Art

Installing “Not In Our Name” w/ Juana Alicia

OG muralist and teacher Juana Alicia hit me and some other painters/muralists to come help her install her piece in support of Palestinians in Gaza on a church in Oakland/Berkeley. We had lots of help from David Solnit, Yazmin Madriz, Keena Romano, Nadya V, my crew mate and sister Cece Carpio of Trust Your Struggle Collective, and myself. Here we are with some of the folks who work at the church! Diego Mendoza snapped this photo. Shout out to David Solnit who helped lead the installation w/ Tirso (Juana’s husband).

Here are some words from Juana herself:

Thank you so much to the crew that helped us install our mural, Not in Our Name, on St. Columba Catholic Church in Oakland yesterday! San Francisco Poet Laureate Genny Lim’s poem and my illustration are proudly displayed on the exterior wall of the church, facing San Pablo Avenue at Adeline.

This work, which expresses our profound solidarity with the people of Gaza and Palestine, seeks to touch the hearts of those who see it, and move them to action to support those who are suffering from an ongoing genocide.

Our mural fam came through to work with Tirso Araiza, David Solnit and I on mounting the 7′ x 15′ canvas on the church wall. Deep bows to Father Aidan McAleenan and the staff at the church (Harriet, Margaret and Joyce) for their kindness, cooperation and solidarity! Thanks so much to Keena Romano, Cece Carpio, Yazmín Madriz, Diego Mendoza, Robert Trujillo Liu and Nadya Voynoskyva for their great energy and elbow grease!

This church is super progressive and as a result has been fucked with. But, from what they told me its very inclusive and they stand ten toes down. If you’re in the East Bay go see it.

Dig this? Check out this street mural take over in front of Black Rock in SF.

Gouache portrait of Maurice Cherry

I came across Maurice Cherry almost a decade ago. Maybe even more. Maurice is a talented designer and podcaster. He created the “Revision Path” podcast which get this-interviewed and featured over 500 (yes 500) Black artists, designers, and makers from all over North America. I’m talking about illustrators, web designers, graphic designers, UI/UX designers, and more. So many people from freelance, corporate, and other realms-all doing design in one form or other.

Maurice was kind enough to commission me for two projects in the past using illustration called Recognize (Recognize 1 and Recognize 2 ) which highlighted indigenous and POC voices in design. I dont think it took off the way he wanted it to but I wanted to paint Maurice and just recognize the tremendous amount of research, interviewing, editing, and promoting he did to document Black creatives and the amazing work hes done as a graphic designer. Maurice is someone more colleges should be talking to about his skills and knowledge.

Dig this? Check out this Self Portrait I did in Gouache recently.

Self Portrait 2025

Its been awhile since I did a self portrait. Here’s a new one with gouache. Actually the last one I did was in gouache too. You can see that one here.

My name is Rob Liu-Trujillo and I’m an author/illustrator from Oakland Ca. My most recent book is “Fresh Juice/ Jugo Fresco” pub by Lee & Low Books.

Here’s a bit of process!

Dig this? Chedk out my last sketchbook and studio tour.

Jamil, Maria, & Family – Fridays for Falestin

The purpose of this image and the following images are to share a fundraising campaign for a family who fled Gaza. It is organized by a relative of the family based in the US who represents the Alborno family. Please see the link in my bio for the full story and like, comment, share, and contribute if you can.

Image Description:
A set of slides with hand drawn watercolor illustrations of Jamil and Maria, Pal es tinian children around 2 and 5. Both portraits are held within a circle with an earthy green background, reds and auburns in their hair, warm skin tones and purple shirts. Maria has her hair in pigtails, and is smiling softly, while Jamil has lightly tousled hair with smile open and wide. There is a cream hand drawn background with yellow hearts and purple bursts on each slide and the text below Gofundme Link

Slide 1:
“Help Jamil Maria and Family
Fridays for Fal es tine
gofundme.com/f/support-ezzeddin-family
Slide 2:
“Jamil, Maria, siblings, and parents fled Gah zah to Turkey and need help recovering
gofundme.com/f/support-ezzeddin-family
Can’t help right now? Please help spread the word, Like, comment, and share”
Slide 3:
“Join Artists for Radical Imagination every Friday as we share a verified fundraiser to directly support a family in Gah zah. Follow and use the hashtag: #FridaysForFalestin

Art by @robert_tres text by Rob + @vulpinicvestements repping #artistsforradicalimagination Fridays for Fal’ es tin

Dig this? Check out this direct action for Palestine

Children’s Portrait collage 2022-2024

Thanks for checking out my blog. This is a collage of children’s portraits I’ve been commissioned to paint in the last 2 years. It used to be that the bulk of these paintings were individual children, but lately I feel like there have been a lot more siblings and families. I also used to incorporate more of the child’s ethnicity in the clothing, but over the past 3-4 years I’ve really enjoyed just playing with color and pattern. Check them out.. I paint each one by hand, no AI lol.

If you’d like me to paint a child in your life for you or as a gift to someone else, please check out this link.

And while I’ve got your attention, check out some of the collages from previous years:

(5) 2020-2022

(4) 2017-2020 

(3) 2015-2017

(2) 2013-2015

(1) 2012-2013