Trujillo, Jimmy
Jimmy Trujillo is passionate about passing on his extensive knowledge. "I have several students who are now in the Spanish Market. I don't want the straw art work to die out again, so I've been teaching as many people as are willing to learn."
Straw applique offered an alternative to expensive inlay and become "poor man's gilding" for all of the crosses and retablos in the high desert.
Trujillo was dabbling in this and that when famed santero, Dr. Charles Carrillo, married his niece. Carrillo continuously brought articles and made suggestions for his artistic path, insisting that being a santero was in his family blood. Trujillo loved to carve, but avoided painting. His work was always small and intricate, but nothing really resonated with him until Carrillo showed him an article about gesso relief. "It wasn't so much the article. but a small photograph in it of a straw applique cross. I responded immediately to the tiny pieces of straw, and even though I had always worked in miniature, I saw how I would be able to create larger pieces and still stay small." Trujillo says.
Today, Trujillo is known as the person who revived the original techniques of encrusted straw. "I started with EImer's glue, but I'm a super traditionalist so started researching how the medium was originally done. There was very little written about it. All I could find was a paragraph saying that a combination of soot and resin was used, but it didn't work. I figured out that the soot was on the resin, not in it. Soot from the candles used in prayer would build up on the crosses, and when they would wipe them clean, it would adhere in the cracks. Sometimes the santeros would use soot to color the wood beneath." Trujillo has been compiling research since 1984 and hopes to someday document his findings and rare historic pieces in a book.
Trujillo and a handful of others passing on their knowledge that the art form is still vibrant and sought after.
Straw applique offered an alternative to expensive inlay and become "poor man's gilding" for all of the crosses and retablos in the high desert.
Trujillo was dabbling in this and that when famed santero, Dr. Charles Carrillo, married his niece. Carrillo continuously brought articles and made suggestions for his artistic path, insisting that being a santero was in his family blood. Trujillo loved to carve, but avoided painting. His work was always small and intricate, but nothing really resonated with him until Carrillo showed him an article about gesso relief. "It wasn't so much the article. but a small photograph in it of a straw applique cross. I responded immediately to the tiny pieces of straw, and even though I had always worked in miniature, I saw how I would be able to create larger pieces and still stay small." Trujillo says.
Today, Trujillo is known as the person who revived the original techniques of encrusted straw. "I started with EImer's glue, but I'm a super traditionalist so started researching how the medium was originally done. There was very little written about it. All I could find was a paragraph saying that a combination of soot and resin was used, but it didn't work. I figured out that the soot was on the resin, not in it. Soot from the candles used in prayer would build up on the crosses, and when they would wipe them clean, it would adhere in the cracks. Sometimes the santeros would use soot to color the wood beneath." Trujillo has been compiling research since 1984 and hopes to someday document his findings and rare historic pieces in a book.
Trujillo and a handful of others passing on their knowledge that the art form is still vibrant and sought after.