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On a bus ride to the mall with his mother in the early 2000s, Geraldo Gonzalez discovered more than a way to get around — he found a lifelong muse.

That fascination, rooted in the rhythm of buses and trains, has carried him far beyond the stations he once sketched. Today, his passion for public transportation has earned him a place in Delaware’s arts community, where his exhibition “Artist of Life” is currently on display at the Mezzanine Gallery in Wilmington.

His love affair began when they lived in Aston, Pennsylvania. Later, he discovered the Delaware Transit Corporation’s annual First State Transit Theme Poster Contest and, at age 15 in 2004, began practicing with crayons on sheets of paper. Two years later, he entered the contest for the first time, working with colored pencils and developing a more realistic style.

A friend who drove a bus gave him a nickname that stuck  — and now defines him.

“When I first showed him my artwork, he really liked it, so he called me the King of Transit,” Gonzalez said.

The Puerto Rican artist, who has lived in New York and Pennsylvania, and now calls Wilmington home, has spent more than two decades transforming public transportation into art. Not only does he capture the culture of transit but also the overlooked details of a bus –– like its advertisement wraps –– that some might consider mundane.

“I have seen some of the interesting bus wrap advertisements that caught my attention,” he said. “So I started doing psychedelic, bright colors that caught my attention.”

Gonzalez said he likes to tap into realism and stand outside the transit, sit at the transit and live the moment.

“I go and run in certain areas like Rodney Square, the Wilmington Transit Center, and also the Wilmington train station,” he said. “Those are the three areas that I take photography, to pick and choose which images I want to draw, from an artistic reference and subject ideas that I want to draw.”

Photo at train station drew police attention

Gonzalez’s love of transit has also made him stand out — sometimes in ways that put him at risk. In 2010, Wilmington police detained him for photographing near the Amtrak train station.

What felt like inspiration to him looked like suspicion to others.

He told WHYY News recently that he saw a train parking on the track, took a photo and saw that a Wilmington officer had noticed him doing so.

“I was completely stunned and I was completely freaked out” when the officer asked him why he was taking photos, he said. He added that he was detained for 10 minutes before the officer released him and returned his camera.

Despite that unpleasant encounter, art became Gonzalez’s compass for a deep connection that shapes how he responds to today’s realities of declining transit systems. He doesn’t just see route eliminations and funding cuts as bureaucratic moves –– to him, they represent broken lifelines.

Years before SEPTA rail lines and DART buses announced service cuts, Gonzalez began working on a piece that, in his eyes, foreshadowed what was to come. Finished this summer, the work depicts a DART bus in Philadelphia — a vision that later mirrors current headlines about routes being shifted and eliminated.

In Delaware, cuts to bus lines like Route 52 have left riders stranded, and he said the process has been painful to witness, so he uses his art as advocacy.

“It’s very frustrating for the people,” Gonzalez said.

At the same time, his artwork has found recognition. Through the Delaware Division Fellowship, Gonzalez’s vision has entered gallery walls, translating the hum of buses and the clatter of trains into cultural conversation.

For Gonzalez, the recognition he has received is not just about hanging art on a wall — it is about giving public transportation a voice.

His “Artist of Life” exhibition at the Mezzanine Gallery in Wilmington, which began Sept. 6 and ends Friday, places transit at the center of cultural conversation, affirming that buses and trains are not only vehicles of movement, but of meaning.

For him, the message is urgent: public transportation is not just a matter of efficiency, but of humanity. It deserves to be seen, understood and valued.