During the end of Travis Lee’s senior year in college his painting professor had an accident involving a saw blade. Later the next week, after a trip to the hospital and recovery time, Travis Lee helped his professor Scott Anderson cut the rest of the frames he was making for his wife. The first board he grabbed was the one latent with his own blood. Scott paused for a moment as he was about to put the board into the saw blade. He couldn’t do it. Scott said “It’s bad karma to cut this board,” while looking at the object intensely.

Travis Lee instantly asked if he could have the board. Special objects are a significant concept in Travis Lee’s work. “There is that story that when the first astronauts came back from space they carried back rocks that were in space with them. These rocks became valuables because of a place and time they occupied. They were atomically the same. I find something very interesting about this kind of nostalgic thinking, for I attach nostalgia to most of the objects around me, whether I like it or not.”