After seeing his imagery, it is no suprise learning about his roots. Louie was born in Queens, NY and spent his childhood making drawings and watching atomic age sci-fi and horror films. On the weekends, he would spend his time at comic shops and seeing matinee shows at the theater. Louie was constantly "researching" and really loved 50's memorabilia. Specifically; rockets, superheros, monsters, pulp art, king kong, and godzilla. This highly impacted his imagination, but the quality of his portraits was mainly influenced by the lighting and atmosphere of German film expressionist films and film noir from the silent era to the late 50's.
the reason i feel this could be related to the question of what is a drawing is related to his process. Louie constantly carries around a journal where he writes down ideas for characters and little doodles. This is because his pieces are all portraits of characters that he creates around entire stories that he comes up with first. From these doodles, he then goes to work on a larger scale and does a highly detailed drawing with graphite. After that, he then goes in to the piece with acrylic paint. So then, what does this get classified as? Simply mixed media, a drawing, or a painting?
Either way, I must say that I love his work. The portraits are fun and spooky at the same time. What I find most interesting though, is that he comes up with first and has the entire bios for each of his characters.
some examples-
also, more work can be found here- http://www.travislouie.com/
Herman and Morris
20×15 acrylic on board
Herman
found his prized huntsman spider in the basement of his parents’ house.
It followed him where ever he went for most of his adult life. He named
it Morris because it reminded him of his Uncle Morris, who had long
spindly legs and a strange gait that often confused people as to which
direction he was about to step in.
Although
it was common to have large insects as pets, in Rothbury, England(circa
1875). It was frowned upon to have an arachnid as a pet. When they
would go for a stroll or take in a show at the theatre, Morris would
hide in Herman’s stovepipe hat and watch through tiny holes near the top
of the hat band. Herman could even hear him clapping at the close of
the each performance. It made him laugh out loud every time.
A Girl and Her Troll Head
Acrylic on board
16 x 20”
By Travis Louie
Trolls generally had little to do with humans. Every so often they become unruly and had to be “controlled”.
There
was a time when the common practice was to behead them. The heads of
older trolls possessed magical properties. Despite being separated from
their bodies, the heads remained alive and. Some even grew their
bodies back over time. In the 1890’s it became fashionable to keep them
as pets.
Krampus Mugshot
Percy
Carruthors had a fascination with the myth of the Krampus. Everywhere
he looked he thought he saw evidence of their existence. Krampus were
known to punish people in peculiar ironic ways. Really aggressive
alpha-male types were found unconscious wearing mismatched women’s
evening wear, abusive tax appraisers were dressed as pigs, all their
earnings forcibly given away to charity, and various members of the
“self-important” society around him were found dangling from lamp posts
or stuck to railroad billboards . . . the glazed look in their eyes and
the muttering of the word “Krampus” seemed like obvious clues, . .
.strangely, these happening went unnoticed by everyone in the precinct
he worked in. Percy’s co-workers made jokes about him, saying he had
“Krampusitis”, for his constant obsession until the day a large Krampus
turned himself in for “child-juggling”. Percy gladly took the mugshots.
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