

It’s mixed media. I used a reed pen and diluted black Chinese ink from a vitamin supplement bottle converted into an ink well. My foundation is working with oil paint, but my work in recent decades has transitioned into wet and dry mixed media, on and off of digital media doc makers.
This drawing harkens back to a painting I made in 2002 called The Tension Between Reality and the Unknown. I will post that painting here after posting the versions of this drawing I want to post first. Then I’ll link the painting to its title so you can look at it for ease of viewing.
I’ll admit that I have been struggling with regulating my time, space, and mind with my smartphone usage and social media. I’ve posted authors, videos, and articles about the targeted map to addiction that social media giants and smartphone makers have made out of the human brain to exploit maximum usage of their apps and devices on my X account to raise awareness about this problem that I believe most people with smartphones struggle with.
My art is about relationships and connections. The internet and social media are about relationships and connections, too, but in a much different way. The colors, shapes, and lines are what represent relationships in my art. Maximum time, and data output from their users are what represent relationships for social media giants. I’m not anti-smart phone or anti-social media however. I am pro strategizing ways to maximize my own creative powers so I can be more active in working on my vision rather than passively scrolling through other peoples’ lives.
I realize that the still images made by a relatively unknown artist are like muted forms on digital wallpaper of cyberspace living rooms, but I don’t care. I realize typing something like that out doesn’t particularly help me promote myself as a confident and ambitious character out of a romance novel. Fuck that shit. I’d rather just be raw & real as I continue to fight and struggle on my path of positive passion.
Prior River has connections to a main theme in my dreams. I sometimes dream about walking down to a river from a gradually descending series of river banks. I realized that this theme has connections to my childhood memories of traveling down Dellyne Avenue NW, and Taylor Ranch Drive to go to Albuquerque. The Rio Grande is at the base of descending down the bank on which Taylor Ranch Drive is paved. This part of the city was still rather undeveloped back in the 1980s, so it really was part of the outskirts.
I suppose Prior River is symbolic of making connections to a river of life from the past that’s still there. It connects me to how creative I used to be and still am.