Bio

Born in Mount Kisco, New York to parents Douglas and Farimah Schuerman, Travis spent most of his childhood raised in the family home of his father in Chappaqua, NY. In early grade school he lived for a couple of years in Pakistan and also in Buenos Aires, Argentina when the family relocated for his father’s work. These experiences fostered a lifelong fascination with cultural themes, in particular the undercurrents and universality of humanity that cut across cultures throughout the world.

Both parents being great admirers of the arts, frequent trips to museums in New York City were a regular family activity. This exposure encouraged him to begin drawing and painting at an early age.

Acutely fascinated with his own dreams (a frequent topic of conversation at the breakfast table before school.) he became a lucid dreamer in his early teenage years. He soon began routinely sketching out and writing down his dreams, often using them as inspiration for drawings and paintings in his earliest work.

After graduating from Horace Greeley High School, Travis studied at Syracuse University School of Architecture in the fall of 1991. After several years studying architecture, he changed direction, graduating with a BA in Anthropology from the university’s Maxwell School, with a focus in Archaeology.

Upon leaving Syracuse, he relocated to New York City, working odd jobs, including at the New Museum of Contemporary Art, while continuing to pursue his artistic endeavors. In 2004, he moved to Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica were he continued to explore his passion for the visual arts. There he designed and built a house, managed property, gave art instruction to children and adults, all the while exploring his own artistic pursuits.

In 2022, Travis returned to the U.S. to study at The Art Student’s League on 57th Street in Manhattan. Much of his work since returning to the states has shifted towards realism. In 2023 he was invited to take studio 305 at Lowe Mill Studios in Huntsville, Alabama where he stayed for a year, taking advantage of the opportunity to be near his sister’s family, and enjoying the artistic community of over 200 studio spaces in a converted cotton mill. During this time he continued his tutelage under the instruction of renowned painter, Ricky Mujica, who currently teaches at the Art Student’s League, and The Florence Academy of Art.

In 2024, he returned to the beautiful Shenandoah Valley, where he currently lives and works on his own paintings and commissioned work,. He became a member of VECCA Studio on Main Street in Woodstock Virginia in 2025, where he paints Wednesday through Saturday in the afternoons and evenings. Drop in anytime for a visit to see the beautiful and diverse work of local artists, or just to chat and have a coffee!