The DTSA Art Walk runs through the heart of Downtown Santa Ana on the first Saturday of every month. I’ve been showing up with brushes and spray paint since March 2020. Some months I paint alone. Some months my son and fiancée are beside me.

I was invited to participate in the live mural program by Hector of Giants Casting Shadows (GCS), and to the live canvas program by Wendy Youngs. Both gave me a space to show up and work in public consistently, and that consistency has shaped some of the most personal work I’ve made.

The Wall: A Three-Act Story

One of the murals I painted in front of GCS, I brought my son. He was four. We spent four hours on an 8-foot by 4-foot wood panel, a “formless” piece, just the two of us working together with my fiancée cheering us on. Family and friends came out hangout and enjoy the evening too. It was one of those evenings that felt like more than an art walk.

A week later, someone painted over it.

I came back. This time the piece said something specific. “King of Kings. Lord of Lords.” The lettering spiraled inward toward that truth.

The next morning it was destroyed again.

I came back a third time. One brush. One inch. Two colors. The message was simpler: Jesus is King. Someone destroyed a painting that was a tribute to Christ. I restated it anyway. That’s what you do.

The Canvases: 2024 to 2025

The canvas sessions are a different rhythm than the murals. Smaller scale, more intimate, longer messages. Each piece comes from somewhere specific.

Guided by Perception and Rooted in Wisdom: July 2024

36 x 36 inches. Grid style, one brush, Pharaoh gold on blue and black. The lettering fills the surface edge to edge with no focal center. The message is the structure.

James 1:2-4: August 2024

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds.” My son’s handprints are pressed into the canvas in black paint. He was standing beside me when I made them. That detail was unplanned. It belongs there. Copper and bronze lettering on blue and purple. The portrait was added later.

Promise Locked Within Prophecy: September 2024

3D mandala, two brushes, Pharaoh gold primary, antique bronze secondary on dark blue. A prophecy is a promise. The promise stays locked inside the prophecy until the word fulfills — then it opens. The composition reflects that: rings moving inward toward a center that holds something not yet fully visible.

Set Your Mind on Things Above: February 2024

3D mandala, Pharaoh gold and white on black. This canvas was painted live at the art walk and later auctioned at my first solo art show titled Seconda Nature.

• Location: Downtown Santa Ana, CA
• Program: DTSA Art Walk — first Saturday monthly
• Mural host: Hector / GCS Santa Ana (@gcssantaana)
• Canvas host: Wendy Youngs (@wendyfuldesigns)
• Active: 2024 — present
• Medium: Acrylic on canvas and wood panel — Modern Masters Metallics