Tag: process

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)

June 1–Can you imagine that?

Long shadows stretch across a tiled floor from unseen figures and window light, creating a quiet, haunting image suggestive of memory, absence, and presence.
Photo: One of my shadow pieces from grad school. Still poignant — Pride, AIDS, the 80s, the 90s. We are but shadows that linger.

This is an older shadow photography piece that I submitted for GLBT Pride 2006. A little dark, but it is one of my favorites. This last week I’ve been updating my online material. Perhaps I should be creating more art… but it is important to at least document a bit along the way. The information contained here may not be particularly insightful; it is only a gay man journaling some of his feelings in a very open forum. I am appreciative of life and all that it brings, but gratitude slips away now and then. That is sad.

I cannot believe how fortunate we are. Our lifestyle is beyond most of the world’s inhabitants’ imagination. I know my remaining time is short. I spend most of my time documenting the small things — the things one passes by without noticing. That is why you see so many shadows photographed in my work. What is more ignored than they are? What one might think of as totally benign is not. That is the point. That is the point of my art.

Vision, smell, and the rest of our senses are a miracle. Ick! Miracle — I really hate that word because it implies a God. Whether or not they are God-given is moot. That is not the point of the work. My work is about the ordinary. The ability to experience… to reason… is beyond what might be expected in this universe, and we get to. We get to. Pretty amazing.