Tag: process

Welcome to 2026

Being in the Now—
Even on a Scrap of Paper

A fun little line drawing filled with playful figures, floating shapes, and childlike celebration, capturing a sense of being present and in the moment.
A Place to Go While Staying Home—Bill Hendricks/Shadowmason

I’m starting the year with this little drawing simply because it makes me smile. I like the strange little world that showed up here — a figure with its arms thrown up like, “Okay, universe, let’s celebrate,” a Ferris-wheel-looking thing, balloons, suns, and those chunky little bug-stick people bobbing around, just enjoying and being present.

Nothing in this really makes sense, but it feels playful and relaxed. I love the variation in the lines and how loose it is. It’s not careful or perfect — it just… happened, while I let my hand wander. In its own quirky way, that feels like “living in the now”: not overthinking, not polishing, just letting something exist because it wants to.

I’m guessing that’s a pretty good way to walk into 2026.

“the Tate has a great resource on what play can mean in art”

Living up to Expectations—My Own. :P

Art and Fear

What separates artists from ex-artists is that those who challenge their fears, continue; those who don’t, quit. Each step in the artmaking process puts that issue to the test.”
― David Bayles, Art and Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking

Besides my grant project, I have been finding all sorts of things to do and work on. Somewhere I read, start with the small, easy things. I like that idea.  

Fear of messing it up and fearing something does not up to my own expectations or how it will be judged, I think, confronts all artists.I read this book, Art and Fear, a long time ago. Milton Glaser, an artist I love, told me that is bullshit. Not so many words… but I got the idea so did my students.

Posting is one of my distractions, and so is creating this image. 

An image created by Bill Hendricks a photo of mine that I had fun creating.
Greeting Card — October 14, 2023 (My Distraction),          Hendricks©2023

 

 

Art Continues to Change my Life, Part Two

To draw, you must close your eyes and sing

Pablo Picasso
http://skinnyartist.com/150-amazing-quotes-to-feed-your-creative-soul
Minneapolis Ruins--Flour Mill.
Minneapolis Ruins–Flour Mill.

 

Permission to Crop

I haven’t done the big reveal yet, but it is coming. This photo and the last are both clipped from a larger photograph that will be posted later this week. Both plus the original are good compositions. The image above was the intended focal point of the original and it still is. By cropping this image, I am drilling down to its essence.

Over the last few days, I have considered this whole idea about of impressionism and its relationship to my photographs and work, my art, and my place in the art world. No conclusions reached, but I have to admit I do get discouraged at times. I’m not as good as I want to be, not noticed for my efforts as I wish to be, and can\’t stop working and creating new pieces. Maybe it is grandiosity and I should be happy that I have the tools at my disposal to create as I wish and be absorbed in the work when I chose to photograph and create my digital images. Perhaps, maybe I am too distracted by work and family. Perhaps, one day after I retire, I will be able to laser focus, but until then I will continue to play, get lost in my artwork as I blend, crop, alter, shift color, and try to speak to what I see and feel.

– Bill Hendricks (Shadowmason)