THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 19, 1994 TAG: 9406180062
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CAROLE O'KEEFFE, CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: 940619 LENGTH: Medium
Perhaps a few surprises in a new business called Panoramas by Travis Lee - the first being that Travis Lee is a woman.
{REST} ``I get a lot of mail addressed to Mr. Travis Lee,'' the 42-year-old interior designer said.
Another surprise is that after 18 years as an eligibility worker with Portsmouth Social Services, Lee plans next year to give up that career and her senior position to devote all her time to interior decorating.
She has dubbed her business Panoramas to indicate how she views the ``whole picture'' when advising her customers.
Travis is Lee's middle name. It belonged first to her father. Her given first name is Ann.
``I was known as Ann until college, when I decided that professors would remember a female named Travis a lot more than they would one named Ann.''
Lee majored in psychology at Old Dominion University, with a minor in education. After graduation, she spent a short time teaching before landing her present job.
Lee has dabbled in decorating as a hobby for more than 20 years. After high school, she took correspondence courses in decorating.
``I always had a creative bent,'' she said. ``But I didn't pursue decorating then.''
At least not as a career.
Lee has owned several apartments and houses and has decorated them all herself. She also has lent a hand to friends.
For the past six years, Lee and her husband have lived in the home her late grandfather, Walter T. Tyler, built in northern Suffolk the year she was born.
About a year ago, Lee made the decision, almost by accident, to make some changes.
``We were having a bad day at work,'' she said, and a colleague began searching the classified job advertisements, almost as a joke.
``I wasn't even looking for a job,'' Lee recalled.
But she spotted an ad for an interior decorator. She called, interviewed for the job and was hired part-time.
Lee worked nights and weekends for the company, TransDesigns, for nearly a year.
Recently, she and five other designers formed Moon Rise Design Group, which will decorate a house in the Tidewater Builders Association's Homearama in Virginia Beach this fall.
The same group decorated a Home-A-Rama home in 1993 and won the People's Choice Gold Award for their work at RiverWalk in Chesapeake.
The name Moon Rise came from the group's association with Moon Rise Galleries, an Atlanta, Ga., art company.
Lee likes putting the finishing touches, such as art work, on decorating jobs.
``Art is my true love,'' she said. ``People often can buy couches, carpets and window treatments. But they look at their walls and say, `What do I do?' ''
by CNB