I met James Hendricks in 1986 in SoHo where I had the opportunity to view his paintings in his studio. He was an artist inspired by life and not afraid of color, movement, experimentation and an artistic expression of ‘joie de vivre’. When I learned he was also a professor of art, I understood his connection to young artists and his ability to reference his own beliefs and opinions about the history of art. Although he was originally from Arkansas, transplanted to Massachusetts and New York, he had a SoHo sensibility. He would do whatever was needed to paint and create. His large canvases required him to work flat on the floor, like Jackson Pollock, using his physical strength to articulate every move with flowing paint. His techniques are not easy and James has never faltered from this methodology. I always admired his tenacity, attitude and ideology.

When I established my own gallery in 1995, I remembered a spectacular painting James had mentioned to me, a canvas he created, 44 feet across and 10 feet high. I couldn’t stop thinking about his work at that scale with Jim’s primordial painterly strokes recalling music, mathematics and metaphysics. As though it was meant to be, the main wall in my gallery was 50 feet across. The logistics of transporting the painting was our first discussion. However James reassured me he developed a systematic construction of folding canvases, which could be closed in transport and unfolded in the gallery in order to be lined up and installed perfectly. His method worked well and after planning the exhibition and unveiling this massive work of art, aptly titled, Millennium Express, it covered the entire 50 foot wall and left the viewer speechless. Once it was installed I took some time every day to sit in front of this painting, contemplating every brush stroke and wildly measured paint throw. One day a Buddhist monk happened to visit the gallery during the exhibition and I watched him as he first viewed the painting. He seemed overwhelmed, but instead of seeing it, as so many came to do, he closed his eyes, stretched up one arm, placed his hand over the painting and said two words, “good energy”.

Throughout the years, I have gone back many times to view and reflect on James’ paintings and drawings -- I realized I could almost hear them rather than see them. They reach our capacity to see, hear and think beyond our normal senses and as the Buddhist monk accomplished, challenge a new sense in experiencing art. It brought to my mind the words of Henry David Thoreau at the conclusion of Walden, “If a man loses pace with his companion, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured, or far away.” James Hendricks not only hears the drum, I believe he is the drummer.

James Cavello
President / Curator
Westwood Gallery, NYC

James Cavello is a curator, art consultant, philanthropist and President of Westwood Gallery, NYC. He is a former Governor on the board of The National Arts Club, NYC and has organized and curated award winning exhibitions in the United States, Europe and Asia, in addition to completing large scale public art projects. Mr. Cavello serves as President of Worldwide Children’s Foundation of New York, Vice President of Amazon Aid Foundation and serves on the advisory board of other nonprofit organizations.