Tag: Reflection

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”

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)

Christian Art Show — Not Mine but Dr. He Qi’s

Postcard from Christian Art Show at Cross View Lutheran Church

I had the pleasure to judge the Christian Art Show at Cross View Lutheran Church along with Marko Fields. It was indeed a pleasure to see so many works.

I am grateful to the congregation of Cross View Lutheran Church for recognizing the importance art plays in our lives by supporting artists and administering the Christian Art Festival.

 

I had the pleasure to judge the Christian Art Show at Cross View Lutheran Church along with Marko Fields. It was indeed a pleasure to see so many works.

I am grateful to the congregation of Cross View Lutheran Church for recognizing the importance that art plays in our lives by supporting artist and administrating the Christian Art Festival.

Art is meant to be shared. It is a poetic form of communication that helps us understand and reflect on our world and its cultures and our relationship within its context.

What struck me most about the submissions that Cross View Lutheran Church received was the honesty that came through in the work and the sincerity in the process of art making. I see it, as a Quaker, as another approach to prayer. Where listening to that that stirs within is as important as vocalizing prayer.

The opening is Saturday, April 29, 2006
6 – 8 pm.

Clouds & Churches

Dramatic storm clouds reflected in a calm lake, with a dark treeline and a small church silhouette visible along the horizon.
Clouds and churches share the horizon as storm light and reflection blur the line between earth and sky.

Yesterday wasn’t a wash-out. Got a few things done. Checked on the dsl service in my studio. Scratch. The wires weren’t ran yet. Keeping things in perspective… I am not dying, poor, or fighting a war made by people that never served or worse yet got deferments or used daddy’s connections to get them out of serving.

The Republican’s and the war mongers seem to have found an answer to ensure they have lots of troops to fight their battles and keep the rich kids out of the fray. This current budget… the current budget decreases financial aid to poorer and middle class students. The end result for those folk is if they want to go to college they have to join up and fight wars that others chose– usually over oil. it is very sad. So my little dsl problems are nothing. Hope you’re staying warm… snow in Minnesota today.