After Diego

"After Diego" 

(Pen & Marker on Bristol Board / 2016 / 4in x 5in miniature)

Diego Rivera was a Mexican artist in the early 20th century and is one of my favorite painters. As both a sensual and political artist, he lay some of the footsteps which I aspire to follow on my own artistic journey.  This illustration I created over the weekend was a passion project and reprieve from confines I've felt in my work as of late.  The drawing is based on Rivera's "El Vendedor De Alcatraces" but with my visionary twist of course!  Musing with this painting yesterday morning, I was inspired by the themes of devotion, accomplishment, burden, and strength.

Stand with Standing Rock

The Native America Sioux Tribe along with protesters and now a fleet of military veterans have dug in and set up camp to protest the building the Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota.  The site has become a cultural and political standoff which will be penned in history despite its outcome this week.  The protest camp is schedule to be cleared in the coming week so the this fossil fuel pipeline may be completed and run under the Missouri River, which is the main water source for the Standing Rock Native American Reservation whose people began to protest months ago. Despite claims by Big Oil their pipelines don't leak, 185,000 miles of pipeline leak every single day in the United States.

For centuries, the Native American peoples have fought to protect their land.  Their culture inherently understands the sacred balance between man and nature.  A balance which has become terribly skewed the past century. A platform for alternative energy is decades overdue and Standing Rock today is Ground Zero for the issue at hand. This week I completed an illustration, simply titled as the cause, Stand with Standing Rock to help lend voice to this pinnacle fight for a culture, nature, and the future of energy in our county.

Follow @DREGstudios on Instagram to see the process pictures of how I created the Stand with Standing Rock Artwork!