In a quiet serene room, Stan Trujillo begins his work. 

As an artist inspired by Jerry Uelsmann, an American photographer, he has been perfecting his craft since he was in Junior High School. His art teacher always told him he had the eye.  His art is “unique” in his own words and he considers himself a “visionary.” He enjoyed photography throughout his life but never really transformed it into what it is today until 1997 when his life “started falling into place” he said. It wasn’t until 2003 that he decided to start doing books to tell his story. 

Currently he has his art on display at the Viridian, casting what he is calling “Dream Art.” These are casts out of a book he has self-published. 

 “Most of my art concepts come directly from my dreams. I will have dreams about certain images over and over, until I get them created. The images of the dream get added to image by image. Each artwork is linked to each other to form my dream story.” The book, which is his ninth, consists of photos, words, quotes and poems that form a story.

When he has these visions in his dreams they stay locked in his head. He will think about it during the day and fall asleep with the image in his mind. In return, the image will be added onto until he gets all the photographs together he needs to make his art.

He gets excited and scared to release his work to the public for all eyes to see. “Dream Art” will be on display at the Viridian thru the end of May. He has a specific piece titled “Re-incarnation” that holds special meaning to him; the piece represents rebirth and re-discovery.  

His hope for the community as they attend his show is they find their own meaning in it. A few community members that have already attended a gallery of his,  left him with some very memorable responses.  

A 71 year old man thanked him for inspiring him and giving him confidence to get back into producing his own artwork. 

He has his goals set high as an artist. He would love to see his books picked up by a publisher so he can “Inspire other people’s imagination,” he said. 

A piece of advice Trujilio would like to leave with the community is a quote from René Magritte: “If the dream is a translation of waking life, waking life is also a translation of the dream.”