John Seed interviews painter Marc Trujillo on the occasion of the exhibition Marc Trujillo: Urban Ubiquity at The Bakersfield Museum of Art, on view through May 7, 2017.

Trujillo comments: “The chill of the void is alluring to me. These places that are nowhere and everywhere, big stretches of concrete and linoleum give me a chill that makes me want to paint them… The low temperature of my subject matter also helps keep the painting the thing, to go back to the point about ‘the painting is the place.’ If I paint something like Mount Everest or the Grand Canyon then the painting reminds you of this greater experience outside of itself, like a postcard. On the other hand if I’m painting a gas station or Costco, then the painting has a chance at being more of an experience than you had when you were there.”