"Yes We Can," Mural by Pepe Piedra

These beautiful murals by Pepe Piedra are a project to change the environment of the Sun Rise Academy. The murals provide the students with a warm and educational environment which helps them to know and better understand their lives through history.

The name of the central panel is "Yes we can" showing the process of a young kid breaking the chains of the ignorance through education, jumping the barriers in the river of life and getting to the highest levels of status as Barack Obama did it.

Yes We Can, (detail) central mural panel, 10' high x 15' long, by Jose Piedra

The second panel is about Family, showing the simple life of a black family living in freedom through education. Reading as the key to improvement, shows the wise black man with a book and his wife taking care of the child. The size of the murals are 10' high x 15' long.

"This is my contribution to the community as a Immigrant Artist, helping young people understand the meaning of Immigration in these times of change and hope in this Country of Immigrant people," says Jose Piedra.

Pepe Piedra, (artist, muralist, musician) is creating a third panel which is going to be a Civil Rights wall. Stay tuned for pictures when they become available. Pepe finds inspiration as a painter and musician. He is an art teacher most recently at "Henson Valley Montessori School" in Temple Hills, Maryland.

Contact Pepe Piedra to commission a mural or a painting,
and arts education services at 202.271.6746
You can see more of the artists work at
http://www.pepepiedra.com

About the artist:

Pepe was born in Casma - Peru, a town at north from the capital, Lima. Piedra has been drawing since his childhood and playing the drums since he was a teenager.

Graduated from the school of Fine Arts at 1987, he is a profesional artist and paints with surrealistic style with oils, acrylics and mixed media techniques.

Pepe Piedra became a pretty famous name in Peru once he started playing with Tierra Sur, a really popular reggae band. But before that, he has been playing with several groups and one of the most famous folklore bands in Peru, Yawar. Later he moves to Washington DC - USA and founds in 1998 the RAYMI Band fussioning latin-folk rhythms with Rock and Reggae.

In 1984, he started teaching art at Summer Camps in Trujillo (Peruvian North Cost), then he moved to Lima (Peruvian Capital) where he continued to teach. At present he is teaching artists to be in his Blue Moon Studio School in Washington DC Area and creating murals in the Washington, DC area. In October 2008, Piedra worked with Washington, DC artist & muralist Anne Marchand on the Prism Mural in Crystal City, VA, which was commissioned by the Crystal City Business Improvement District as the first in their series of Art Walls.