Travis Parkin Art

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Travis Parkin Art

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Welcome to Travis Parkin Art. Check out my paintings and reproduction prints @
www.TravisParkin.com

I am an underappreciated abstract painter living and working in Albuquerque, New Mexico (or as my marketing consultant likes to call it, "Santa Fe South").

10/02/2026

Good news on my end! I was recently invited to join the local artist collective at Gallery ABQ in Albuquerque’s Hoffmantown Center.
Five of my original works are on display for this evening’s Artscrawl, October 2, from 5–8 PM.
Gallery ABQ always puts out a nice spread of finger food and w**e, so if you’re out and about, please stop by, say hello, and check out the work!

09/15/2026

A couple of my ghosts have taken up residence at the University of New Mexico School of Law Gallery.

“Ghost Bull at Phantom Ranch” and “The Ghost of Silverheels” will be on display throughout the school year (or until sold) through May.

It’s always a tiny ego boost to see one's work leave the studio and find a new audience. If you happen to be on the UNM campus, stop by the School of Law and have a look.

I also enjoy meeting people at these openings. I introduce myself as one of the artists, they pretend to be impressed, and I pretend to be modest. Everybody goes home happy.
😂

09/10/2026

I have a habit of saving rusty hardware and other oddball objects that might someday find their way into a painting. While working on this piece, I dug into that stash and discovered a bag of old horseshoe nails. Seven of them eventually became part of the composition, secured directly to the cradleboard with fine black wire. The nails also reminded me of Goldberg's Nails, an old Jewish joke I've loved for years about the spectacularly ill-conceived advertising campaign of a fictional nail company. Rather than give away the joke, I'll simply say that anyone curious about the title— Goldberg's Nails—can do a little digging of their own.

Beneath the humor is a painting built around excavation and contrast. Sanded passages reveal fragments of earlier red, white and blue beneath a heavily worked mustard field, while brilliant turquoise pushes against an irregular black perimeter. The actual rusted iron blurs the distinction between painted mark and physical object, giving the surface an archaeological, almost talismanic character.

• Medium: Mixed media on birch cradleboard
• Dimensions: 20 × 20 × 1.75 in.
• $575
• View my entire body of work at: www.TravisParkin.com

08/13/2026

Years ago, when I managed Guerrilla Graphix, we maintained three bank accounts. A few years after I sold the company to its employees, the bank called to tell me I’d neglected to close one. Since they wouldn’t reveal the balance over the phone, I drove over imagining a forgotten windfall. A grand or two, perhaps?!
Inside, Mr. Dubois, the young bank officer, handed me the paperwork. As I signed, I leaned toward him conspiratorially and whispered, “So how much money are we talking about here, Doc?” He checked his monitor, leaned toward me, and—mocking my whisper—replied, “Exactly eleven dollars.”
Unable to hide my disappointment, I sneered, “Oh, you mean a banker’s dozen.” He winced. I chuckled and shoved the cash into my shirt pocket.
That eleven-dollar fortune eventually became "A Banker's Dozen," where the number 11 appears in various incarnations, disappears, and resurfaces among translucent greens, scratches, symbols, and partially buried marks. Like the memory itself, the painting reveals its punch line gradually.
• Medium: Acrylic paint and crayon on birch cradleboard
• Dimensions: 36 × 24 × 1.5 in.
• $611
• View my entire body of work at: www.TravisParkin.com

08/04/2026

The inspiration for "Pancho's Prickly Pear Patina" arrived during the dog days of this summer (2026), as Albuquerque has been enduring nearly two months of temperatures above 95 degrees. Walking to my mailbox one afternoon, I passed my neighbor Pancho's xeriscaped yard where his enormous prickly pear cactus was already heavy with fruit. I've always been captivated by those deep magenta pears. Sometimes it seems as though the desert has distilled an entire sunset into a piece of fruit.
Pancho told me to help myself and naturally, I decided to squeeze the juice directly onto a canvas.
After battling nearly microscopic thorns in my fingertips and an invasion of fruit flies in my studio, I reluctantly declared the experiment a complete "swing-'n'-a-miss." Instead, I squeezed a small amount of the juice onto a white plate. I covered it with a small pane of glass which I used as a paint mixing surface where I developed a matching acrylic glaze using the juice below the glass as a direct reference. Over the years, I have found that a big part of being a good painter is being a good problem solver.
Rich crimson veils, weathered turquoise passages, and quietly buried symbols create a surface that feels both excavated and luminous. Balancing spontaneity with restraint, "Pancho's Prickly Pear Patina" celebrates the unexpected paths of experimentation while echoing the rugged beauty and surprising elegance of the New Mexico desert.
• 36x24x1.5 in.
• Acrylic paint, crayon and charcoal on canvas
• $775
• View my entire body of work @ www.TravisParkin.com

07/03/2026

Inspired by the work of Cy Twombly, this painting explores artistic influence, lifelong learning, and the quiet hope that a work of art might continue speaking long after its creator is gone.
Shortly before beginning this piece, I watched a documentary on Twombly's years at Black Mountain College and found myself drawn to a visual language that exists somewhere between memory, archaeology, and handwriting. Around the same time, I had finished Elliot Earls' How to Become an Excellent Designer, in which he encourages artists to study and imitate the work they admire as a means of acquiring skills and mastering techniques before fully finding their own voice.
After seven years of painting, I still consider myself a student. "Something to Remember Me By" was my humble attempt to develop a few Cy Twombly chops, should I ever need them. Yet as I worked, another thought surfaced: perhaps this canvas will outlive me and hang on someone's wall many years from now. The title emerged naturally.
Subtle marks, symbols, and gestural forms drift across a luminous field, suggesting fragments of memory, coded language, and traces left behind—possibly on cavern walls or rocky hillsides—for future explorers to discover.

• Something To Remember Me By
• 36x24x1.5 in.
• Acrylic paint, crayon, pastel and pencil on canvas
• $600
• View my entire body of work—past and present—at www.TravisParkin.com

07/01/2026

I was about halfway through this painting when I took a solitary weekend trip to Chaco Canyon during a full moon. At my campsite, a previous traveler had left behind a pamphlet describing the traditional names Indigenous peoples gave to each month's moon—the Harvest Moon, the Strawberry Moon, the Hunter's Moon, and many others. By the time I opened it, I was crouched beside the fire, darkness was settling across the desert, and I was enjoying my third glass of zinfandel.
In that moment, I misread Hunter's Moon as Honey Moon. The phrase struck me immediately. What a remarkable place to begin a marriage—perhaps not one's "starter" marriage 🙂, but rather a later chapter, when experience has softened certainty and deepened gratitude. The name, "Honeymoon at Chaco" was born from that simple misunderstanding and from my appreciation for the anonymous camper whose forgotten pamphlet helped me discover the title.
Bathed in warm earthen tones and quiet symbolic marks, the painting reflects the mystery, romance, and timeless spirit that continue to draw people to this extraordinary landscape.
• 30x30x1.5 in.
• Acrylic paint, crayon, pastel and pencil on canvas
• $600
www.TravisParkin.com

06/27/2026

Getting caught up on my posting. (Two more to go.) Finished this piece, "Escape from Ft. Lauderdale" a couple of weeks ago. 30x37. You can see all my work at www.TravisParkin.com Posted prices include shipping to destinations in continental US.

06/15/2026

With Tierra Amarilla, I sought to capture the subtle beauty found in the colors of the high desert. Built through numerous layers of acrylic paint, the surface reveals traces of earlier marks, textures, and forms that emerge and recede like fragments of memory.

The warm palette of ochres, golden yellows, and weathered earth tones was inspired by the landscape and architecture of Northern New Mexico, where sunlight seems to transform ordinary surfaces into something timeless. Rather than depicting a specific place, the painting suggests the feeling of place—the sensation of standing before an adobe wall that has absorbed decades of wind, dust, and sunlight.

Tierra Amarilla is an invitation to slow down, look closely, and experience the quiet poetry hidden within color, texture, and time.

• 36x24x1.5 in.
• Acrylic paint on canvas

Visit my entire body of work at www.TravisParkin.com

06/08/2026

For 10+ years, I had a career as a political graphic artist—quite possibly the most prolific one in New Mexico history. When I began to paint abstracts in 2019, I resisted bringing politics into my work, preferring to explore color, texture, balance, and abstraction without reference to current events. Yet artists do not create in a vacuum. We are witnesses to the culture around us, and there are moments when remaining silent feels less honest than speaking plainly.
The altered flag—a spray-painted, old cotton dinner napkin—at the center of this composition is intentionally unsettling. Encircled by a barrier of red barbed wire, it serves as a symbol of a nation wrestling with competing ideas of patriotism, identity, immigration and power. The stenciled phrase beneath the flag suggests a transfer of authority, while inviting viewers to consider who now holds influence and to what end.
When friends tell me they preferred my work before it became political, I understand their sentiment. Yet I believe artists have a responsibility not only to create beauty, but also to reflect the world they inhabit. Creative expression has long served as a mirror for society—challenging assumptions, documenting cultural shifts, and encouraging thoughtful conversation.
Whether viewed as protest, warning, or simply observation, Under New Management asks a question rather than providing an answer: What happens when the symbols we cherish begin to mean something different?

GOOD NEWS:
"Under New Management" will be featured in Southwest Contemporary Art's upcoming Taos and Santa Fe shows,
"CURRENT DISSENT: The Artist's Political Voice."
• Taos Center for the Arts / Sunday, June 21, 2026 / 12 noon - 4 PM / This is a ONE-DAY EVENT
• Santa Fe Community Gallery / Friday, Oct. 23rd thru 25th, 2026

View my entire body of original art and reporductions at: www.TravisParkin.com

Address

4114 Parsifal Street NE
Albuquerque, NM
87111

Telephone

+15056205272

Website

http://www.travisparkin.com/

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