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. 

Second Life Endowment for the Arts — Tap Quentin‘s Grant Project

Second Life is an online multimedia platform that allows people to create an avatar for themselves and then interact with other users and user-created content within a multiplayer online virtual world. Developed and owned by the San Francisco–based firm Linden Lab and launched on June 23, 2003.  ~https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Life

This is an image taken from the sky of my 64 meters SLEA Project
SLEA-Thank you
The labyrinthine I am creating in Second Life (SL)
Thank you, SLEA

Second Life 1/4 sim Grant–The property looking down at it. Mostly I am focused on shapes. I do appreciate the texture and color of my neighbors. I have an unexpected surprise I have two missiles flying over the property. #Shadowmason,_Tap_Quentin,_Second_Life

István Orosz, as much fun as Escher

There are things I can imagine and I can draw. There are things I can imagine but I cannot draw. But, could I draw something that I cannot imagine? 
~ István Orosz Graphic designer, animated film director, author.

An illustration by István Orosz
István Orosz, https://istvanorosz.com/

Currently in the world of Bill : )

A few days ago, I started on a new project—3D Metaverse Installation.
Part of my October show at Second Life Endowment for the Arts.

Photographers may Disagree with Henri Cartier-Bresson

Photography is an immediate reaction, drawing is a meditation.”
– Henri Cartier-Bresson
(Drawing Quotes to Speak to the Artist in You)

Frame—Drawing in Process.
Frame, Drawing in Progress, Hendricks©2023

Yesterday was my seventieth birthday, and I am beginning my third year of retirement, I have one bold request.

As a gift to me, could you subscribe to this blog?

ArtChangesLives(Dot)Com is owned by me and started in grad school almost two decades ago. Subscribing to my blog will help the blog’s rank on Google and other search engines. I hope it will become a place for people to share their thoughts while creating artwork … Meaning any of the arts.
I don’t know if I intend to show or sell my work commercially, but I am heading that way.
Thank you to the artists who agreed to let me link their sites to this site. Most of these individuals are friends.
Art has a vital power to promote understanding of one’s self and the world and provides a path for an artist to self-realize and connect with the known unknown.
It is a big ask, but could you subscribe to this site? I’d appreciate it.
BTW, my 70th birthday was fabulous, hearing from friends and family and spending it with family.

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.  😆