Charles Riley

After graduating with a B.A. in English Lit from St. Leo University in 1971, I spent many valuable years in any drudge work I could manage along with pretty regular periods of unemployment. Along the way, I met many colorful characters and experienced unusual and diverse circumstances. With a love of learning, I added professional student to my emerging status as mysterious underground creature. Over time, I attended as many schools as I could such as New York University, University of Bridgeport, and Columbia University. Along with my love of literature, I naturally extended that love to art of any kind. My studies culminated with a doctorate in College Teaching in Studio Art from Columbia University Teachers College. In an effort to balance drudge work, marriage, and a child, I continued through my evolving artwork to strive to combine literary and visual treasure from Eastern and Western Culture in a very human experience. In this manner I find that there is nothing lost and nothing that is not of great value.

To make ends meet after grad school and marriage, I learned a skill and worked in the information factory of today as a programmer. Programming is very tedious, laborious, and punctuated with moments of terror. A simple programming error can and has resulted in the loss of multi-million dollar investments and can cost lives. I have not been able to claim this notoriety for myself, but I have had my share of less spectacular moments of terror. The terror didn't bother me, but the politics in a government agency drove me mad so I appeared normal to anyone in the agency.

To keep up with all the changes in technology is sort of like treading water in a raging flood at night with no clue as to where the shore is. Absurdly, the more one struggles, the further one is pulled from shore. As an artist for many years, I can see there is not much difference in the amount of information, which not only blurs the edges between art and technology, but blurs your vision and gives you a headache.

My artwork has been displayed at the Bronx Museum in New York, The Hudson River Valley Museum, The Museum of the National Arts, ArtWorks, AbsoluteArts.com, ArtMajeur.com, ArtTechnology.com, CharlesRileyArt.com and the Fredericksburg Center for the Creative Arts. Some of my artworks have appeared as illustrations for literary journals. I published a book of poetry at Enovel.com, which soon afterward went out of business. Other written works have appeared in art journals such as Art & Artists and hopelessly unprofitable but enriching literary journals. Select poetry and artworks from a lifetime of work is now available in book format on Amazon.com, CreateSpace.com, and Kindle. The Second Edition of my novel with artwork, Office Story or a Portrait of the Insect as Savior in the Hyper Media Deluge, will soon be if not already available at Amazon.com, CreateSpace.com, and Kindle. I hope my artwork will enrich your life as much as it has mine.