Travis Louie
" The Amazing Mort "
acrylic on board/comes in black decorative frame
16 " x 20 "
On Hold

Mort was mostly ogre and part troll. He worked as a "bridge troll".
His job was to prevent the sheep and sheepherders from crossing the river and getting to the grasslands on the other side. The sheep ate the grass too low, which was a problem for the cattle who grazed there regularly.
It wasn't an unusual occurrence for Mort to eat both sheep and sheepherder when he was hungry enough.
On his days, off he practiced his magic act in full costume with a fake mustache. His act included slight of hand, sawing people in half, and conjuring the spirits of the dead. In his finale, he conjured up the spirit of his favorite pet bison, whose head levitated from out of his top hat. 

Travis Louie
" The Duelist and the Coelacanth "
acrylic on board/comes in oval frame with convex glass
16 " x 20 "
SOLD

Victoria developed the ability to "shape-change" at an early age. At first, she could only transform herself for short periods of time and could only change her appearance to mimic people that were the same size as she was. As she reached adolescence, she could become anyone she wanted and played mischievous pranks on people. She managed to keep her secret ability from everyone, including her father.  Her father was a nobleman who saw that she was unlike other little girls, in that she was interested in science and fencing.  He eventually  taught her how to use a sword and often told to her, "You are faster than I am, if you had only longer arms, you could beat anyone".
She ended up working as a duelist for hire. When her patrons were fearful of their opposition, she was paid to fight in their place. It was a well paying occupation for a 14 year old. Luckily, none of her clients ever saw what she really looked like. On her days off, she daydreamed about the coelacanth, a prehistoric fish whose fossil had been recently found. Almost a century later, a live specimen would be caught off the coast of South Africa.

Travis Louie
" Rollo "Slappy" Spivey "
acrylic on board/comes in cathedral frame with convex glass
10" x 16 "
$ 5000.

Rollo was employed as a leverage agent and debt collector. With his formidable size and large "slapping hands" people usually paid up as soon as they caught a glimpse of him. He rarely had to smack anyone, . . . but when he did, it could be heard across town.

Known as a "smacker" with good intentions who loved to fix big clocks, he climbed the clock tower every few months to perform maintenance on the gears of the clock. Keeping time was very important to him. He was always very deliberate and conscious of how much time each activity he planned for his days took. On his days off, he liked to lead his marching band through the tower square, . . . and of course, keeping time with his enormous clapping hands.

Travis Louie
" Hershel "
acrylic on board/comes in cathedral frame with convex glass
16" x 20 "
SOLD

Hershel first appeared in Williamsburgh in 1854.

It was said that he was somehow a distant relation to Cthulhu, one of the great water beings.

He was a commercial fisherman and had a crew of 15 men. He worked long hours and required little sleep. All the people who worked for him had unusual names that he couldn't remember, so he called everyone "Joe". Somehow they all knew who he was referring too when he yelled out "Joe!". He seemed to have at least 15 different ways of saying it. When Hershel wasn't at sea, he was easily distracted by the sight of day to day people in his neighborhood. On his day off, he would spend hours just to walk the two blocks from his from his apartment to his favorite coffee shop. Where he sat and enjoyed his favorite drink; a chocolate egg cream . He would sit outside and spend his entire afternoon just watching people and sipping his drink.

He continued to enjoy his Sunday afternoons for most of his adult life in Brooklyn until 1957, when his beloved Dodgers moved to Los Angeles.

Travis Louie
" Baxter "
acrylic on board/comes in oval frame with convex glass
8" x 10 "
SOLD

Baxter worked as a butler for an eccentric oil baron in 1898.
His father was a Krampus who emigrated from Bavaria in the 1860's and married a school teacher from Piscataway, New Jersey.
 Baxter grew up to be erudite and purposeful. he had a fascination with the wonders of the world particularly insects.
 During the warmer months on his days off he would wander through the town marveling at nature.

Travis Louie

" Courage "

acrylic on board/comes in black frame

20" x 24 "

SOLD

Saul was a giant grouper who destroyed whaling ships in the North Atlantic. He was so enormous, he was often mistaken for a whale even though he was actually larger than most whales.  Despite his size, he had a strange phobia about cod. On his days "off" he would seek them out to try and overcome his fear.  

Travis Louie
" Caldwell "
acrylic on board/comes in black decorative frame
11" x 14 "
SOLD

Caldwell promoted what he called the "purity of monocular vision"
He started a cult that often included people who wore eye patches as well as
 the common cyclops. He believed that through his one eye he had extra sensory abilities.
It was a precursor to  the spiritualists of the 19th century.
When he wasn't proselytizing the virtues of monocular vision, he would spend time admiring moths or "night butterflies" as he called them.

Travis Louie
" Miss Audrey And Her Gnarled Locks "
acrylic on board/comes in black decorative frame
16" x 20 "
$ 7000.

Miss Audrey suffered from "Bad Hair" after being bitten by an angry Emily Smithson.
She spent the next few years biting and infecting others while holding her bad hair in place
with a powerful pomade that attracted buzzers and gentlemen callers. There were always
men following her around because of her job singing and dancing at a the local saloon. On her days off, she would meet up with other ladies that acquired the same hair malady and they would gather without their pomade and bindings. They would let their hair take over and wager on whose hair was the most "gnarled".

Travis Louie
" The Opera Fan "
acrylic on board/comes in oval frame with convex glass
8" x 10 "
SOLD

On a cold day in 1883, the loud booming voice of Clarence "Rat catcher" Williams' was heard for miles as he sang most of the parts from Wagner's Götterdämmerung. Clarence worked in the sewers solving the rat problems of the city of Paris in the 1880's. On his days off he would dress up like characters from different operas and attend as many performances as he could. He was the first "superfan", . . . much like those sports enthusiasts who dress up so colorfully to root for their favorite sports franchise in modern times.  

Travis Louie
" Miss Eunice and The Gremlin "
acrylic on board/comes in black decorative frame
18" x 24 "
SOLD

Gremlins have been known to put curses on people and machines dealing with different modes of transportation. In modern times, they are thought of as saboteurs of  air travel. During the 19th century, they were employed by rival shipping companies to disable wagons, trains, and ships. On their days off, they simply liked to spy on people and collect secrets to use as "leverage". When  it was very fashionable for wealthy ladies to wear hats festooned with taxidermy, they often posed as birds or "hat monkeys" .