A true Cinderella story at its finest; the broken body of a bare knuckle champion mended by the careful hands of a stowaway wife. Each stitch a promise that her green valise wouldn't vacate his apartment. In time, he stopped trying to push her into a life that was better suited for her. In time, she came to accept that he was a better man because of her. In time, they both found a way to make the mistakes of their youth vanish with the mild onset panic of creating new life together. It's said that blessings come in small packages but Charlie and Maria Cavanaugh never expected a literal plural.
Seven minutes apart on a muggy August day, they were gifted a healthy son and daughter. Though Kingsbridge was not an ideal place to raise children in the mid 80's, they did the best they could with the means they had available. The children wanted for nothing while Charlie and Maria wore themselves down to make sure that they were afforded a better life than either had.
River's childhood was like any other's in a home environment filled with love and encouragement. He attended school, made god marks, and socialized with friends. While he might not've had the latest in clothes or toys, he learned other skills. His father, the maintenance man of the apartment they lived in, began to teach him how to repair things at an early age. Oftentimes, River was found alongside his sister rewiring ceiling fans or under leaky faucets. While this might have been uninteresting to some, it was how River learned to know his father.
From an early age, it was evident that he had a way with numbers. Arithmetic became the language in which all things were colored for his life. While many of his classmates struggled, he found himself excelling and that thirst for knowledge pushed him to compete in math bowls. Of which, he won state championships four times during his high school career. While they weren't televised on ESPN, they were just as competitive as any contact sport.
Rutgers extended him a full ride, which he turned down though the reason is unclear. He claimed familial responsibility and began community college instead. There, he met Dave Smith, who mentored him in melding both art and mathematics to create his own style in printmaking. River fell in love with the art and eventually fused his passion so that when Dave announced he was taking over a press in Santa Monica, River followed to become his business partner.
Leaving New York had been difficult. Away from his family for the first time, he found that the transition took longer than necessary despite his sister's eventual migration. He longed for home but made strides in both his personal and professional life. In 2008, he met a woman who he thought would help him sink roots in the California shore.
Like all things bred in the desert, life simply could not sustain itself. A marriage. A divorce. He learned to place his life events down in bullet points and made the decision to move first to Seattle in 2010 to finish his schooling and then back to New York in 2012 to begin a new version of living. In the seven years he spent away from the city, fresh eyes were gifted to him.
In 2015, he took a sabbatical leave to spend time in Alaska. There he worked with local fishermen and helped jumpstart a printmaking project that fused the native culture with ink and paper. He returned at the end of the year to New York with a fresh perspective on where he wanted life to take him.
Currently he teaches one semester out of a full term in the area of Printmaking and runs Redux Print full time. The studio has gallery space which his students often show their work in, so that they can gain the experience of both gallery showing and see how a printmaking studio works outside of a classroom setting. Redux Print offers summer internships as well as gallery space to many types of artists.
He resides in a Brooklyn apartment that runs adjacent to a colleague and good friend named Cody. While he realizes his new path will take time to develope, he is hopeful for the future.
• Is of Puerto Rican, Spanish and Irish descent. Neither parents are first generation immigrants.
• Is fluent in spanish though he very rarely announces this fact.
• Is left-handed in writing though he does everything else with his right.
• An avid comic collector, his number is in the thousands. They are arranged by print order in his home.
• Has an incredible love for numbers and incorporates them into his work. Possesses a shorthand in mathematical frequency.
• Participates in boxing matches with his gym. Has developed a taste for it over the years.
• Plays harmonica, piano, and guitar.
• Is a devout Catholic.
• Has asthma that only manifests when panicked or overwhelmed.
• Despite his deep love for the ocean, he is irrationally afraid of giant squid.
• Fears planes and dogs with an equal amount of disdain.
• Though infinitely patient, his temper is brutal.
• Has a scar on his right temple and one under his chin from two unrelated incidents. Neither of which he's willing to discuss.
• Has been in three longstanding relationships. He's reluctant to share any information on those either.
• Regularly attends therapy and support groups for victims of violent crimes.
• Regular bouts of insomnia tend to make him lose track of time.
• While silence is the golden rule, he can appear closed off at times by his sins of omission.