Artist Joseph Trevino knows that looking at painting on the wall
is like reading an artist
’s autobiography.
Artist Joseph Trevino knows that looking at painting on the wall is like reading an artist’s autobiography.
“You’re looking at a chapter in their life,” he said. “It’s almost like a photograph. It takes you back to that moment.”
Trevino’s own art portrays a man who has overcome many family hardships, including the death of his sister and father and an accident that nearly left him paralyzed.
“It’s sad what happened, but no matter what I’ll keep drawing and keep painting. It fills the void,” he said. “I thank God I still have this, especially now.”
After losing two of his family members in the 1990s, Trevino began to lose himself in his sales work. He began working 12- to 14-hour shifts at IBM, the Shoe Pavilian and Macy’s. With each job, he began in sales and quickly moved to management positions.
“I was drowning myself at work,” he said. “I didn’t know how to slow down. I would work all day, then do art to relax and then do it all over again.”
Trevino was living off five hours or less of sleep each day and was running himself ragged. Finally, his body couldn’t take anymore.
In September of 2001, Trevino had a disc in his back collapse when he was picking up boxes while working at Macy’s. He was lucky he wasn’t paralyzed by the accident.
“I was working too hard and I got hurt,” said Trevino, who, although in management, often helped work in sales and in the stockroom to help out. “I should have been thinking, but I was so into it.
“It taught me a huge lesson,” he said. “You become a slave to what you own and you forget what’s really important.”
Trevino has undergone three surgeries since, with a fourth scheduled for late January. He has had two cages put in his spine, along with four five-inch rods and a stabilizer bar and two four-inch screws.
He said no matter happens, Trevino said his next surgery will be his last. The purpose for the fourth surgery is to check to see if he might have fractured any bones during a fall he had while doing exercises and to try and help ease some of his discomfort.
“I’m hoping it will take a little pressure off,” said Trevino, who has been on morphine since the accident for the pain he feels from his lower back to his feet because of nerve damage.
“I lost about 70 percent of the strength I had,” he said. “My legs fatigue really easily now. I can’t do too much standing, too much sitting.
“The doctors told me I will walk with a cane for the rest of my life.”
Trevino walks around his block three times a week but is worn out after he’s done. But that hasn’t stopped him from getting back to painting.
“I have to fight it. There’s nothing you can do about it,” he said. “If it wasn’t for me being able to do some artwork, I’d probably go crazy.”
Trevino returned to painting, but he had to slow down considerably because of pain.
“It takes me a lot longer,” he said. “I produced over 50 drawings, and I did five paintings. But I probably would have done a lot more work.”
Trevino, 34, first became involved in art because of his father.
“My dad was a pretty good artist,” he said. “I remember as a kid I would watch him at the table sketching.”
A Marine sergeant, his father often drew pictures of landscapes, military aircraft or army jeeps.
Trevino looked up to his father and wanted to be able to draw like him.
“I started doing more and more art as I was growing up,” he remembered.
However, his dad, who served in Vietnam and was awarded a Purple Heart, was exposed to Agent Orange while fighting. He returned from the war distant from the family as his body and mind were affected by the chemicals.
“He started isolating himself,” Trevino said. “It took a toll on him.”
Art gave then 12-year-old Trevino a release, and he went beyond basic sketches to oil pastels.
“It was a way to take all that negative stuff and turn it into a positive,” Trevino said of drawing.
Trevino also began watching art documentaries on television, where he saw the works of Pablo Picasso, his major influence.
“He became one of my favorite artists,” Trevino said.
Trevino took art classes while at Gilroy High School and then at Gavilan College, but in 1988 tragedy struck his family.
Trevino’s 21-year-old sister Veronica and her boyfriend were found dead, and conflicting reports from neighbors made it impossible to solve the case definitively.
“Nobody really knows what happened,” said Trevino, who was 20 years old at the time. “It hit me hard, and my mom took it hard. I had to be strong.”
Trevino said he admires his mother for getting through it all.
“She’s been the backbone for everything,” he said.
Trevino found the strength his family needed through his art.
“That’s when I began to do the majority of my work.” he said. “At the time it was a spiritual thing.”
As he grieved for his sister, Trevino created three large paintings on five-foot canvases. Two of the pieces, a painting of a mother holding a child and the another of an array of faces, were sold to a private collector in Paris.
As soon as he got over the death of his sister, Trevino’s father passed away in 1995.
“I stayed in my room for a couple days,” said Trevino, who again made three major paintings as he grieved.
He created two large canvas paintings and one small one. The smaller piece, called “The Comforter,” shows a man putting his arm around a younger man, who is hanging his head in pain.
“It was an intense piece,” Trevino said. “You can tell that was a hard time for me.”
Trevino’s pain and depression also came through in his art after his accident, which including a series of drawings of people screaming, nooses and frightening black and white images.
“When I got injured, I did some very dark stuff. I have to get it out through my art,” Trevino said. “It was great therapy for me. It saved me.”
When it came time to show his work this year, Trevino began feeling uneasy. He didn’t know how people would react or whether his work was any good.
“I started second guessing myself,” he said. “I was worried about it.”
That worry was put to rest when he received a letter notifying him that he had earned a second place honor for the ‘2002 People’s Choice Award’ at the Tait Museum in Los Gatos.
“I was excited about that,” he said. “I thought, ‘I can keep going.’ Now I’m happy. At least I know.”
Trevino dedicates all of his art works to his late father and sister and to his mother Nellie, who Trevino said has always been there for him. He said he even feels the presence of his late father when he paints.
“I always feel that he’s there when I draw. It’s the same with my sister,” he said. “I can feel their presence; I love that feeling.”
As Trevino paints, he continues to write his own life story through his images. As he has come to terms with his accident, the colors and the images in his art brightened up.
“It’s almost like praying,” he said. “It’s a good feeling.”
