Bakersfield College art professor Diego Gutierrez Monterrubio showcased his art in Metro Galleries on Feb. 3. The show was free and part of the monthly Art Walk held downtown during every First Friday. Monterrubio’s art show filled both stories of the gallery, consisting of two collections and a sculpture. The first collection, called “Una Novela de un Amor Eterno,” depicts a passionate relationship between a man and a woman who are star-crossed lovers. The paintings are partly done in a classic comic book style, with phrases like, “You do not love me like I love you,” written in Spanish as dialogue, and partly in gestural paintings of the couple.

“I created a Visual Narrative series of paintings of my own personal love story where I incorporate actual quotes from ‘our’ meetings… some are full of an eternal love, some illustrate hope, and some are full of a love that could not exist,” Monterrubio said in his artist statement.

The first chapter of the novella was painted in New York, the second chapter in California, and there are tentative plans for the next to be painted in Argentina, according to Monterrubio.

His other collection featured paintings of a somewhat abstract person, often standing alone to represent the complete isolation the artist created the art in. When Monterrubio decided to start these paintings, he stocked up on food and completely cut himself off from the outside world for six weeks; the resulting solitude became the theme of his art.

In the center of the room stood a colorful wooden sculpture that stood 14 feet high, took 10 hours to create, and 5.5 hours to assemble. Monterrubio described it as his “own personal homage about what’s happening in the world, all these catastrophes happening in the world.” The piece was a tribute to Picasso’s painting, Guernica, which itself was a protest against the Spanish Civil War.