Beauty that lasts

Jose Trevino, director of communications for St. Patrick Cathedral, shows one of his painting. (NTC/Juan Guajardo)

Although he grew up Catholic, St. Patrick Cathedral Director of Communications and Media Jose Trevino strayed from the Church during his teenage years.

“Didn’t really stay as active in the Church,” Trevino said. “My mom all the time would say, ‘Are you going to come to church with me?’”

This perhaps had more to do with lack of focus than a rejection of faith.

“I had no clue to be honest,” Trevino answered when asked what he wanted to do growing up. “When I got to high school, it was either going to be sports or the military. Then I ended up having a daughter at a young age and knew I had to do something.”

Even then, Trevino said he remained conflicted as to what to do with his life.

“I saw a lot of people my age just trying to get a job,” Trevino said. “I didn’t want to just get stuck forever in something I didn’t like.”

Trevino went on to spend 13 years in the U.S. Marine Corps. His service helped bring him back closer to God thanks in part to befriending a Catholic chaplain in his unit.

“He and I talked quite a bit, which brought me back to my childhood and growing up in that atmosphere,” Trevino said. “It was a good thing.”

Trevino added that he sought comfort in God throughout his deployments.

“Because I was in Iraq in some very violent time frames,” Trevino said. “Some of those circumstances, if it wasn’t for God, I probably wouldn’t be here. So it did open my eyes and bring me closer to the fact that I might’ve strayed, but God is always there still.”

Heart for art

Trevino’s military service also reignited a youthful passion.

“Growing up, I was always drawing and playing with art,” Trevino said. “I never truly focused on that though until my last deployment.”

During downtime, Trevino began “doodling away.”

“A friend saw my art and encouraged me to pursue it,” Trevino said. “At that time, I didn’t realize how many doors that would open for me. I just knew it was something I really wanted to sink my teeth into.”

Once out of the military, Trevino and that same friend opened a tattoo parlor in North Carolina.

At the time, he never dreamed, Trevino said with a laugh, that tattooing would indirectly lead to working for St. Patrick Cathedral.

Trevino went on to study art, videography, photography, and other disciplines at the Art Institute of Dallas in addition to attending other seminars and classes.

“Just adding different wickets of knowledge along the way,” Trevino said. “You can take information from painting or photography and apply it to tattooing, or the other way around. It’s just how you use those to project an image and what you’re trying to accomplish.”

Trevino cited American expatriate artist John Singer Sargent and Catholic art as major influences. Although he’s studied impressionism, animation, and other art forms, realism remains his favorite style.

“I used to hyper focus on detail but learned the more basic and general imagery you keep it, the more realistic the appearance,” Trevino said. “Because our minds tend to fill in the gaps with information. Kind of like peripheral vision.”

A coat and many hats

A freelance job led to Trevino’s current position.

“Jose initially assisted with adjusting the cathedral’s coat of arms to ensure it could be licensed and registered in accordance with the code of canon law and heraldic guidelines,” Father John Robert Skeldon, rector of St. Patrick, said.

Fr. Skeldon, upon seeing Trevino’s ideas for the coat of arms, mentioned that the cathedral needed someone to livestream Masses and events.

“I told him I’d been trained in all that and can do it,” Trevino said.

Which led to what Trevino describes as his multi-hat job at the cathedral.

“I run their social media, help manage the database, videography, photography, and livestreaming as well,” Trevino said.

Along the way, he’s painted portraits of Fr. Skeldon and Bishop Michael Olson plus redesigned certificates for baptism, confirmation, first Communion, and other documents specific to the cathedral.

“Before, they were just mass ordered,” Trevino said. “We wanted to personalize them to the cathedral, so they weren’t just some random thing.”

Trevino also discovered numerous treasures, paintings, pictures, and so forth, tucked away in the adjacent long-shuttered St. Ignatius Academy building. Items that will now be preserved and restored.

“You’d think that stuff would have been cleared out decades ago,” Trevino said. “But it was, ‘Wow! There’s a lot of important items and history still in here.’”

It’s hard, Fr. Skeldon said, to sum up all Trevino brings to the cathedral.

Fr. Skeldon recalled an elderly parishioner who was bothered by a disturbed person. Trevino de-escalated the situation then sat through Mass with the woman for several weeks afterward.

“This was unknown to anyone until she came to me after a Sunday Mass and explained how grateful she was that Trevino had done this on his own to make sure she felt safe and at ease while practicing her faith.”

Fr. Skeldon praised, too Trevino’s beautiful artistic talents and technical abilities.

“I am incredibly impressed by his talents and would highly encourage my brother priests to collaborate with Jose on artistic projects,” Fr. Skeldon said.

Trevino has already helped craft a backdrop for Masses at Nolan Catholic High School in addition to other outside projects.

Although he still tattoos occasionally, Trevino said he finally feels at home.

The work can be stressful, he admitted, “But if this is what I do for the rest of my life, I’m happy, and it’s worth it because this is in God’s house and it’s for God’s people. It doesn’t feel like a 9-to-5. It feels like making an impact.”