About the Artist

Trevor Campbell is a practicing artist from Fort Wayne, IN. He graduated from Ball State University (2016) with a degree in Visual Arts Education and a minor in Art History, and currently teaches visual arts at Canterbury High School in Fort Wayne.

In 2016 and 2017 he participated in the IPFW Art Educator’s competition, taking third and first place respectively. Trevor has displayed artwork at University of St. Francis’s gallery, ArtLink gallery, and had his first solo exhibition Earth Day at The Garden Fort Wayne. Trevor has had work accepted into the 2022 and 2023 Midwest Regional Art Exhibition, the IU Kokomo exhibition, Drawn, as well as galleries in Virginia and Missouri. Trevor has been featured on PBS’s series, “arts IN focus,” was a 2023 Arts United Award Nominee, and received a Teacher Creativity Fellowship for his proposal, “Mimesis of Migration - Following and Drawing the Great Migrations of Alaska.” Inspired by wildlife, he is excited about spending the summer following the migrations of caribou, humpback whales, and salmon to expand his work. The trip to Alaska was capped by serving as the Artist in Residence at the Ernest Gruening Cabin State Park outside of Juneau.

Outside of practicing art and teaching, Trevor enjoys spending time with his wife, Grace, and his three dogs Scout, Moose and Penny. Trevor is an avid outdoorsman - he has backpacked on the Appalachian Trail, in Isle Royale, Voyageurs, across the Grand Canyon and back, Canyonlands, Saguaro, Grand Teton and Zion National Parks. His favorite backpacking trip was in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, hiking from the Brooks Range to the Arctic Ocean.

Artist Statement

The animal kingdom has always captivated me - unique beings, evolved to thrive in harsh and unforgiving environments, all having wisdom to share with us. An avid backpacker, I find myself drawn to interacting with animals in their environment, learning their ways, immersed in their being and devoid of human influences. My current body of work depicts animals and places I encounter on backpacking trips through empowerment, instilling a sense of respect in the viewer for these unique creatures and places. My drawings are created with layers of pen. It is a difficult, permanent medium that you can not erase. I look at this process as a metaphor for our interactions with the natural world - permanent and irreversible. Applying pen strokes, marks become tallies, counting the remaining species left and contemplative on the fragile relationship between man and nature. Captivating and inviting poses and colors bring the viewer face to face with those I have encountered, charging them to care, to preserve and protect, what makes our world so special and unique: the wild.