Travis Szabolcska

Survival 1
24” x 18”

Survival 2
18” x 24”

Survival 3
24” x 18”

Oil on canvas

Photographs by the artist

My artwork is a series of three paintings called Survival. They depict a story about a wandering person stranded on a hostile alien world. Each painting represents a comic book like scene, that shows the mysterious character trekking through the landscape. He is trying his best to survive in this dire situation. The science fiction setting of this series roughly mirrors the hardships we are all trying to face in these unfortunate events that have plagued the year 2020. With the isolation we have all faced, it can sometimes feel as though we are the only ones in this wide world trying our best to live. Yet we must still persevere, just as the person in my paintings struggles to stay alive. Each scene is created with oil on canvas and the overall color depicts the mood that the character is possibly feeling. For the first painting I chose cooler tones overall with hints of warm reds and oranges to show that while he might be nervous, he also can’t help but admire the new land and what possibilities it might hold. The next painting is a battle scene that shows the character as he is in the process of engaging with a hostile creature. This scene has a suspenseful atmosphere with bright reds and oranges to create a feeling of intensity. The final painting shows a desert scene with green monotones to bring relief to the viewer with a few shades of red swirling through the planet watching overhead. This hints that the character, even though he won this battle, his fight still has a long way to go. My work, having its sci-fi theme brings a mysterious yet fantastical tone to a process of life we all try to accomplish … Survival.