 

Tap Quentin Awarded a Grant from Second Life Endowment for the Arts

Remember, in the Metaverse, I am known as Tap Quentin. A name I picked 16 years ago when I joined Second Life. At the time, the thought was you were to separate your real-life and second-life identities. That is no longer necessarily true.

My show at Sky Gallery: Second Life Endowments for the Arts. (SLEA) closes at the end of the month. The past two group shows I participated in at Sky Galleries were by invitation. Last month, I was led to apply for a grant to use a 1/4 region to explore and create another installation. SLEA granted me to use 128 meters x 128 meters of their digital space. (https://sleagrants.com/grants/current-grants/)

Being Male is a mixed-media Installation. I play with scale and perspective in this work, both a fascination. The surreal environment is an extension of my drawings and other works. 

The new work will take the shape of passages, whether a maze, labyrinth or labyrinthine. I read that a maze is where you find yourself, and a labyrinth is where you go to know yourself. 

As I was uploading the images used for the Being Male installation, I debated whether or not to share the images that include a penis. I decided to include one. I am not Mapplethorpe, but I chose not to censor my work.

Looking at a blank canvas.

I’m starting a new drawing that seems to resemble currency.

A drawing begins
0718 – 2023-dollarbill, Hendricks©2023
Looking at a Blank Canvas

Lately, thank goodness, that is not a problem at the moment. I am working between two, probably multiple. This one promises to be fun. Trust me, I have had those moments. What to do?
Do something else if you are stuck. Yes, it distracts you and lets your brain refresh. The new else might help the old else find a solution.
One of our students at MCTC(Minneapolis College) was in a class my mentor and friend, Felix Ampah, taught. I was told the student sat in front of a canvas, and Felix went over and asked if something was wrong. The student blurted out, “I don’t want to ruin it.”
Felix Ahpah asked to have her brush. He took it and made a swash on the canvas, probably not big. Gave his wonderful smile that beamed and said, “Now it is ruined.” Then smiled, and they laughed, and he moved on.“

An Echo, a Shadow, Nothingness…Whoa!

In order to experience a poem, we must understand it; in order to understand it; we must hear it, see it, contemplate it—convert it into an echo, a shadow, nothingness. Comprehension is a spiritual exercise.

Octavio Paz,
Alternating Current, p. 49

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Floating through Space and Time
Floating through Space and Time,  Mixed-media,  Hendricks@2023

I don’t think I am creating anything as profound as Paz describes, but as I said many times in this blog—I am on a path, which is not totally visible to me. I get glimpses, but never too sure what I see.
I do want to say that just because I post works of art, I do not think they are grand, that the technique is refined, or the lines sure and sharp. I know they are not. However, as I do and study my ideas, my voice and path will clarify.
There is one thing I want readers and friends to know, and that is that I believe in a power greater than ourselves, and there is a piece, a bit, of that power, that Light within each of us. I don’t know if I am a theist, non-theist, pantheist, or panentheist. Whatever I am, I seek to reach, connect, and engage with that Light that exists within me… and you. I am saying this partly because I have avoided saying it in the public eye of art critics and peers.
OH MY GOD! I just came out again.  😆

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.

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