I have a few things to say about Gabriel Trujillo. First off, I don’t think he even really realizes how amazingly talented he is. As a self-taught artist, he exudes so much natural, raw talent that it almost makes me sick to my stomach. He constantly creates - he’s compelled as though it were some kind of animal instinct over which he has no choice. But not only does he create art, he is a true visionary. He creates concepts to live by - socialist, participatory, pro-active ways of approaching daily life - he takes the initiative when everyone else just sits around talking. His ideas change constantly because, like life, they’re sometimes messy. So they evolve and grow and sometimes get turned inside out. He’s not afraid to throw things away when they’re not working and he’ll be the first to admit he’s wrong. He has humility, humor, tenacity, a tender heart, passion, and is one of the smartest men I know. But what has really driven me to write this is that I’ve recently learned of the kind of life that he came from – a life of abuse and poverty, devoid of any decent role models, devoid of any kind of hope for the future. And yet here he is with more hope in his little finger than I contain in my whole body. Hope for people to create instead of destroy, to tell the truth instead of lie, to have compassion instead of being cold-hearted. He completely turned his life around from the dark path he was almost certainly destined to travel and went in an entirely different direction. Instead of becoming bitter, twisted, and enraged from the numerous amounts of hurt he’s endured, he made a conscious decision to change his life and actually believe in it. It’s probably a pure testament of will that he is even here today. Don’t get me wrong though, he’s no saint and has many, many faults and idiosyncrasies. And yes, I guess might be a little biased in his favor because he’s the man who has won my heart. The thing is, he claims he’s scared out of his wits but, in my eyes, he’s braver than any man I know. He just doesn’t know it.