Art Show Sparks Warm Memories of Fullerton Teacher

The retrospective exhibit was her idea, but in the days before the memorial look at her late husband’s career opened, Terry Hendricks began to worry. Would it be depressing and maudlin, rather than the intended celebration of his life and work?

Don Hendricks, a popular Orange County artist and teacher, was killed last February while bicycling when he was struck by a car. He was 41. “I was very scared about the reception,” Terry Hendricks said. As it turned out, “there was really a festive feeling. I think it was really therapeutic for everybody.”

Earlier this month, more than 1,000 people attended the opening reception for the show at the Brea Civic & Cultural Center Gallery, about double the facility’s usual opening night crowd. “He really knew a lot of people. I was surprised how many people he touched,” Hendricks said. “It was just very sad that Don couldn’t be there to see the show.”

The exhibit, which runs through Sept. 29, has sparked an avalanche of fond memories of Hendricks, best known for his realistic watercolors of Orange County scenes. He taught at Fullerton College from 1975 until his death and served as Brea’s artist in residence from 1981 to 1984.

“He had a following. Don was everybody’s best friend,” said Emily Keller, Brea’s cultural arts manager. “That opening (brought out) 1,000 of his best friends.”

“He was one of the most generous and giving human beings I have ever met,” said Norman Lloyd, curator of Fullerton’s Muckenthaler Cultural Center, site of a 1985 retrospective of Hendricks’ work. “He was a second father to many people. He was a mentor, one of those people that everybody looked up to.”

As it happens, Keller and Lloyd shared one of Hendricks’ drawing classes while they were students at Fullerton College. Keller’s parents had successfully talked her out of a career in art, or so they thought, when she took the class. “I was all ready to take Don’s class and drop out of art,” Keller recalled. “Lo and behold, this guy captivated not only me, but every student in there.”

“I used to go roller-skating into his class and he would put up with it,” Lloyd said. “That’s the kind of guy he was.”

Hendricks was born in San Diego, but his family moved to Orange County two years later. He grew up in Silverado Canyon, a rural landscape that was to appear often in his paintings, and in high school he surfed almost every day.

After a stint in the Army, he studied drawing and painting at Cal State Fullerton. Before completing his master’s degree, he scored a one-man show in New York’s prestigious O.K. Harris Gallery featuring his photo-realist graphite drawings of such pop-culture icons as ‘50s cars, racing trophies and bouffant hairdos.

According to Lloyd, the show was a success and the gallery expressed interest in representing Hendricks, but the artist lost interest in the graphite work and went on to colored pencils and finally to watercolors, the medium that came to dominate his work. He listed Edward Hopper and Winslow Homer as two of his major influences.

“He gave up a very promising public career to follow his own heart,” Lloyd said. “He wasn’t one to allow trend or fame to direct his energies.”

Hendricks’ paintings of Orange County subjects--red-tile roofs, orange trees, scrub-covered hills--won him a loyal local following. In the mid-’80s, he turned to Disneyland as the quintessential Orange County subject with a series of still-life paintings of Disney souvenirs.

The allegorical works cast Mickey Mouse as a Christ figure. In “Martyred Mouse and Seer,” Hendricks once explained, “the X-acto (knife) represents death; the cartoon figure (a Mickey Mouse back scratcher) represents the crucified Christ; the eraser wipes out the sins, and Donald Duck is the people walking away.”

“As a kid in Orange County, Disneyland had a special impact on him, and he wanted to play with that,” said Robert Miller, a longtime friend of Hendricks’ and one of his fellow art instructors at Fullerton College. “It was just fun stuff.”

Hendricks, an avid hiker and rock-climber, concentrated on landscapes in the final years of his life, working in watercolor and in other media. Seldom are the vistas pristine--roads and other man-made structures always intrude on the view, which Lloyd said reflected Hendricks’ concern with increasing development of the county’s natural areas. Later works included intimate studies of objects in decay, especially animal carcasses and skeletons.

Mostly though, Hendricks’ works are a reflection of Orange County’s “good life,” as he often said himself. The works were exhibited widely in local galleries and museums.

“He wanted to paint the world he lived in,” Miller said. “Orange County was an affluent society, and a fun one.” Hendricks was a fan of Japanese Ukiyo-e prints, populist works that showed everyday scenes, and Miller said he felt a “kindred spirit” with the artists. “I think Don wanted to make beautiful pictures for the average person,” Miller said.

“People often criticize my art for being too nice and not having enough angst ,” Hendricks said in a 1983 interview with The Times. “But my work mirrors my world. I feel good and have always done well by the people in the community.”

Hendricks first approached teaching as a way to feed his growing family--he had four children--but according to those who knew him, it soon became apparent he was a natural. He taught part time at several schools before landing the full-time position at Fullerton College in 1975.

In 1981, Keller approached him about becoming Brea’s artist-in-residence program, a program funded by a matching grant from the California Arts Council. Hendricks, who took a year’s sabbatical from his teaching position, received a salary and a studio in the city’s civic center; in return, he led workshops at local grade schools as well as adult lectures and workshops. He also created a series of instructional videotapes, designed a poster for the city and curated a watercolor exhibit. The program eventually was funded for an additional two years.

“Both painting and being around people came very naturally,” said Kathie Conrey, an administrative assistant with Brea Community Services. “It wasn’t just the quantity of programs, it was the quality. . . . He was certainly a high-energy person.”

Hendricks kept an open studio, where people could stop by to show their work or talk about art. Schoolchildren would stop by after school and “drag their mom along,” Keller said.

“He had amazing facility, technically,” Miller said. “To watch him create an effect was almost like watching a magician. He was able to do this while talking and entertaining--that’s one of the reasons he was so good as an artist in residence.”

Terry Hendricks, the artist’s wife of 21 years, finally took one of his classes a few years ago after hearing for years about his teaching abilities. “I found out it was really true,” she said.

She approached the city in spring about mounting a memorial show of her late husband’s work, and Conrey guided the request through the city bureaucracy. “They were just really enthusiastic about it right from the start,” Hendricks said, and the city rearranged its exhibit schedule to fit the Hendricks show.

Miller and others say this is not the final chapter in the Hendricks story, however. “I project that Don’s influence, particularly in North Orange County, will be long-lasting,” Miller said. In 10 years, he said, “his influence as a teacher and an artist will be even stronger than it is now.”

“In Celebration: Don Hendricks Memorial Retrospective” is on display through Sept. 29 at the Brea Civic & Cultural Center Gallery, 1 Civic Center Drive in Brea. Hours are noon to 5 p.m. Wednesday, Friday and Saturday; noon to 8 p.m. Thursday. Admission is free. Information: (714) 990-7730.