Walking Reflections — November 8

From the Set Aside Box

An abstract watercolor in blue, black, and yellow tones — architectural forms intersect like machinery and skyline, both mechanical and human.Caption: An image once set aside — rediscovered as part of a continuing conversation.
An old image — part of a new dialogue.

A few days ago, I watched the video linked above, “3IATLAS Just Revealed Unbelievable Photos That Shocked NASA and Harvard | Michio Kaku.” On my walk today, this image came to mind, and I felt there was a connection.

A bit dystopian — one AI-generated and mine not — but they both share a feeling.
One states it; one you have to interpret.

The strongest statement in the video was this: “They said we failed the evaluation. The evaluation period is now done. We were filed away.”

Dark, I know. But I think — not doomed.

Bill Hendricks
https://artchangeslives.com/tag/ephemeral-traces/

Walking Reflections — November 7

Mark Making Chart:  Ephemeral Traces of Life

“It is not art in the professionalized sense about which I care, but that which is created sacredly, as a result of a deep inner experience, with all of oneself, and that becomes ‘art’ in time.”
— Alfred Stieglitz

A softly lit artist’s desk scattered with sketches, notes, and bits of color — a quiet space of reflection where creative traces remain after the day’s work.
My desk  — where all the threads seem to meet.

My art runs like a cable through all parts of my life, informing each piece of my ecosystem and holding the whole together. Whether it’s in the studio, in Second Life, with my family, or within my Quaker community, each part of my world informs the others.

The priority of these elements shifts day by day, even moment by moment — sometimes family (my refuge), and other times the other parts of my life take the lead. But it’s all part of my ecosystem.

Today, when I came home. I looked down at my desk — scattered with sketches, notes, and bits of color — I saw how true that is. Every part of my life leaves a mark here, fragile yet real: my ephemeral traces reveal my thoughts and making.

Bill Hendricks

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.

To Be Seen — Mixed Media Drawings 2025

From vision to form, from shadow to light — these works found their way into being.

Mixed Media Drawings — 2025 →

Bill Hendricks mixed media drawing 2025 — expressive watercolor and ink painting honoring the resilience and spirit of Marsha P. Johnson
Marsha P, watercolor and ink on paper, 2025

“History isn’t something you look back at and say it was inevitable, it happens because people make decisions that are sometimes very impulsive and of the moment, but those moments are cumulative realities.” — Marsha P. Johnson

After four years of building a body of work, I’ve reached a turning point.
When I retired, I promised myself to return to the questions that began with my thesis — shadow, symbol, communication, reality, presence, and absence.

This painting marks that return. Its forms begin with light — and it is light’s rays that define an object’s appearance, translated by the eye that observes it.
Is this an image of circular tubes, or a visual echo of Marsha P. Johnson?
It moves between light and darkness, order and release — the space where renewal begins.

Sometimes celebration simply means knowing that the light is still here —
that something imagined has finally come into being.

Hope you explore this new gallery:
Mixed Media Drawings — 2025 →

A Heart Beats Within — From Study to Meaning

Abstract mixed media painting of a human-like form surrounded by pipes and grids, rendered in red and blue tones with a glowing central heart.
A Heart Beats Within — mixed media and gouache on paper, 5 × 7 in., 2025.

“I paint with my back to the world.”
— Agnes Martin

 

A Heart Beats Within began as two bookmarks — a small experiment in hot and cold colors and the discipline of straight lines. Over time, they grew into a single image, a kind of reunion — part study, part meditation.

What began as practice became a reflection on structure and color — a quiet commentary on the merging of the mechanical and the self.