Artchangeslives II

https://artchangeslives.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Looking-Back-Looking-Forward-ACL-4x3-with-music.mp4 Video: Looking Back, Looking Forward. A sequence of Bill Hendricks’s line drawings explores maps, branching paths, and emerging patterns. Music accompanies the images, along with a message. Maps, patterns, and finding my way During one of my daily walks, I realized something had been quietly…

The former home of TR’s Gallery at 51st Street and Seventh Avenue. Today it’s a souvenir shop, but it still holds an important place in my story. We never know the part we’ve played in another person’s life. — Bill Hendricks Carolyn Solomon, where are you? It’s a strange question to ask someone I haven’t seen in more than forty years. A few weeks ago, while I was back  for The Ordinary at…

San Francisco, 1976. Looking back at a younger version of myself—and feeling grateful for all the people who helped me become the person I am today. Nobody, but nobody can make it out here alone. —Maya Angelou, Alone On this last day of Pride, I’ve been thinking about gratitude. Looking back at this photograph from San Francisco in 1976, it’s pretty obvious I wasn’t trying to blend in. Over the…

I’ve been thinking about that phrase. A few years ago, while attending Friends General Conference, I took a Zentangle workshop. Part of my interest was practical. As a teacher, I was always looking for things I could bring back to my students. At the same time, I was doing some spiritual searching of my own. When I retired, my intention was simple. I thought I would return to the work I had left…

Reflections on Collective Z Bill Hendricks, Kaitlin Reid, and Michael Reid at The Ordinary, standing in front of Marsha P. at Collective Z Gallery in Manhattan, June 4, 2026. My drawing, Marsha P., was recently included in The Ordinary, a Pride Month group exhibition at Collective Z Gallery in Manhattan. I went to New York not knowing quite what to expect. It had been a long time since I had…

A Living Room Church A personal memory about beginnings, community, and what history sometimes forgets. **Dr. Seuss’s Heaven** — A tribute to Dr. Seuss, mixed media on paper, 2005 (approx. 6 × 9 in.) — A small drawing about the rhythm of life   There are stories that get polished over time, and stories that quietly disappear. I’ve carried one of those quieter stories for years. Long before MCC…

Bastiano (Aristotle) da Sangallo (1481–1551), The Council Episode of the Battle of Cascina, after Michelangelo Buonarroti, 1542. This painting preserves part of Michelangelo’s lost composition for the unfinished Battle of Cascina Thomas Hart Benton (1889–1975), Martha’s Vineyard. I was at the Raphael exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and I was not expecting much after being at the…

The Ordinary — a Pride Month group exhibition at Collective Z Gallery featuring works by participating artists. “Being queer is ordinary. So is making good work.” — Collective Z, The Ordinary exhibition statement When Collective Z announced The Ordinary, I immediately understood why the title mattered. For many of us, simply living our lives has too often been treated as something unusual,…

Marsha P, watercolor and ink on paper, 2025 Accepted: The Ordinary — Collective Z, New York I’m happy to share that my piece “Marsha P. (Johnson)” has been accepted into The Ordinary, a Pride Month group exhibition at Collective Z in New York City. The exhibition opens June 4, 2026 and runs through June 30. Michael and I will leave this Thursday to attend the opening on June 4 and return to the…

Fool on the Hill — ink on Paper, 4 x 5in — inspired by The Fool on the Hill, The Beatles 🌿 May 22, 2026 — Fool on the Hill Today “The Fool on the Hill” popped into my head. When I was a kid, I identified with that song, and honestly, I still do. What hit me today is that the song really isn’t from the fool’s perspective. It’s from the people watching him. Everybody deciding who he is from the…

“They call me a legend in my own time, because there were so many queens gone that I’m one of the few queens left from the ’70s and the ’80s.” — Marsha P. Johnson A print honoring Marsha P. Johnson and the continuing visibility, courage, and humanity of queer lives. Archival pigment print on Hahnemühle German Etching paper. Edition of 100. Signed and numbered. British Vogue / ARTS &…

How do I map meaning before words arrive? Making Meaning — Opening a Sketchbook, 2026. I think that’s it. Finding my way in. Then starting to move about the page. Finding another opening. Seeing a shift, a row, an arrow, a direction. Then each line takes shape and organizes itself, much like this drawing was created. That’s how my brain functions. That’s how I find meaning. I’ve always seen…

Mapping Existence (2005)Pen on paper, 12′ × 12′Tracing my shadow. A drawing from 2005, one of a series called Mapping Existence.  I’ve spent a lifetime around art — teaching it, designing it, selling it, and making it. Funny thing: becoming a full-time artist later in life may be the hardest chapter yet. Still working. Still becoming. Query What keeps you doing what you’re doing?   Another map…

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…

Pen and Ink | The Space Between — 5 × 5 in Walking Reflection — April 17, 2026 Serious Play, Solemn Play Years ago, I showed my students at Minneapolis College (MCTC) a video by Paula Scher on serious play vs. solemn play, and I find myself returning to that idea again. “Serious play is about letting go and allowing things to happen. Solemn play is about controlling the outcome.” — Paula…

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