Matthew Trujillo

Born and raised in Las Cruces, New Mexico, Matthew Trujillo is a highly accomplished artist whose work draws inspiration from a diverse range of sources, including fashion, music, architecture, design, and street culture. Trujillo's unique artistic style is characterized by his masterful use of sharp, graphic-style facial expressions combined with contemporary design, resulting in striking presentations of modern pop art infused with street-style aesthetics.

A master of mixed media, Trujillo's experimental approach to his craft imbues his work with a depth and intensity that is truly mesmerizing, sparking the viewer's imagination and inviting them to create their own stories. Matthew Trujillo's artwork has been enthralling audiences with its bold and captivating imagery, as evidenced by his recent exhibitions in esteemed contemporary galleries and Music Festivals throughout the country.

Can you introduce yourself?

I'm Matthew Trujillo. I've been working on art as far back as I can remember. I would say the earliest would be Middle School, just drawing on paperwork and getting in trouble in class for not paying attention. Ive really been putting it to Canvas probably like the past 10 years, like establishing a style, and, that's where I'm at now.

What inspires you to create?

So, I catch a lot of my inspiration from music I'll go into a rabbit hole of YouTube interviews and just kind of watch and listen and hear how they approach their music and how they zone in on the studio.

I like to approach my art that way as far as getting across different emotions, whether it be sad or happy or angry, anything between metal to hip-hop to punk rock. It's like everything inspires me to express myself.

The vulnerability that comes behind creating artwork is, for me, sometimes the hardest thing to do because I'm not one to talk about what's going on with me.

Where I'm from, you keep to yourself. You know, being sad or anything like that kind of gives a negative connotation, so you don't go out of your way to express anything you know, like even something that smells like heartache or you know you just got out of a bad relationship or in a bad relationship you don't really talk about what goes on at home.

I feel like art's really helped me kind of express these kinds of emotions, and whenever you know I'm able to get them out, you know, I feel a lot lighter, and I can move on with my day.

Arts really helped me communicate with people in general, too. When people see my artwork, they can kind of see what I'm feeling and see the emotion that I put into it.

I really love being able to meet somebody that has an interpretation on my art that is exactly where I was when I created it, and it's that kind of connection that really pushes me to continue to create.

Art is bigger than just me. You know, I have my own interpretation of what it is and what it means to me. Still, you know, but, when somebody else sees it, you know they, they can feel it. It's back to like what I was saying about music. It's like when you hear a sad song when you're sad. You're like, oh so people feel this, and you know if you go to those emotions, I'm someone who is like, if I'm feeling sad, I listen to sad music. You know I'm feeling happy I listen to Happy music like it. I don't feel like it takes me somewhere I feel like it more just makes me normalize it.

Do you have a process for creating your artwork?

The process of my art is always so different. There is never a certain way that I approach it. I feel like it's, you know, sometimes I'm designing and creating something in the middle of the night, and sometimes, duringthe day.

Sometimes, I know exactly what kind of thought or emotion I'm trying to put across. Sometimes, I'm just trying to let myself flow and kind of see where I'm at. There are times when I don't really understand what a piece means to me really, until like it's finished and on the wall, and then there are times where I already I have a name for a piece before I even approach it.

I feel like there's always so many different ways of approaching my art. I think that process within itself is kind of fun to play with, you know, because sometimes you know you're forcing something to come out. It's not working for you, and you kind of like give yourself a break, walk away from it, come back to it, and see it in a different light. I think that's the fun part of it is the approach and trying to learn what works for you. I feel like everyone's so different when it comes to art that it's, there's no right or wrong way to do it. Swim.

Can you share a bit about your show From Beginning to End.

This art show is probably going to be my last show in Austin for a while. I wouldn't say forever, but definitely for a while, I really want to bring an experience that I feel art hasn't really shown in Austin yet.

Really showing what you can do on your own. You know we're kind of self-producing this show, so we're really like taking it outside of the gallery aspect and kind of just making it our own and I think the most exciting part of it is that there is no boundaries, you know we're going big we're playing music that you won't probably normally hear at galleries we're kind of just trying to be about the culture and also kind of like elevate art in Austin, I just want to go big and really show what artist can do.

Final Words?

Don't allow anybody to tell you where you should be or what you need to be doing. Don't follow the trends, focus on yourself, focus on what you're feeling. We all have our own journey we all have to start somewhere. First thing you need to do is just put into paper, just keep creating like don't overthink how perfect it needs to be it's never going to be perfect, you're never going to make one masterpiece that sets you off like you just got to continue to create. Every painting is going to have its own moment and its own life, you know, and just because no one buys a piece doesn't mean it doesn't mean anything, you know. I've had I've had paintings sitting around for years before it actually finds it's home, you know, so just never be discouraged. Continue to keep creating keep creating like I'm gonna just keep saying that just keep creating because keep creating keep putting it out there because it's all gonna have a Snowball Effect you know like every every painting is like a seed you know I mean you plant it and and grow it and like Let It Be You know it's gonna be a while before you start actually eating food from the tree so you just gotta keep creating keep putting it out there.