Memorials for Travis

There is a core image in the projects I do in honor of my nephew, Travis, who died two years ago in March. There is the life-size image of Travis that I created for the memorial performance of Origin of Painting I did for him after he died. Amy Shapley Ide took that image and created a smaller Travis using her signature stripes. I used Amy’s Travis as the central image in my Dream Rocket For Travis panel that is part of Jennifer Marsh’s Dream Rocket project. I designed a tattoo for my sister, Travis' mom, commemorating him. The tattoo is the word LOVE on the inside of her arm.  A tiny Travis is inside the O.

There is a beautiful relationship between Memorials for Travis and my project I love Jose. Its core image, called ‘little Jose’, has been pasted in various parts of the United States and in other parts of the world. Less than a year before he died, Travis helped me paste Joses in special spots in Colorado where he lived. On March 28, the second anniversary of his death, I will return to Colorado to re-trace the steps Travis and I took together when we pasted them. In each of these places, I will paste a Travis cut from paper in his favorite color of green. There are six spots that I will paste this image: the same spots he pasted Joses with me before he died, plus one on the trip out there – looking out over the Kansas prairie at the windmills – and one at his memorial site across the street from his mother’s house. My daughter, Rosa, drew the pink heart on this Travis, just as she did on the Travis image at the memorial performance of Origin of Painting.

Please help send Rosa and I to Colorado to bring this image of Travis full circle. I love full circles – when things come around and around. A precious circle was broken when Travis died but – image by image – this work is mending it.

https://bodydrawings.wordpress.com/category/memorials-for-travis/