The observed landscape studies I create result in a product that documents the moment in a way that a memory or camera snapshot could never replicate. When I revisit each of my completed sketches, I am instantly transported back to a specific place and time and can recount every sensory facet of the experience. These works become a journal of my collective experiences.
Jason Travers
Associate Teaching Professor, Art
Education:
MFA, University of Pennsylvania
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Biography
Jason Travers is a practicing artist whose work has been featured in numerous exhibitions, both locally and nationally. His fall 2021 exhibition, Documenting the Moment: A Visual Journal, at Penn State Lehigh Valley’s Ronald K. De Long Gallery included works on paper and digital projections of landscape artwork spanning the last several years. The theme of the exhibition, which also included a community gallery display of student artwork inspired by the concept of visual journaling, focused on the value of immersion experiences and creative responses which were particularly relevant during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2014, Prof. Travers was artist-in-residence at Acadia National Park, Maine, and he was recently a finalist for the artist-in-residence program at Shenandoah National Park. In 2017 he was artist-in-residence at Platte Clove Preserve in the Catskills. He continues to seek extended residencies in order to explore the link between his current observational landscape work and his earlier gestural abstractions. His work has received awards including First Place in Two-Dimensional Media in the 2015 Northeast Biennial and Best in Show in the 2002 Northeast Biennial.
Prof. Travers earned a BA in studio art, with a concentration in advertising and graphic design, from Moravian College; and an MFA in painting from the University of Pennsylvania.
Research & Creative Work
Exhibitions
Documenting the Moment: A Visual Journal, Ronald K. De Long Gallery, Penn State Lehigh Valley, Center Valley PA, Fall 2021
Residencies
Platte Clove Preserve, Catskills, NY, Platte Clove Artist-in-Residence, August 2017
Acadia National Park, Artist-in-Residence, August 2014
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Lower Falls, Walking Purchase Park
Lower Falls, Walking Purchase Park
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Raven's Nest, Acadia
Raven's Nest, Acadia
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Winter Harbor, Acadia
Winter Harbor, Acadia
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Schoodic Point, Acadia
Schoodic Point, Acadia
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Gallery Installation, Documenting the Moment: A Visual Journal Ronald K. De Long Gallery, Penn State Lehigh Valley
Gallery Installation, Documenting the Moment: A Visual Journal Ronald K. De Long Gallery, Penn State Lehigh Valley
Thinking Through Drawing with Jason Travers, YouTube, LUArtGalleries
In this video Jason Travers, Professor of Practice at Lehigh University, discusses his process behind imagining ideas and bringing them to life on paper.
Thinking Through Drawing with Jason Travers, YouTube, LUArtGalleries
Documenting the Moment: A Visual Journal, YouTube, Penn State Lehigh Valley
Closing event for artist Jason Travers' exhibition at the Ronald K. De Long Gallery.
Documenting the Moment: A Visual Journal, YouTube, Penn State Lehigh Valley
Visual Journaling with Jason Travers and Ian Birky - LUAG Art in Dialogue, YouTube, LUArtGalleries
Visual journaling--the act of capturing one's experiences through images--is being embraced by many, particularly during this moment of self-isolation and quarantine. Capturing and creating imagery can be a way to not only document a place or experience, but a way to increase one's own well-being. Join us for this online discussion with artist and AAD faculty member Jason Travers and Ian Birky, Director of Counseling and Psychological Services at Lehigh, and learn about this inspiring creative process.
Visual Journaling with Jason Travers and Ian Birky - LUAG Art in Dialogue, YouTube, LUArtGalleries