You’ve probably seen him around the city—a mischievous-looking creature with a Cookie Monster–blue head and a fuzzy body striped in scarlet, yellow, and green. He grins with a wide, red-lipped mouth as he hitches a ride on a a butterfly in San Ysidro, pours water down his back on El Cajon Boulevard, and plays poker with a motley crew of other critters in Barrio Logan.
His name is Chucho, and he’s the beloved brainchild of Puerto Rican- and Mexican-American artist Michelle Ruby, AKA Mr B Baby. Nowadays, he’s a world traveler, appearing in public art all over the globe, from Miami to Morocco to Paris. Ruby has worked with brands like Nike and Samsung and painted a mural at Dodger Stadium. Last year, the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System tapped her to design a limited-edition PRONTO card and put up a mural near the tracks.
“Chucho is a piñata, and he stands for resilience,” Ruby says. “Piñatas are meant to be broken, but instead of feeling defeated, he finds strength and growth from his cracks.”
The symbolism is personal for Ruby, who has utilized art to help manage her anxiety and depression since she was a child. At first, drawing was a hobby, a coping mechanism, but after overcoming addiction and giving birth to her daughter, Zariah (now 11), “I wanted to create artwork that people were gonna feel connected to, because my previous work was much darker. And I knew that I wanted to give it a shot— doing art as a profession,” Ruby says. “I had just basically transformed my life completely, and in doing so, oddly enough, I realized that I was actually a lot stronger and more capable than I had ever given myself credit for.”
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As she developed her new signature style—colorful and maximalist, populated by round-eyed dolls and figures from traditional Mexican art and folklore—Ruby taught herself to spray-paint on hardware-store wood panels. “I used to drive for Lyft, and I’d go into random neighborhoods and pitch my services like a salesman,” Ruby recalls. “I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t have any connections. I didn’t know anyone in the art world. I just went on instinct.”
Now, with her dream of becoming a full-time artist achieved, she’s focused on bringing Chucho to a more handheld experience: a children’s book. “I want this book to celebrate culture but also touch on issues with mental health, so we can have these discussions among families,” Ruby says. “For me, Chucho is a daily reminder that despite the things that we go through, we’re just growing and learning from them.”
