Meet Jesus Trujillo | Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jesus Trujillo and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jesus, can you tell us more about your background and the role it’s played in shaping who you are today?
I was born in Fort Worth, Texas but I was raised here in Arlington, Texas my whole life. I grew up cutting yards with my dad all over the Arlington area for his lawn care business. He was an immigrant from Mexico who came to the states for a better opportunity at life. So, he’s always been work oriented. As a kid, my siblings and I would always ride along with him during our summer breaks and help him cut yards. Truthfully, I hated it as a kid. Spending my summers out in the sun as a fat kid never ended well for me, but no matter how much I complained we still continued to mow mow mow. Now that i’m older, I appreciate the work ethic my father has engrained in me. I’ve applied this work ethic to my art work and during my time at school. I don’t half ass my work and my communication skills are great when meeting new people. I’ve gained the trust of my peers and my professors, they rely on me whenever they need help in building frames and panels or just on some of their projects.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Well Originally, I never wanted to pursue art as a profession. It just kind of happened. I first started taking art classes as an alternative elective back in high school because I couldn’t get into orchestra. I wanted to be a musician like my pops but as fate would have it, it would lead me down a different road. I struggled a lot. It felt like I was having an identity crisis as I continued taking art classes. Especially in community college. I was taking both art and music classes because I couldn’t decided on which one I wanted to major in. Eventually I came around and decided to take more art classes just cause it seemed easier to do and people liked my then body of work that I was making. Though, to be honest, I was just bullshitting my way through things. I think it was around 2020, the semester I took my first advance painting class with Sedrick Huckaby at the University of Texas in Arlington that made me realize how miserable I was starting to get. I was so burnt out and not only that the pandemic finally hit the states so all my materials were licked up at the studio space so I practically had nothing to work with at home. At the end of the semester I was given a pretty bad critique and I felt like a failure at that moment of time. I almost dropped out completely, but I did a little bit of reasoning and made a deal with myself. I gave myself a year and told myself to abandon the style of work I was doing back then and to start over from scratch, I wasn’t sure how I was going to do it but I was determined to prove myself wrong. The next semester I began working with plywood, color and texture and spent long hours at the studio mastering my new found material and pushing it to as far as I could imagine. It’s 2022 now. I love art. I love the work ethic and determination I gave myself in order to reach places I would never have thought. I met a lot of amazing like minded artist along the way that I call my friends now. Hard work does pay off when you have the will to seek the change that you want.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I think I’d probably plan out and take them to some the art museums in the DFW area, like the Modern and Kimbell Museums in Fort Worth one day then to the Dallas Museum of Art and the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas the next. Maybe go get some Serious Pizza while we’re there and just walk around the streets until we get bored, you know? simple stuff really

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I would like to thank my professors Yana Payusova, Benjamin Terry, and Sedrick Huckaby for being the best mentors and friends. They’ve pushed me to the direction I needed to be when working on my art and inspired me to pursue even greater heights now that I’ve graduated. I would also like to thank my peers, Maria Esswein, Omer Moran, Reyna Ramirez and Ann Vo for the laughs and times we spent together working late night at the studios. These guys always gave it 120% when working on their art.

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