The Story of Art Is Trash — Francisco de Pájaro’s Book
The story of Art Is Trash begins with Francisco de Pájaro, a young man from a working-class family who never quite fit into the rigid molds of formal education. Like so many restless children, he filled his schoolbooks with drawings, scribbles, and sketches — small acts of rebellion against a system that didn’t interest him.
As he grew older, the act of painting became more than a pastime: it was introspection, self-expression, and survival. He pursued studies in art, though he never completed his degree. What remained was the dream — fragile, persistent, demanding to be realized. With determination, de Pájaro dedicated himself entirely to creativity, even when the art world seemed unwilling to make room for him.
Crashes and Rebirths
Life is rarely kind to outsiders. For Francisco de Pájaro, the crash came hard. The global financial crisis of 2008 struck Spain with brutal force. Opportunities dried up, survival became a struggle, and the young artist found himself caught between his own ideals and a system built on different rules. Defeat seemed inevitable, failure undeniable.
But out of that wreckage came transformation. Between his hometown of Zafra and the Poblenou district of Barcelona, the artist buried one version of himself and gave birth to another. From the spoils, the shreds, and the trash emerged a new name, a new identity: Art Is Trash.
Trash as Canvas
As Art Is Trash, de Pájaro began creating directly in the streets with what society left behind: garbage bags, discarded furniture, broken mattresses, and forgotten debris. These raw materials became characters, grotesque figures, and satirical installations — artworks that were as fleeting as they were striking.
The philosophy was clear: art should not be trapped in elite galleries, but should live in the public domain, even if only for a few hours before the city’s cleaners carried it away. In the grotesque and absurd, he found humor, critique, and honesty. His works mocked consumerism, questioned social decay, and transformed waste into moments of beauty and truth.
The Book Art Is Trash
Street art is ephemeral, and Pájaro’s work even more so, built on materials destined to vanish. To preserve these acts, to give permanence to impermanence, he created the book Art Is Trash.
This volume gathers photographs, reflections, and manifestos that capture the spirit of his interventions in Barcelona, London, New York, and beyond. It is a book of contradictions: a permanent archive of impermanent acts, a refined object that contains the roughness of the street, a collectible that documents art made from what others threw away.
Readers discover not just the artworks, but also the story of the man behind them — his struggles, his resilience, and his philosophy. For many, the book itself is more than documentation; it is a piece of art, an extension of the practice it preserves.
You can explore or purchase it directly from the artist’s official site:
👉 Buy the book here
Conclusion
Francisco de Pájaro’s journey is one of failure turned into transformation, of trash turned into testimony. His art teaches us that beauty can emerge from the discarded, and that resilience often grows strongest in the cracks of society.
The Art Is Trash book is both archive and manifesto — a reminder that art is not always polished, permanent, or perfect, but alive, raw, and deeply human.
👉 https://www.artistrash.es/buy-book
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