Santa Margarita: Out of the Boredom of a Creative Mind

Round Town • Santa Margarita

Out of the Boredom of a Creative Mind

Not many people can claim that they’ve even visited most of our 50 states. To have actually worked in 47 out of the 50 is even more impressive, but that’s just a small part of Aaron Trejo’s story. We first began to learn of Aaron Trejo and his artwork this past January on a local Facebook group page post offering his mural services and subsequent posts showing results and photos from happy customers. His work locally has gone from a fish pond/fountain, where he created an aquarium scene in Creston, to interior home walls with tree and baseball park murals, water tanks with horse and native butterfly murals, and a pizza oven at a farm with a pig, goat and alpaca looking over guests in Santa Margarita. Aaron’s work is quick, creative, beautiful and really adds to and highlights the uniqueness of each location and client with seemingly no obstacles getting in the way or any challenge too great. Customers of Aaron’s, like Tina Ballantyne from Giving Tree Family Farm, say that the process of working with him was very simple, giving him a rough idea and maybe a few pictures of what they would like to see and he’s off and running with his own ideas and interpretations to fit the project. Speaking with Aaron recently, I was able to get a better understanding of his background, creative process and a crash course on graffiti arts and hip-hop culture. Growing up very poor, in an area of New Jersey five minutes outside of New York City, Aaron lived in an apartment house with friends who lived a few blocks away in an area that was a “dumping zone” — a stereotypical “hood” with abandoned buildings, trash in the streets and drug dealers on the corners. This was no place for kids to grow up, but nobody seemed to care and the city just turned their back on the area. Aaron was a high-achieving honors student who hung out with kids at least four years older, totally bored at school and for four years was kicked out of every summer camp he was sent to in an attempt to keep him busy and out of trouble. After the failed summer camp attempts, his family decided to send him to be with his very talented aunt at her renaissance art studio where he learned all forms of artwork from painting to ceramics, woodworking, and more. Artistic talent runs in the family and Aaron looked up to and was influenced by his cousins, Rob and Aden, who were into comic book art, BMX riding and a nomadic lifestyle. His aunt’s work has been placed into various museums and Aden’s sketch of a pair of Converse shoes was placed in MOMA before he met an untimely death as a passenger in a car accident at the age of 16, a mere two weeks after his older brother Rob passed in a tragic train incident. That year, with the random passing of five other important people in his life, was the turning point for Aaron. He realized life is too short — anything can happen at any time to anyone, no matter what age or circumstance, and he didn’t want to waste his time. Aaron wanted to get out there, do things and make a difference.

Through BMX riding, Aaron was inspired by Joe Tiseo, a New Jersey BMX legend who rode for Animal and Kink, and who built three bikes for Aaron over the years

“Joe was a super nice guy who worked at a local BMX shop, he really liked seeing kids have a good time and elevate their lives,” Aaron said. “He just loved to help out and see others succeed.”

Written by Simone Smith

Photo by Aaron Trejo

From BMX riding to photography and the car scene, Aaron had gotten into tagging but really got into painting after breaking up with a girlfriend. Aaron and his friends had lots of time and room to practice throughout New Jersey until getting into trouble and being required to “pay back through the Jersey City Mural Arts Program”. This was the point that the friends decided to try to make their painting legal and Aaron helped his friends Robert Ramone & Andre Leone to found Rorshach brand.

“Rob was the main idea man”, who became the curator of Abington Walls, an outdoor mural and graffiti arts gallery which started when Rob wanted to clean up his neighborhood and have a block party. The friends organized “gorilla style,” — not knowing the owner of the half-abandoned building they had been painting on for years, Aaron created a fake permission slip, Andres father had access to dump trucks to help clear the area of trash and they asked drug dealers to move out of the area.

They then proceeded to put on their first event which “showcased 30 of the best of the best artists doing live painting, DJs, dancers, musicians and vocal artists performing jazz, rap and spoken word, they had food vendors and clothing companies. Not only did they clean up and entertain the neighborhood, but the event also gained the attention of the building owner and city, allowing it to become a legal, annual, one- or two-day event called “Brick City Jam.” After three years at Abington Walls, it became a city-sponsored event and moved to Riverfront Park, in Newark, New Jersey.

Through his involvement in the car scene at 19, Aaron caught the attention of Donwan Harrell “The Don of Denim” from New York. His companies, PRPS Denim and Akademiks, had more street style and a “brand at the intersection of art, music and fashion.” Aaron’s main project was for another company of Donwan’s called “GIMPT” or Gaget Import, a company fully focused on car events, street racing, and Hot Import Nights. At one point, Aaron was the youngest to ever host a BMW event as the company created merchandise, and hosted and attended events all over the U.S.

Although Aaron grew up in New Jersey, he has spent time over the years visiting relatives here on the Central Coast and most recently moved to the area near family outside of Santa Margarita to take a break after working on two of the largest murals in Jersey City.

Through Rorschach, Aaron and his friends helped paint a piece by San Francisco-based artist Mona Caron. Her 20-story-tall “Joe Pye Weed” is part of a series of beautiful murals she has done around the world to show “a vision of nature winning,” highlighting the resilience of weeds to put us in our place. The crew worked on making the mural come to life in three weeks from July 13 to Aug. 4, and although they worked hundreds of feet above the city “any fear of heights was gone after the first couple of days” and they “really had fun working on the project.” The piece was completed in August 2021, commissioned by Jersey City for their Mural Arts Program.

The second mural, titled “The Future Nurtures the Past,” was designed by friends Andre and Rob of Rorschach, and is a double-sided, quarter-milelong project taking the team two months to complete in December 2021 with the support of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and the city’s Division of Arts and Culture to beautify Raymond Boulevard.

Aaron is planning to stay in this area, although he will continue to travel back and forth to spend time with his 5-year-old son, continue involvement with Jersey City Arts events, and work on multiple business and private mural projects. Aaron was really dismayed at the drug and homeless situation he has seen around our area and California in general and says that he would love to work on some local projects to get kids involved and give them something creative to do.

Aaron really enjoys the challenge of doing letterwork and would like to teach how to “keep the structure of letters but getting really funky with it, tweaking them to make it your own.” Maybe a skatepark or graffiti jam — there’s so much untapped talent and potential out there. He’s also thinking he’d really like to start up a West Coast version of a hybrid arts festival, similar to Brick City Jam, to highlight upcoming artists and uplift communities. Whatever he does, it won’t be boring and I’m looking forward to seeing more of what Aaron Trejo does in the future.  Artists paint from scaffolding multiple stories up