Artist Bio

Travis Nolan (tankoda) is an award-winning origami artist and published researcher in Dallas, Texas. He specializes in 22.5-degree design and enjoys creating origami paleoart. He has been folding for fifteen years and designing for more than ten. Current research interests include 22.5-degree design and reference finding.

In the most recent International Origami Internet Olympiad, Travis received the gold medal in original design and placed fifth cumulatively. His work has received media attention from outlets including the Dallas Morning News and D Magazine.  Most recently, he had the honor of presenting research at the 8th International Meeting on Origami in Science, Mathematics and Education (8OSME) in Melbourne, Australia. 

Travis has also enjoyed collaborating with Dallas charity Paper for Water since 2018, to help raise money for the installation of water projects in developing countries.   

He received a Bachelor of Science in Geology from Southern Methodist University and will be pursuing a PhD in the field. His undergraduate research projects explored vertebral mobility in stem-tetrapods from the Permian of West Texas, and crocodylomorph postcranial material from the Cretaceous of North-Central Texas.