Meet Trailblazer River Hendricks

Today we’d like to introduce you to River Hendricks.

River, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Artistic energy has been with me my entire life. I remember being a little kid and creating beaded bracelets and necklaces with my older brother, weaving neon-colored hot pads from a Christmas present one year and constructing elaborate tree forts with fierce imagination. My mother has told stories of me sitting on her lap and I am drawing little monsters inside the coloring books she placed before me, instead of coloring the characters the books had to offer.

I began drawing at a very young age, progressing into painting in high school. Somewhere in between childhood and my 20’s, I took to djing and music production and it is here, that I picked up photography and graphic design. It is also here, that I started exhibiting interest in fashion – elaborate outfits, makeup and jewelry.

Of course, even at that time I still had my hands in illustrations and various painting projects. 2009 found me leaving Florida and heading West to Colorado. This is where I re-found myself and re-kindled my passion for fine art.

In 2010, Ghost River Art was birthed in the west cliffs of Loveland, CO. I was a “new” person, having returned to my true-self. I began the journey into body modification. Not seeing the jewelry I wanted to adorn myself with, I began to create it for myself. My hands could not stop creating and my mind and heart could not stop learning new techniques in both painting and design. I taught myself wood carving – creating earrings for stretched ears. I threw myself into leatherwork – creating necklaces, bracelets, belts and bags. I took a hold of metals and started designing headdresses and other jewelry wares. In progression with jewelry, my fine-art skills were establishing themselves. In 2014, I gathered enough courage to paint live for the first time at a small artistic gathering in Fort Collins, CO.

Since then, my focus, determination and intense passion has allowed me to create and share my work all over the world. I have been able to paint live with some of my favorite musicians: Ani Difranco, Rising Appalachia, Dirtwire, Ott, Phutureprimitive, Bibi McGill, Don Carlos, Del the Funky Homosapien just to name a few. My jewelry designs are found in shops throughout the States. I also sell my works online and reach international markets.

While I have stepped back from live-painting, illustrating has become more of a focus. It is taking me back to my roots of drawing inside coloring books. It is a place of calm – meditation – of comfort. I am currently working on a book, harboring both my drawings and prose. Early Winter of 2019, should find me releasing a hand-picked collection of illustrations printed on selected merchandise.

Has it been a smooth road?
Though being an artist is the most real and complete manifestation of myself, it has been the hardest hill to climb in terms of making it a business.

I have had the closest people tell me I shouldn’t make money off my art. That I cannot do it, diminishing my accomplishments to deter their own feelings of self-worth. I have had who I thought were ‘friends’ take my designs as their own and sell them as their original ideas – even going so far as copying my company branding and marketing it as theirs.

I grew up in rural Iowa, where diversity was few and far between. I have always felt my vision of life and world surroundings have differed from others. Growing up shy in a farm-town, I did not feel as though I could truly express what needed to be released. Suppressed creative outflow and teenage angst, manifested abusive relationships and drug use. When I finally started to see my own Light and put forth all these artistic expressions – jewelry and fine art – then to have these negative factors come into play from outside sources, it was truly traumatic. It is already difficult enough to be seen in a saturated market of designers and makers.

There is a point in an artist’s life where they mimic techniques to learn. However, doing the exact same thing another artist, designer, creator, writer has already done and trying to profit from that is not only boring – but detrimental to that artist’s own growth and expansion of Self.

I would love to go back and tell little River to just BE. Life is too short to let other’s pain or opinions or projections get in the way of your own happiness. And if I had anything to say to anyone starting a journey of being a creative: be yourself. Mimicking is easy, yes. But it’s boring. The Light that was given within you is sacred and special and deserves to shine in its individual glory. The world needs more of that.

What do you do, what do you specialize in, what are you known for, etc. What are you most proud of? What sets you apart from others?
I am a jewelry designer, illustrator, painter, photographer, writer and a bit of graphic designer. Self-taught in all areas, I strive to bring out the sacred in all of my creative expressions.

Most would know me for my jewelry. The adornments I create offer individual self-expression as well as the allowance of intentional remembering.

I believe my work is here to invoke memories, knowledge and truth that has been forgotten in today’s world. It is to give voice to energies and Beings that have seemingly been forgotten and to remind us all of the Sacredness of life and the magic within ourselves.

This is true not only within the jewelry I create but all facets of my artistry. I create to empower. There is nothing more heart-expanding then to receive a message from a customer stating how my work has made them feel. It makes all the sleepless nights, aching hands and strained eyes worth it.

I create everything. Nothing is outsourced. A lot of products (talking of jewelry) on the market are designed by the brand but created in a factory or in another country. Many of my pieces are truly one of a kind. Never again to be replicated. And everything is built with intention, passion and a driving force that is beyond the reality of myself.

What’s the most important piece of advice you could give to a young woman just starting her career?
Learn to love yourself, before anything else. And above everything – never give up.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.ghostriverart.com
• Email: ghostriverart@gmail.com
• Instagram: @ghostriverart
• Facebook: @ghostriverart
• Twitter: @ghostriverart
• Other: Pinterest.com/ghostriverart

Image Credit:
James Matson, Ysabel Blu, Stephanie Maes, Thalia Quiel, Moonhouse Studio

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