Creative Quarantine: Robyn Scott

Fragmented abstracted image of mice in a wheel — *Lab Rat’s Daydream*
2020
pen and ink
22” x 26” (framed)
$500

On the left side of the image, there are 2 lab rats in a cage. The cage turns into streams of different colors including red, blue, yellow, orange, and green. There are 5 lab rats within the streams of color in the middle and the right side of the image. Throughout the image, there are flowers and leaves in each of the same colors as the streams.

A drawing entitled Lab Rat in REM by artist Robyn Scott

From Robyn Scott -

I’ve been exploring how isolation can impact a person's thought process. Originally, the work was meant to satisfy feelings of being separated due to chronic illness and determine how to communicate those feelings to an audience. However, at the onset of the enforced pandemic isolation, these feelings became something the community is experiencing on a mass scale. Isolation is affecting all of us in different ways. I see us as lab rats, going through a new experiment together, whether we like it or not. I find this to be an interesting time personally because what I have been feeling is now felt by everyone. We are all in our own cages waiting out this traumatic experience. I also like to look for the beautiful things in life, just as the rat in my drawings enjoys both a daydream and a good night's sleep, playfully exploring his environment in REM. There are not 7 lab rats but just 1, enjoying a moment when there are no limitations of time and space. He can go anywhere and do anything he wants, where environments reflect upon one another and move from one thing to the next in a free and fluid manner. It's a fleeting break from our new daily routines.