Screen Therapy

Travis K. Schwab’s "Screen Therapy" is a complex painting with universal implications. The work could be approached as a portrait, but the primary subject matter is the invisible screen, and not the man staring vacantly into it. The man’s face is awash in the synthetic light of a TV; his entire being is bound to the screen in hopes that it will distract him from the concerns and anxieties of everyday life. So many of us use TV to escape ourselves and the world. There is a desperation to the way we consume media, and the lonelier and more unsatisfied we feel the greater the urge to consume becomes. Most people’s lives are repetitive and cyclical; we wake up in our box house, stare into our pocket-sized box, drive our mobile box to our cubical box, return home to stare into our large entertainment box, and repeat ad infinitum.  

Art engages you; mindless entertainment nullifies you.