Tap Quentin (aka Bill Hendricks, Minnepolis, Mn) has been living in SL
since Nov 2006. His art is influenced heavily by his questioning of
existence and our ability to understand the reality of the moment we
call Second Life. As those bound in Plato’s Allegory of the Cave …
most of us can only see what *seems* to be the substance of our
reality, the reality most apparent to us when we are in world. But
his portraits of SL avatars question these limitations, interrogating
the difference between the pixels and the people behind them.
Tap Quentin was born on a farm in the rolling woodlands north of Tancred’s Landing. His family was loving and taught him the virtues of goodness and honor. From his father he learned manliness, honesty and the importance of hard work. From his mother he learned kindness, generosity and fairness.
When Tap was still a boy, outlaws descended on his family’s farm in a senseless and brutal raid. His father, who was showing him how to store vegetables for the coming winter, quickly shut him in the root cellar, telling him not to move, and then raced off to defend his wife, younger son and daughter. In the distance, Tap heard shouts, a woman screaming, and then, finally, silence. He sat in the dark for hours before venturing out, and when he did he came first upon the body of his father, hacked almost beyond recognition, lying in the yard in front of their house. He found his mother’s body, stripped naked and bloody, hanging from a joist in the barn. He searched the ransacked house for his brother and sister, calling their names, then continued in the fields until nightfall. The next day, after burying his parents, he searched again but never found them.
Tap was able to survive for a little while on the food in the fields, and after that on the area’s natural habitation — roots, mushrooms, acorns, buckthorn berries. But food grew scarce as winter approached, and Tap was lonely. He took to sitting on a hill overlooking Tancred’s Landing and began to wonder if he might be welcome there. Having no skills beyond tilling soil, he especially watched the slaves attending the Free in this bustling mercantile city, wondering if that might be something he could do. Finally, driven by hunger and loneliness, he entered the city under the cover of night. But Tap was out of place and was spotted almost immediately. His capture followed swiftly. Luckily, the city trained its slaves, so in the months that followed, wearing the collar of the city, he learned to serve. More importantly for him and his future, he was befriended by many, including the Master Administrator, Charles Tiramisu, his Lady Mistydawn Herbst and Daenara Stewart. They helped him see what he already felt inside but could not name, that belonging to something larger than himself brought meaning to his life, which was empty without his family.
It wasn’t long before Tap’s dedication and growing skill attracted the eye of ReoDominus Commander of Arquana, who bought Tap from the city. Reo, being a wise and thoughtful man, watched his boy closely, sensing that Tap, while dedicated, possessed qualities one might only expect to see in a warrior. Cautiously, he began to traing Tap as a fighting slave and watched him develop. In time, Reo freed Tap, and they became the closest of brothers. In time Tap acquired two kajiri of his own, first kyle, then scott. Inevitably, the day came when he felt compelled to strike out and establish his own house, so he returned to the forests of his home and built a castle, which he called Three Winds. He had many adventures in those early days, which included becoming blood brothers with his fellow warrior Marc Carbetta and acquiring a third kajirus, clovis (who was subsequently freed).
During this period, Tancred’s Landing was destroyed. Its citizens were dispersed across the face of Gor, some to Tyros, some to Essex, and some to the desert reaches of the Kalihiri. Although he spent time in the cities, and even served in some, it was not until he visited longtime friends in the Oasis of the Valley of Red Rock that he knew he had found his true Home-stone. He established himself there, defending the city against maurauders, and lives there still.
Tap will be showing his artwork in person at the SLCC.
