L+M Feature Friday — Travis Gibbs

Travis Gibbs, who works in the Environmental Services Department at L+M, will be the main attraction Saturday night at New London’s Hygienic Art Gallery, where 41 of his original works are on display through April 20.

The show opens Saturday at 7 p.m., and the public is encouraged to attend.

Gibbs has held one of the Hygienic’s prestigious “Artist in Residence” positions since 2011, but the current show, titled the Anti-Hero Project, is his first chance to truly showcase a passion that began in childhood.

“I can’t remember when I first started drawing, but I do have a really bad picture of Godzilla that I drew for my 3-year-old sister,” Travis says. “I was about eight at the time.”

Gibbs’ art has dramatically evolved and improved over two-plus decades, largely thanks to his unyielding focus and intensity.

“While other kids were playing Super Mario Brothers, I was studying anatomical structure,” he says.

Later, he courted a job with Marvel Comics, but eventually lost interest when the confines of the comic book constrained his style. Words and music also played major influences. Today, Gibbs says his poetry and artwork have merged into a powerful “mulit-media” voice that he predicts will hit Hygienic viewers in a powerful way.

 “Expect to be challenged,” he says. “I don’t do what many people think of as gallery art with seashells and rainbows. I’m deeply fascinated by politics, spirituality, social structure and the human condition. It’s a very gritty show. It’s not vulgar in any way, but it’s gritty. It’s challenging.”