A Casper native’s artwork celebrating Wyoming wildlife and the landscapes they inhabit is having an international moment, thanks to a chance online encounter.
Travis Glasgow is an entrepreneur by day, running a business called Brewrunr, which delivers alcoholic beverages and food to people in a variety of locations, including Casper, Houston, Flagstaff, Arizona, and about 100 other cities.
But at night, Glasgow likes to let his imagination run loose in Wyoming’s wild landscapes — wildscapes if you will — using images he’s collected from his own outdoor adventures.
The result of this nighttime work are dreamy images that juxtapose and blend interesting Wyoming wildlife with the landscapes they inhabit, producing images with a surreal, otherworldly quality. In essence, his portraits of wildlife have another image on them of the landscapes they inhabit, like they’re baring their souls.
There’s an eagle, for example, with a body painted with the forest ahead of him as he’s staring straight out of the canvas at the viewer. His eyes have no reflection in them. They are clear and focused, as is the sharp beak of that bird of prey, which looks poised to take off in flight at any moment, straight out of the canvas.
Another of Glasgow’s favorite pieces is a snow-topped bison, just “chilling” in the snow. The snowcapped pines of his native habitat spread across the furred lower half of his body. Trees blend into the bison’s snow-tipped fur at the edges, while the edges of the bison itself blend and blur into the snow.
The effect is a little like a ghost bison that has been rendered into an eternal block of ice and snow.
Wild Wyoming In Every Image
All of the images, as otherworldly as they may appear, have real roots in wild Wyoming.
Glasgow is an avid hiker and takes his cellphone with him wherever he goes. Those who hike alongside him know they’d better be prepared for everything to stop on a dime. If he sees something interesting to photograph, be it a landscape or a wild critter, he’s going to take a moment to gather in the grandeur, both physically and mentally.
“That’s how I source a lot of my landscape photos that I blend into the wildlife,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “And I do have some wildlife photos as well that I use, but if I don’t have a wildlife photo that I think would mesh well with the landscape, then I reach out to a wildlife photographer who wants to collaborate with me.”
Cellphones aren’t what people generally think of when it comes to high-quality art, but Glasgow has learned a few tricks over the last 20 years playing around with graphic design programs.
“There’s a little trick called image stacking,” Glasgow said. “And you’re basically just stacking a whole bunch of the same images to get some clarity.”
Glasgow uses that to give his images a realistic wow factor that he blends with landscapes to create an almost fantasy element.
The overall effect is not as simple as it sounds, though. It’s achieved through hours and hours of digital painting, using a digital brush to get into the finer details of the piece pixel by pixel.
“This is really a dimensional art form,” Glasgow said. “Because you’re kind of hitting the opacity-transparency on the animal which has texture — fur — and seeing through that to the landscape image.”
Casper artist Travis Glasgow is building a following for his hybrid art combining wildlife and the landscapes the inhabit. (Courtesy Travis Glasgow) 
Casper artist Travis Glasgow is building a following for his hybrid art combining wildlife and the landscapes the inhabit. (Courtesy Travis Glasgow) 
Casper artist Travis Glasgow is building a following for his hybrid art combining wildlife and the landscapes the inhabit. (Courtesy Travis Glasgow) 
Casper artist Travis Glasgow is building a following for his hybrid art combining wildlife and the landscapes the inhabit. (Courtesy Travis Glasgow)
Microsoft Paint Was The Spark
Glasgow has been making this specific type of artwork as a hobby for about 10 years. It all started out with a very old program called Microsoft Paint.
“I got a computer when I was a kid,” Glasgow recalled. “And so that’s where I really started, and then it just kind of grew from there.”
Later, when Photoshop came out, Glasgow became even more immersed in what these digital tools could achieve. It became a nightly habit just to see what all he could make with them.
Once he’s satisfied with an image, he shares it on social media platforms in forums across the Cowboy State. He also sells some of the images through his 307Store.
One day out of the blue, the Wyoming sales rep for Hoffman Fabrics reached out to Glasgow on Facebook, suggesting he should contact the California-based retailer about having some of his artwork considered for its batik quilt patterns.
Hoffman Fabrics was founded in 1924 by New York textile jobber Rube Hoffman. It offers premium screen-printed and hand-dyed fabrics for independent retailers focused on the quilting and home-sewing craft market.
The company has a sales rep in all Lower 48 states, as well as wholesale distributors based in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, and Japan.
“I’ll put in a word for you, because I love your art, but talk to them, and see what they say, because I think your art will look great on fabric,” the Wyoming sales rep told him.
Glasgow looked over the woman’s profile first to be sure this was all legitimate before deciding to go ahead and follow up with Hoffman directly.
“They looked at my stuff and were like, ‘This is great, we’d love to have you on board,’” Glasgow said.
And just like that, Glasgow suddenly had a two-year contract for some of his Wyoming wildscapes, taking his unique images not only national, but international.
He’ll get paid a royalty from Hoffman each time some of his artwork is sold, wherever in the world that is.
“We just released the first line, and it’s called ‘Wild,’” Glasgow said. “There are different patterns available, and so retailers can buy the fabrics for their customers who want quilts.”
The quilts are generally all custom-made, so no two will necessarily be alike.
“A customer can come in and say, ‘Hey, I like this pattern, and I want it on a certain size quilt,’” Glasgow said, adding the quilts “are made from the patterns and the fabric that’s provided.”
Casper artist Travis Glasgow is building a following for his hybrid art combining wildlife and the landscapes the inhabit. (Courtesy Travis Glasgow) 
Casper artist Travis Glasgow is building a following for his hybrid art combining wildlife and the landscapes the inhabit. (Courtesy Travis Glasgow) 
Casper artist Travis Glasgow is building a following for his hybrid art combining wildlife and the landscapes the inhabit. (Courtesy Travis Glasgow)
New Artistic Directions
Glasgow isn’t sure what direction his future artwork will take, but he’s become interested of late in acrylics.
“I’d like to produce more dimensional work,” he said.
There’s a picture of a Native American child juxtaposed with an eagle, for example, that’s particularly drawn his eye for such a project.
“I have this idea to use a yellow and black gemstone to replace the (eagle’s) eye,” he said.
He’s not sure if he’ll do too many more fabric designs for companies like Hoffman.
“I don’t really want to devalue my art by making it too readily available on everything,” he said. “I get a lot of requests, like, ‘Hey, you know that would look good as a puzzle, or that would look good on a T-shirt,, or whatever.”
He wants to produce selective, unique artwork, rather than something mass-produced. And if it can feature the Wyoming wildscapes he loves, so much the better.
“I’ve done some other art, political art, you know, and other things I’ve dabbled in,” he said. “(They) didn’t really give me a whole lot of satisfaction like this does. It just matches with my lifestyle.”
In the meantime, Glasgow is enjoying the fact his artwork hobby has landed a boutique retailer like Hoffman Fabrics. The company is even hosting a reception for him in Casper on Friday to celebrate the Wild line.
“This will be the first artist reception for me,” Glasgow said.
He’s also enjoying the idea that the Wyoming outdoors that he loves so much is getting positive exposure around the world as a result of his work.
“I love Wyoming’s wildlife, and I love Wyoming’s outdoors,” Glasgow said. “And so, this is kind of neat, because a lot of my artwork is local, and it’s really nice to be representing Wyoming (that way).”
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
