Room Living (Another Weekend Gone)

Travis K. Schwab’s Room Living (Another Weekend Gone) is drenched in ultra-saturated colors that transform the natural elements in the painting. The bouquet and the subject's blonde French braid evoke the natural world and a wholesome bucolic environment. However, the artificial, almost neon light transfigures these formally natural elements into something unnatural and otherworldly. The synthetic light washes over the entire canvas and transforms its contents like our lives have been transformed by quarantine. We increasingly feel more disconnected from nature and each other and more at ease in the isolation of our homes, drowning in the light of our many screens.

Room Living (Another Weekend Gone)’s interplay of light, color, texture, and depth is truly remarkable. The folds of her blanket become an abstract oasis. The abstraction is so pronounced that it begins to conjure up figurative images; a ghostly screaming face rises from the center of the canvas.