Inspired by Sonoma’s pure magnificence, physician immerses herself in images

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Several of Travis’ photographs are included in her exhibit, “Geometry, Light, and Shadow,” on the Arts Guild of Sonoma. She is the featured visitor artist for August and her exhibit—together with “Celebrate Summer,” an exhibit that features the works of greater than 20 guild artists — shall be displayed there by way of Monday, Aug. 31. 

“I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity to share my work locally,” Travis mentioned. “Moving to Sonoma Mountain reconnected me to my creative side, and being able to exhibit these pieces in the community where they were made is very special.”

Travis’ images mix her intensive medical background together with her inventive artistry.

Born in Santa Monica, she grew up in West Los Angeles, the place she realized some nuances of images, together with composition and technical execution, from her father. Photography was a household custom handed down from his father, although neither had been skilled photographers.

Seeking to construct a life round science whereas doing work that felt significant, difficult and problem-solving, she obtained a bachelor’s diploma in biology and normal research from the University of Chicago, a grasp’s diploma in epidemiology from Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health and a Doctor of Medicine diploma from the Tufts School of Medicine.

From 2000 to 2018, Travis was a doctor at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and since 2009 she has served in a number of positions for Wolters Kluwer, a Dutch multinational firm that gives info, software program and providers for accountants, medical doctors, attorneys and different professionals.

In 2023, she started serving as Wolters Kluwers’ director of medical content material administration, main a workforce that gives superior medical resolution help for clinicians that assist them simply entry and ship evidence-based medication.

“Much like photography, it’s a field that requires keeping the big picture in mind while remaining obsessively attentive to small details,” she mentioned.

Travis moved together with her companion, Will, to Sonoma in 2023. 

“Like many people during the Covid pandemic, my work shifted remotely, so I was no longer tied to an office,” she mentioned. “Will and I decided to relocate to Northern California to be closer to my family in the East Bay area.”

Travis wished to be nearer to her father, particularly, who had begun exhibiting indicators of reminiscence loss and subsequently was recognized with Alzheimer’s illness.

She nonetheless works for Wolters Kluwer whereas persevering with to develop her images expertise.

Travis mentioned the analytical precision and focus required in her medical work straight inform the calculated, structured eye she brings to the digital camera lens.

“Designing clinical decision-support tools requires painstaking attention to detail: A decision tree or medical text must be reviewed and refined until every piece of information is accurate and clear,” she mentioned. “I method picture processing in a lot the identical means. When I’m enhancing {a photograph}, I make tiny, incremental changes to tone and distinction till the picture lastly ‘clicks.’

“If a composition or tonal value is slightly off, it triggers the exact same internal instinct I get when reading a medical draft that needs to be tighter and clearer. It’s an exercise in bringing order and clarity to the frame.”

Travis mentioned photographic work adjustments how an individual navigates the bodily world. 

“Instead of simply looking at a building or a flower, you start pausing to notice how light sculpts a hidden edge or how contrasting textures interact,” she mentioned. “Often, the real discovery happens later in the digital darkroom when I zoom into an image and spot a detail I didn’t fully appreciate in the field.”

That’s precisely how her sequence of spider internet photographs emerged. 

“One morning, the webs on my deck railings were heavy with coastal fog,” Travis mentioned. “I leaned in close and took dozens of shots, not knowing if anything would come of them. When I brought them up on screen and zoomed in, I was amazed to see a series of water beads, each holding a crisp, inverted miniature landscape refracted inside the droplet.”

She focuses on reaching a exact stability of tone, line and delicate texture by capturing a second by which they align into geometric patterns.

“In the spider web series, that geometry reveals itself in the beaded roundness of fog droplets and the sharp, clean angles where silk strands intersect,” she mentioned. “When I turn my camera to architecture, I look for that same structural harmony on a larger scale.”

For instance, when Travis was photographing the inside skylights at Marin County Civic Center, she was drawn to how gentle filters by way of the acrylic barrel vaults, utilizing shadow to carve out a rhythmic, repeating geometry. 

“Whether it’s delicate spider silk or the grand curves of the civic center, stripping away color allows those essential lines to surface, inviting viewers to pause and appreciate the underlying design of the world around us,” she mentioned.

Her work has been enhanced by her membership within the Marin Photography Club.

“It is an active group filled with incredibly talented members,” Travis mentioned. “Being part of the club has pushed my work forward significantly. Seeing how different photographers approach the exact same subject pushes me to experiment.”

Her spider internet sequence was straight impressed by a membership presentation on inventive images, throughout which a member demonstrated utilizing gentle, water droplets and superb strands of glue to discover refractive macro imagery.

She mentioned curating her exhibition on the Arts Guild of Sonoma, which features a spider internet photograph, was “a wonderful challenge.”

“I wanted the collection to feel unified without being restricted to a single subject,” she mentioned. “I decided to tie the work together through two key elements: Every print is monochrome and every piece centers on a strong geometric component.”

“That structural thread runs through the entire selection—from the almond-shaped mandorla carved by light in the sanctuary ceiling at the Cathedral of Christ the Light in Oakland to the bilateral symmetry of an orchid, to the tiny spheres of fog suspended on a web.”

The Arts Guild of Sonoma, at 140 E. Napa St. in Sonoma, is open from 11 a.m. to five p.m. Wednesday by way of Monday. Admission is free.