Butterfly on a Wheel

This digital art (because what else would it be) started because I was listening to the song of the same name by the Mission UK, off their Carved in Sand Album. Extrapolating from there, I looked up the idiom, butterfly on a wheel, and found that it originated from Alexander Pope’s 1735 poem “Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot.” “But what does it all mean, Basil?” I asked myself in a fake British accent, a-la Austin Powers – meaning my creation, of course. Well, in artsy speak, I’m trying to represent technology breaking the fragile connection of humankind to nature. Notice how she is bound to a gilded wheel, force fed advertising a-la the movie “They Live”, until there is no longer a connection to the beauty which is nature, just outside the glass. You can see a real word comparison in any major city with people walking about staring at their phones, instead of what is around them. There’s other stuff too, like losing ourselves, but I’m getting into to/dr territory, or sounding pretentious. The part I like the most is how the circuit on her face looks like a tear.

Lost Souls

A vibrant, abstract painting features a green gas mask with bright pink eyes, set against a swirling backdrop of blues, purples, and reds. The mask's intense colors and the dynamic, flowing background create a sense of motion and tension.


Earlier, I was reading a book on Otto Dix and his experiences in the First World War.  I had a doodle I’d started yesterday with swirls of red. I looked at it after reading the book, and saw a man in desperate fear within the swirls.  I tried to turn what I saw into what you see.  I kept the eyes I’d seen in the red swirls and put them behind the mask of the man advancing in a cloud of poison gas.
Here’s a close-up


Although it’s what I call a filler piece, until I get my next big idea, I wanted to convey raw, unsettled emotion; fear, creepiness, the hopelessness of war, and so on.
I’d like to hear your opinion.