INTERVIEW
TRAVIS BOYER
The New York artist on his use of unconventional materials and the things he can't stop collecting.
Interview by Martin Lerma
Travis Boyer avoids obvious choices. Where most painters embrace paint and traditional canvases, Boyer opts for velvet and special dyes. The same goes for the many idiosyncratic collections the self-professed 'feelings hoarder' has curated over time. Boyer spoke with Platform about how the late singer, Selena, impacted him growing up in Texas, why he loves old VHS documentaries, and what he prefers about listening to music on the radio versus Spotify.
Platform: You're really drawn to using a lot of different textures and materials in your work. Why do you tend to use them in your practice as opposed to other more “traditional” materials?
Travis : When I was growing up, I learned from a family friend about weaving, silk painting and things like that. When I went to college and learned more about oil painting and other traditional approaches, I still had this kit of materials of silk fabrics and dyes. I just always thought “Oh, that thing still looks way better.” The end result to me just seems more appealing. Something that I felt my painting peers saw as an alternative process was more primary for me in terms of an approach to making something beautiful. I've always also just been drawn to silk, silk-velvet, natural dyes, beeswax, things that come from a different kind of alchemy in terms of art making. There's also something very bodily about them, about their behavior, especially the velvet. It’s a really old material that goes back to the middle ages, but whether it's interpreted as being fancy or cheap or trendy or expensive, there's just something kind of sensual and strange about it.
Platform: What made you start painting on those surfaces? Did that require learning a whole new skill set?
Travis: I've been doing it since I was really young. So new skill set? No. Did it involve really expanding and being dedicated to that skill set? Yes. It’s something that's a little bit connected to watercolor, but what is unique about it is understanding the surface tension because it's like stain painting. The surface drinks the dye and you're trying to see how well you can control how far it's going to spread and whether the color starts to break up. Is it going to deposit a very thin darker line at the point that it starts drying up? Do you need to have a hairdryer standing by as you're doing it? When you're doing anything with dye, it's kind of a “no-whammies” approach. Once you've decided to apply color or go with something, you can't really dial it back like with regular painting. To access a complicated analogy, have you ever seen this movie Roman Holiday with Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck?
Platform: Yeah, of course!
Travis: There's this moment in Roman Holiday – it's a black and white movie where she's this runaway Princess slumming it – she goes to the barber and the barber is sort of resistant but agrees to cut all her hair off. There's this brief psychological moment where she's like “What have I done?” and the barber’s like “What have I done?” Then he turns her cheek and sees that it wasn't such a bad move and that he can figure out how to transform her into this chic, androgynous gamine. And I'm like, that's actually what success looks and feels like in my painting practice. It's no-whammies, just this big haircut where you’re like, “Oh shit, what have I done?” and then, “Oh, that's actually really nuanced and beautiful.”
Read the full interview here: https://www.platformart.com/editorial/travis-boyer-interview