A smiley face, “Wash me,” lewd depictions of human anatomy: Those are the typical inscriptions one might see etched into a dirt-covered car.
But Aaron Decicio’s body of work is more unique.
For the past few years, the 46-year-old truck driver has been churning out hyperrealistic works of art on the dusty back ends of semi truck trailers in the Lewis Clark Valley.
Decicio’s mired murals span pop culture, sports and an ’80s childhood, including photo-like depictions of HUNTR/X from the Netflix hit “K-Pop Demon Hunters,” Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold and Robocop with a movie-accurate reflective shine, thanks to the truck surface.
“It’s just really impressive, the stuff he comes up with, all with a rag and dirt,” said John Albrich, general manager of Idaho-based Excel Transport, the primary source of Decicio’s not-so-clean slates.
Decicio shares his work through his “Art done Dirty” TikTok and Instagram accounts with the handle @aarondecicio, but he said he’s not looking for fame, or to make money off his hobby. He only started sharing his art on social media after an employee of an area mechanic’s shop took a video highlighting one of his own pieces on a truck while it was in for work a few years ago.
Instead, Decicio is looking for more dirt-covered canvases, particularly before the spring weather leads to cleaner roads and trucks.
“That’s when the canvases really start going away, and I’m searching, scrounging, scratching and clawing for any kind of dirty small van or trailer or something somewhere,” he said.
There’s a sort of sweet spot for dirt conditions that allows Decicio’s work to really shine, he said. His primary tool is a shop rag, although he’s started incorporating more brushes. If the dirt is too wet, it muddies his rag and blurs the lines. If it’s too dry, he has to chisel through.
“I’ll push on it with a rag, and feel how thick the dirt is and how dense the dirt is,” Decicio said. “I just put a little bit more pressure and a little bit more pressure, till I can tell I can get three or four good layers out of it. And that’s where multiple colors work out in black and white.”
There are other challenges that come with working in dirt. Decicio’s work isn’t made to last, and he often doesn’t finish before the driver of the truck he’s working has to go out on a route. He’s fallen in love with it, though, and the medium also provides unique benefits, he said.
“I don’t have to find paint, I don’t have to match colors, I don’t have to blend to get the right hue, or whatever,” Decicio said. “It’s just black and white.”
Raised in Lewiston, Idaho, the artist, truck driver and Prep sports official spent four years in the U.S. Army after high school before returning to the region. He now resides on the other side of the valley, in Clarkston, Washington, where he drives for Blue Ribbon Linen Supply. He’s always enjoyed drawing, painting and the like, but his place of employment is where he got his start in “dirt art,” as he affectionately describes it.
“I drew on their trucks for about a year, and ownership kind of liked it, at first,” Decicio said. “They thought it was really cool, and they liked the progression of how the products were getting better and better and better.”
Eventually, Decicio was kindly asked to end his artist residency at his place of employment. The company thought the art drew too much attention to the dirt on the trucks, the inside of which are certified hygienically clean for their clients in industries like health care. That sent Decicio searching for a new pseudo-studio for his now after-hours hobby.
“Most places, people just laughed at me, like, ‘That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard,’ you know?’ ” Decicio said. “And then I would show them pictures of the drawings. ‘Oh, that’s cool, but yeah, not our trucks.’ ”
Albrich said he was happy to oblige Decicio. Excel Transport hauls waste all around the Inland Northwest, allowing the trucks to pick up plenty of road detritus in the colder months.
“He’ll check with me pretty much every day, every other day, and if there’s an open trailer, I’ll say go for it,” Albrich said. “We try to stay quiet out on the road, but it doesn’t hurt anything having murals on the back of our trailers for people to enjoy.”
Decicio’s wife, Gabby Decicio, said it’s been remarkable to watch her husband grow in the medium over the past few years. He’s been doodling, drawing and expressing himself throughout their 21 years of marriage, and while she’s not very artsy, the talent has been passed on to their daughter, she said.
“He puts so much thought and so much care into them; he really pours his heart and soul into it, and they turn out just amazing,” Gabby Decicio said. “You show a picture to somebody, and they go, ‘So that’s paint, right?’ No, it’s just dirt.”
Gabby Decicio said she had her reservations while her husband was carrying out his craft at his place of work, worried it may have unintended repercussions on his employment. The offer to create at Excel has provided the perfect opportunity to both “feed his art” and “feed the family,” she said. She hopes that serves as an inspiration to fellow creators still needing to work a 9-to-5.
“If your passion ends up being what pays the bills, then that’s fantastic, it’s everyone’s dream,” Gabby Decicio said. “But if it’s not, then you still can do your passion behind closed doors and give it to people, or go out, like Aaron does, and do it in random places, just so people can enjoy it.”
Aaron Decicio’s work evokes joy, and it’s remarkable just how much it gets around, she said. Occasionally, Gabby Decicio will see her husband’s handiwork pictured on Facebook as commuters trail behind a semi. It’s rewarding to see folks appreciate it for what it is, she said.
“It’s art that’s made of dirt, and that’s it,” she said. “The simplicity of it is, it’s just dirt. In the end, it washes away, and his canvas is clean and he starts over. And then he does something totally different.”
As of late, Aaron Decicio’s finished more than a few Seahawks murals, just in time for the Seattle club’s fourth Super Bowl appearance: Blitz the mascot, a memorial for hall of fame defensive back Kenny “the Enforcer” Easley and Darnold, juxtaposed with New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye on the other side of the truck’s doors.
“The face mask ended up a little crooked,” Decicio said of his Maye depiction. “With this medium, the dirt art, there’s no mistakes. And if you do make mistakes, you have to make an adjustment, and you go on.”
Decicio’s not quite sure where he’s headed with his hobby, only that he wants to continue improving with each rag swipe or brush stroke. He’s hoping the Northwest community assists him in that effort by providing dirt-covered vehicles to clean, little by little, into elaborate murals.
It’s his labor of love, he said.
“I’m 46, and I wish I would have started this 20 years ago,” Decicio said. “But then again, I don’t know. Maybe I might not have been as good as I think I am. Maybe I started at just the right time.”