Tag: Creativity Explored

Words I Cannot Spell

Isle of Rowlyria, Second Life — August 2026

When I was asked to do a show in Second Life, I decided to go back to an older body of work. I didn’t want to make a new show just for the sake of making something new. I wanted to look again at work that still had something to say to me.

Words I Cannot Spell started several years ago at Hunt & Gather, a wonderful old junk shop in Minneapolis. I saw a pile of letters stacked on top of one another. I stopped and looked at them.

I thought, that’s how I see words.

I started taking photographs.

But the photographs were too perfect. The camera knew exactly where every letter was supposed to be. I don’t always see them that way.

I began to have fun. I jumbled things up to more or less replicate what a page sometimes looks like to me—with a dash of anxiety and confusion thrown in.

That is what interested me about bringing these pieces back for the Second Life exhibition.

I was very appreciative of the opportunity to show this body of work again. The work is older, but the experience behind it is still very much a part of how I see.

Lately I have been doing a lot more writing—articles, agendas, reflections, and writing about my artwork. Maybe that’s why I found myself thinking about those letters again and about how I see words.

Showing this work again gave me another opportunity to give the viewer a little insight into how I experience the world through dyslexia.

Sometimes older artwork just needs another place and another time to speak.

From the series, Words I Cannot Spell. A image by Bill Hendricks
From the series “Words I Cannot Spell,” by Bill Hendricks.

View the Words I Cannot Spell gallery

Hunt & Gather

Dyslexia is not a disability – it’s a gift.

From the series Words I Cannot Spell by Bill Hendricks. A photographic image of scattered and layered letterforms exploring dyslexia, language, and visual perception.

From the suite of images by Bill Hendricks, Words That I Cannot Spell.

Dyslexia is not a disability – it’s a gift. It means that I, and many other dyslexic thinkers can portray the world through images because we think in images. I can build worlds, freeze the frame, walk around and touch. I can read people’s faces, drawings, buildings, landscapes and all things in the visual world more quickly than many of my non-dyslexic friends. I paint with words; they are my colours.

~ Sally Gardner (Davis Dyslexia Association International)

Growing up, I had no idea why I had such a hard time reading and comprehending what I read. In my day, elementary school classes divided readers into groups: good, so-so, and poor. I always wanted to be in the good readers group, but I consistently found myself in the poor group with another student assigned as our tutor. I never understood why reading the things I wanted to read felt so difficult.

It was not until I joined the USAF that I discovered I was dyslexic. Reading is still a struggle, but like Sally Gardner, I believe dyslexia also allows many of us to experience the world differently. Personally, I think dyslexia contributed to my ability to express myself through art and other creative problem-solving endeavors.

I included Sally Gardner’s poem, Disobeys Me, with my suite of images titled Words That I Cannot Spell, because it speaks to an experience many people with dyslexia understand deeply.

I also want to thank Hunt and Gather Antiques for allowing me to photograph the incredible collection of letters in their backlot.

One Sketch; Two Paths

No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.

Heraclitus

One Sketch; Two Paths was an exploration using two different approaches and two different media, as Bill Hendricks worked on them simultaneously.
One Sketch; Two Paths

Creativity Explored—Celebrates 40 years

Creativity Explored

Starting from humble origins in a Mission District garage in 1983, Creativity Explored celebrates 40 years of supporting artists with developmental disabilities in San Francisco.

Link to Creativity Explored, supporting artists with developmental disabilities in San Francisco.
Creativity Explored celebrates 40 Years.

Creativity Explored was founded by Florence and Elias Katz, an artist and a psychologist duo who believed that art is essential to life. Throughout our history, we’ve facilitated the art careers of hundreds of disabled artists — and changed the art world along the way. Our artists have seen their work exhibited in museums, galleries, and art fairs in over 14 countries and have earned over $2.2 million from their art. Our San Francisco studios are the center of a thriving creative community where all are welcome.

Vanity Searching—Discovered Creativity Explored

Years ago, I bought the rights to ArtChangesLives.com for my blog. That was about 18 years ago; I was still in grad school. As I began to post my entries, I did some vanity searching and found that Creativity Explored holds the number one rank for Art Changes Lives, and they were located in San Francisco.

The next time I visited San Francisco, I made a point of visiting their studios. It was abuzz with activity and artists working in all sorts of media. I visited with a few of the artists, and they shared their work with me—genuinely excellent and original work. So, I want to recognize this organization for its work. 

You can explore Creativity Explored shop and see the artists’ work for sale. Visit their shop at creativityexplored.org/shop.