Painter from Gilbert's helping the hungry during Corona lockdown

A local artist and waiter for Gilbert's El Indio Mexican restaurant is selling 8x12 prints of the famous eatery to raise money to give food by people crushed by Corona.

Johnny Huerta -- second baseman for SaMoHi's 2007 team that went to state championship -- turned into a painter after waiting table's at his family's iconic Gilbert's, the shortest trip to Mexico from Santa Monica.

"A lot of people are set back now, financially and every way," says Johnny, 31. "People are going to be wrecked for a while. I was just thinking of way to take action -- to serve. I felt crippled by this thing, having to be indoors and not wanting to be in contact with each other. It was a way to offer hope to people."

So far the talented painter has sold 80 and has delivered personally a dozen meals. He gave to supermarket workers, who are on the front lines as a flash point for risk. The prints cost $15 and 100% of the money goes to the food.

You can pick up your print directly from Gilbert's or by order @j_huerta310 on Instagram, where they're on display.

Johnny wanted to help people as soon as corona virus shut the city down. "The print came to mind," he says. The painting was first made when his grandfather, Gilbert, the restaurant's founder, died in 2019.

"He always wanted to do things for people to make sure they were fed and taken care," Johnny says. "So I thought what better way to carry on his legacy to use that?"

Though he thought it early, Johnny couldn't get the painting printed at first because printers were shut down. Eventually, a printer opened and he sent them to press.

During his teenage years, Johnny started drinking. His grades slipped, and he was ineligible for one year. A family friend, Danny Alonzo, painter of the Ocean Park underpass mural of whales, encouraged Johnny to take up painting as a potential to provide a positive alternative to drinking.

"He gave me something positive to set my mind on and give me goals," Johnny says.

He attended Otis after high school but felt purposeless. The conceptual part only gave him burnout. He dropped out and waited tables for six years.

Then he found Jesus -- and a message to share with the world, he says. His best friend graduated from UCLA and inspired Johnny that he could return to school. Johnny enrolled the Los Angeles Academy of Figurative Art in Van Nuys, a three year bachelor program. He graduated 2019.

He most enjoys painting scenes that show hope and purpose in life. "I bring a message of hope," he says.

Johnny restores faith in humanity. In 2018, Johnny spotted a recovering addict hanging himself with a rope from the inside of the second story of a low-income apartment and rescued him.

Johnny clambered up on the bars on the window to hug the man and hold him up so that pressure from the rope around his neck wouldn't asphyxiate him. Then he asked his buddy, Paul Santos, to help hold him up, while he went to a restaurant to borrow a knife and cut him free.

"It was excited that God chose me to be there at that moment and do something," Johnny says. "We hear these stories where people do these crazy things and nobody helped him out. It's weird that nobody helps."

Weeks later, Johnny saw again on the streets the man, more in his right mind, who thanked him, Johnny said.