"Art is in your blood..."      Those are the words my grandfather, Victor Monterrubio, bestowed upon me. As a child, I didn’t fully understand the phrase, but with time and experience I learned the truth about what he said.      He was right and when I found the truth of his vision I discovered a portal to both peace and purpose. Art, for me, is passion and in my time I have been privileged to experience the passions that are found in places, people, and the coincidental situations circulating around beauty, as well as those unfortunate states dwelling in the grotesque. My art comes from the places I have been, the places I have searched, and sometimes stumbled to.      With life, each individual must find a sense of serenity. For me, to create, to paint and portrait the world, is my purpose, my path to peace. "Art works are ambassadors from the little misunderstood realm of our imaginations" and in this realm my images materialize and saturate my work. By utilizing oil, acrylic, or bronze, I am able to set free the passion from my paint brush and breathe existence onto a nude canvas. Diego Gutierrez Monterrubio