Travis Merrick has had a passion for art for most of his life.

“I started when I was 6 or 7 years old. I used to draw cars and my friends used to collect the drawings,” said Travis, who runs a home-based graphic design company with his partner, Sheri. The car sketches proved a useful defence tactic for a small town boy, whose sports-mad peers tended to regard art as a somewhat eccentric pastime.

By the time he was in his early teens, Travis had amassed tons of sketch books. “I started drawing on the walls and there wasn’t much my mum could do about it,” he said, laughing. “At one time I did a mural in my bedroom. When I was 13 or 14, I started doing watercolour painting because (the medium) was cheap and easy to use.”

He received no formal training, apart from art classes in high school. “I applied to OCAD (Ontario College of Arts and Design) and got rejected, and that was the best thing that ever happened to me.” He ended up studying graphics at George Brown for two years, a choice he has never regretted.

Meanwhile, he continued to draw and paint, switching to acrylics and using barn boards as canvasses. “A group from Ducks Unlimited purchased 33 paintings a year from me for three or four years. I was 19 when I did my first art show at a little church in Uxbridge for the Celebration of the Arts, and for the first time ever I sold several paintings.”

When he and Sheri established their company, Merrick Art & Graphics, he found he had less time to paint. It wasn’t until a couple of years ago, when Sheri’s sister gave them two pieces of raw soapstone, that he discovered his talent for sculpture.

“We went to the gem show and I bought three pieces of stone from a guy who sells rocks there,” said Travis. “When I got home I went to Canadian Tire and they happened to have a Dremel (a tool used for drilling, sanding and carving) on sale, so I bought that and started carving.”

This summer he has exhibited his sculptures in four shows and has sold at least 30 to date. “I’m very happy with that, because paintings just don’t sell that quickly and people love the sculptures.”

His subjects range from majestic eagle heads to ethereal faces carved into the stone, with the surrounding stone preserved in its rough beauty. He also creates abstract organic pieces, along with more traditional, polished shapes in alabaster tones. His sculptures range in price from as little as ten dollars up to several thousand dollars and each one is unique.

Travis applied for a spot at this year’s One of a Kind Christmas show at Exhibition Place. His application was accepted and then the real work began. “Since I had never been in the show before I didn’t know how much material I would need. Some people take a year to prepare and I only had two and a half months.”

Not only did he have to produce a lot of sculptures in a very short time, but he also had to design and build his own booth, as well as continuing his full time work as a graphic designer. Travis will be at the One of a Kind show from Dec. 1 to 6 and examples of his sculptures can be seen online at www.oneofakindshow.com/xmas09.

Sculptor Travis Merrick and his partner, Sheri Smith, run a graphic design company out of their home, creating magazines, flyers and local publications, including the Stouffville Free Press. Travis is participating in this year’s One of a Kind Show at Exhibition Place in Toronto. 

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