LOS ANGELES -- “All I want to do is draw. I feel very, very, blessed to have this. It’s such a wonderful gift and a torturous way to live life," said Laurie Lipton.

She has spent every day of the last 60 years drawing but is constantly fighting to be able to do what she loves.

“I would go and a gallery would say, 'Oh my god these are amazing, can you do these in color. Oh my god, these are amazing, can they not be so disturbing,'” Lipton said.

She spent 36 years trying to get her artwork recognized abroad, and when she moved back to the U.S., her arrival coincided with the wide adoption of social media. Her latest work is called Newsfeed.

“It’s really about my experience on social media and all the junk that’s on my newsfeed that piles out,” Lipton said. 

Seventy percent of the U.S. population is active on social platforms, according to We Are Social’s 2019 report. That’s more than 230 million Americans.

Lipton said it’s all around us. “We are turning into a crazy juxtaposition of flesh and metal. You see people on the street always plugged in with their earphones, always looking down, now they have virtual reality," she said.

But with 150,000 Facebook likes and more than 18,000 followers on Instagram, Lipton's critiques are as much of herself as they are of the world around her.

“I am an addict in every way shape and form," she said.

It’s the convergence of these two addictions, drawing and tech, that have Silicon Valley executives and CEOs buying her drawings. Something she said she is grateful for.

“I thank the universe before I start, before I start I say thank you. It might be [a] videogame up there or whatever, but before I start, I thank the universe because this is my idea of heaven," Lipton said.