Tag: Reflection

Why the Stiletto?

Magenta high heel logo on cyan background, representing ArtChangesLives(Dot)Com and Bill Hendricks’ brand identity.
The ArtChangesLives(Dot)Com logo — a magenta high heel on cyan, representing who I am, the work I do, and the life I claim.

This stiletto mark represents ArtChangesLives(Dot)Com, but it also represents me. Its stiletto symbol meaning is deeply personal.

Growing Up Different

As a child, I loved crayons, paper, toy service stations, record players, cameras, and yes, even dolls. I was drawn to making, imagining, and worlds that did not always fit neatly into what was expected.

As I grew older, especially in my pre-teen years, I recognized more and more that I was the other, and I learned quickly that fitting in seemed safer than standing out.

But coming out changed that.

When the Stiletto Appeared

Years later, in graduate school, while working on a project about how shadows may have shaped my life, the image of a stiletto presented itself to me.

Shadow of a high-heeled shoe cast against a wall, the original photograph that inspired the ArtChangesLives(Dot)Com stiletto symbol.
The original photograph — a shadow study from graduate school where the stiletto first appeared in my work.

What This Mark Means

The high heel is power, presence, and confidence. Sharp. Elegant. Strong. It takes up space without apology.

Cyan and magenta speak to identity, fluidity, courage, and becoming. They also carry the language of design, color, and creative life.

I am a gay man, and I have always known there is both masculine and feminine within me. I do not see that as conflict.

What I most admire is the strength of women—their resilience, grit, and what they endure. That strength shaped how I understand beauty, power, and identity.

So this mark is both banner and mirror.

It stands for the work.

And it stands for who I am.

Be who you are.
Stand in it.
Without apology.

For me, the stiletto symbol meaning is about identity, strength, and standing fully in who I am.

Sometimes a symbol chooses us before we understand why. Has that happened to you?

When Is a Work of Art Finished

Walking Reflection — April 14, 2026
When is The Work Finished?

Door05192024, Mixed Media, Pen and Digital, when is a work of art finished doorway artwork
Door-05192024, Mixed Media, Pen and Digital, Hendricks 2024

“The work is done when it has nothing more to say to you.”
— Robert Rauschenberg

I made an appointment to have ten pieces framed — thinking about when a work of art is finished.

And then I canceled it.

At first, I thought I had chickened out.
That I didn’t have the courage to follow through and see how they are received.

But the more I sat with it, the more I realized — that wasn’t quite it.

I’m not ready to separate myself from the work.

Not because I’m afraid of losing it,
but because it doesn’t feel concluded in the way framing suggests.

When I imagine putting the pieces behind glass, something in me tightens.

And right now, they don’t feel done.

They still feel open and accessible.

They’re still in conversation with me —
and I haven’t figured out their path. Maybe there isn’t.

If they’re framed and set aside, even carefully, they become removed.
Not just physically, but creatively.

And maybe that’s what I was really responding to.

Not fear of letting go —
but resistance to closing something that’s still open.

There’s a kind of pressure in making art to declare things finished.
To move them forward.
To let them go.

But sometimes the more honest thing
is to stay with the work a little longer.

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See more in Walking Reflections.

Presence Without Witness

Abstract watercolor of a fragmented head with window-like compartments and circular mechanical forms, suggesting shadowed urban architecture.
Tenement-02172026-watercolor

Lately I’ve been thinking about what remains of us.

Not reputation.
Not a big story.
Not even the full face.

Just trace.

A shadow on concrete isn’t the person, but it proves something stood in the light.

I keep circling the idea that existence doesn’t require constant visibility. When awareness drops away — sleep, silence, the spaces between — there isn’t spectacle. There isn’t narrative. And yet something remains.

Maybe that’s what a shadow is.

Not the full reality.
Not the whole person.
Just proof that contact happened. That light met form.

Not monument.

Existence.

A human being is only breath and shadow.                                                           ~ Sophocles

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)