Traveling can be a great way to relieve life’s stresses. However, taking trips can be challenging for many people who have a disability. Often vacations can increase symptoms, require extra planning, and need increased time for rest periods. This problem made me wonder how images, like paintings, can be used as a visual coping mechanism for those who find it hard to travel. Can artwork be used to create the feeling of traveling without taking a trip for those who find it difficult to see the world? Is that something the artist only feels, or does the audience feel it as well? How can someone capture a place they have never been and give it life?

When Covid started, I decided to use my landscape painting practice as a visual coping mechanism for my traumatic brain injury. The paintings I created became my own trips around the world from home. I explored places I love to travel to, places I hope to visit someday, and forms of transportation I would struggle taking now. Like regular travel, I wanted these landscapes to be visible when viewed in the dark, so I began developing techniques using a glow-in-the-dark pigment called strontium aluminate. I also researched artists who work in light-based mediums like alumni Laura Hughes and contemporary artist Olafur Eliasson. Exploring light also led me to look at impressionist Claude Monet and post-impressionist Paul Cézanne.

Traveling Without Traveling is a glow-in-the-dark landscape series that explores traveling from home as a form of visual coping to places I am interested in visiting. My family also has meaningful ties to all of the locations. Since these places feel like an escape for me, I gave the paintings as much life as possible by using glow-in-the-dark pigment. I hope to visit these places someday, and even if I can’t, I at least enjoyed them through my paintings.