When one thinks of ultra-distance runners (that's 50 plus miles btw) artist Travis Weller may not be what comes to mind. Though he should—in addition to endurance racing, Weller is a multimedia artist and former university professor. Experimenting with cut paper, oil painting, and oil pastels Weller uses sensory imagery and emotions he experiences on his long runs to create unique abstract pieces that celebrate and highlight nature and the environment he surrounds himself in.
Weller started getting serious about making art when he was in college. Coming from a small town in rural Pennsylvania, being a full-time artist as a career was never on his agenda. But when he got to the University of North Carolina Wilmington he had a painting professor, Margie Worthington, who helped him fall in love with art and realize it was something he could and wanted to do full-time.
Weller has gone on to do several group and solo shows with a variety of well regarded galleries from California to North Carolina, but it wasn't until he collaborated with The North Face in 2020 that he started combining his love for activewear and lifestyle with his art. Now, he has collaborated travel-inspired apparel brand Roark on for its Run Amok trail running line. The Roark x Travis Weller collection, out today 4 November, puts Weller's unique synthesis of design and nature front and center, featuring a color palette born from the ridgelines, fog, and forests that surround the artist's home in the San Francisco Bay Area.