Ep 12: 'Spraycan Art,' ‘Baby Baby Please,' & 'Fighting to Belong' w Robert Liu-Trujillo

Today Colin sits down with someone he met close to 2 decades ago, when a mutual Mentor– S/O Hodari Davis–connected them during the time he was an After School Intervention Program Coordinator for the non-profit, Making Waves in San Rafael, CA. Today's guest taught a DJ’ing enrichment course that their then 3rd to 8th grade students absolutely adored and his cool, calm, collected, and inquisitive demeanor immediately made Colin feel like he’d found an instant friend and comrade. Fast fwd 15+ years, they are both middle aged Papas and have since discovered many connections, be they to mutual friends and passions, or the fact that they attended the same–Fairmont–Elementary school. 

Today's guest is someone whose work soars at the intersection of art, education, and community. He’s a visual storyteller, a children’s book illustrator, an independent publisher, a cultural worker — and a proud father. 

His art is deeply rooted in family, ancestry, and the beauty of everyday people — particularly Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, whose stories are too often left out of the mainstream. Through his illustrations, murals, and books, he brings to life the richness of identity and the quiet power of representation.

He’s also the founder of Come Bien Books, an indie publishing house focused on bilingual and diverse children’s books, and a member of the Trust Your Struggle Collective, a crew of artists who use visual storytelling as a tool for justice and transformation.

Rob/Robert/Roberto Trujillo (He, Him, Bruh) is an author and illustrator from Oakland, California and has been an artist most of his life. He started working professionally in the early 2000’s and has worked in murals, public art, arts education, merchandise making, illustration, and kid book publishing.

His most recent books are “Fresh Juice/ Jugo Fresco” which he wrote and illustrated, “Art of Rob” a 130 page book of sketches, drawings, etc, and “We Are Yoga/ Somos Yoga” written by Jill Guerra that he illustrated. Rob is represented by Marietta Zacker at Gallt & Zacker.

You can email him at info@robdontstop.com

The Paper Plane is a podcast created and hosted by Colin Masashi Ehara, where he interviews people he is blessed and honored to share community with, and asks them about a book(s) that have had a transformational impact on their lives. In a society where literacy rates are steadily declining and a growing number of podcasts hosted by cishet men, un/consciously champion expressions of masculinity that come at the expense of women, femmes, and LGBTQIA2S+ (especially BIPOC) folx, this space aims to operate as a counter-narrative.

The Paper Plane is a space that intends to highlight the dire importance of relationships, community, dialogue, perpetual learning, honest expression as art, art as honest expression, and freedom for literacy and literacy for freedom. It speaks to planes of existence attached to the act of reading, but also as a metaphor for the “flights” we take as we sit in what Ta-Nehisi Coates calls “a one way interface” as readers, and how these “journeys” shape us...