This sculpture began my journey to find and define my voice as an artist.

 I inherited a family treasure from my grandfather Bob-pa, Robert Fleming Travis. This inheritance is not an object it is an impression of a human spirit. With this object I tell the story of the pain and challenges the harsh west Texas weathers imprints on a soul through tears, rips and holes in a satin lining. I see evidence of daily habits necessary to survive alcoholism, and diabetes through the creases still living in the felt. I see a love between two people committed for life in the tattered remnants of a gross grain ribbon. I see financial hardship that shapes character in the frayed and moth eaten edges of the brim. This well-worn inheritance quietly mirrors my grandfather’s life and character.  Shaped by growing up in the Depression, he knew hard times as he later farmed cotton and raised cattle in the harsh West Texas desert near El Paso.