Rising Stars: Meet Kate Hendrickson of Gillette,WY

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kate Hendrickson.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I have always been an artist, though I didn’t know that’s what it was called when I was five years old, lying belly-down on the carpet, shading an entire sheet of that endless perforated printer paper like I was trying to cover a portal. The pencil wasn’t a tool so much as a pulse, my first private currency of calm. I wasn’t drawing pictures; I was making a place to exist.

Creation was my native language long before adulthood tried to translate it. High school was the first time I understood that this wasn’t just a hobby or a charming quirk, it was a gravitational field that everything else orbited. My parents, in their gentle, practical way, hoped the pull would weaken. That I’d wake up one morning and choose a sanctioned path, nursing, stability, something with a uniform and a retirement plan. Their hope was my first clue: what lived inside me was not a pastime. It was a refusal to disappear.

MCAD gave me a BFA and a doorway into the so-called real world, which turned out to be less real than advertised. Out there, my creativity collided with something feral and invisible, my own subconscious. I’d make work, then quietly destroy opportunities. I’d build momentum, then vanish from myself. It wasn’t laziness, it was a private war with the unseen architecture of belief.

So I followed the breadcrumbs. First into human behavior, then deeper, into the places where the subconscious keeps its archives: inherited fears, unspoken rules, the quiet scripts that decide who we’re allowed to become. Eventually, I discovered something even stranger: you can reprogram those rooms. You can redesign the inner building.

And now, my practice sits exactly at that intersection, where art isn’t just an object or an output, but a field of reality creation. Where creativity isn’t decoration, it’s the lever that shifts the world. I don’t make work about human behavior. I make work that rearranges it from the inside out, one pencil-portal at a time.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
No. It has not been a smooth road. Last winter I was literally living off bone broth and discounted ground beef, the health-conscious cousin of the poor man’s ramen, because I was trapped inside a subconscious loop that insisted my life could not be easy. Somewhere inside me lived a rule that the only legitimate way to be in business was the hard way, the crawl-through-the-mud-and-call-it-character way.
I also had a talent for underpricing my artwork. There was a glitch in my system, a fundamental miscalculation of worth, and I kept mistaking it for humility.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I would say I specialize in reality creation. That phrase can sound lofty, so here is what I actually mean. I have always been wired to notice patterns, to understand abstract concepts intuitively, and to study human behavior with an almost instinctive curiosity. For years, I poured those abilities into installation work and painting, translating inner worlds into physical form.

Eventually, though, making objects didn’t feel like enough. I wanted to change my actual life, and the lives of others, in real time. That curiosity led me into the study of the subconscious, and then into techniques and certifications focused on reprogramming belief systems. If our perceptions shape our world, then shifting those perceptions is one of the most direct ways to shift reality itself.

Now my work sits in two realms. I support clients in transforming the internal structures that determine what they experience, and I continue to make art as a living expression of that same exploration. In both cases, the aim is the same: to work with the unseen patterns that shape what becomes visible.

Who else deserves credit in your story?
The list could be longer than this entire article, but if I trace the timeline of influence, a few people shine brightest. First, my older sister Brittany, who was both the earliest mirror of my imagination and my steadfast cheerleader. Then my Sheridan High School art teachers, who offered me endless access to the art room and encouragement at a time when I needed it most. After that came my professors at MCAD, who expanded the scale of what I believed was possible.

In adulthood, my best friend Kat has been both a witness and an incisive critic of my work, able to see the essence of what I am making even when I can’t. And Cora Carroll, the love of my life, has been the living proof that creativity is not only viable, but vital. She has been a profound influence on my belief in myself and in the importance of art as a career, not just a calling.

More recently, my fellow Theta practitioners, Stasia and Carly, have transformed my understanding of what the mind and body are capable of, and have graciously endured my endless experiments along the way.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://katehendrickson.myportfolio.com
• Instagram: @ark.evelyn

Image Credits
all mine!