‘City of Five Seasons’ inspires Portuguese artist

CEDAR RAPIDS - The Cedar Rapids slogan, 'City of Five Seasons,” inspired a Portuguese artist to create a mural that now brightens a downtown Cedar Rapids skywalk.

Pedro Campiche, known by his artistic name of AkaCorleone, designed the mural for the non-profit Murals & More in collaboration with Park Cedar Rapids.

The mural was installed Friday on the skywalk over Third Street SE between Fourth and Fifth avenues SE.

'I had never been to Cedar Rapids and, to be honest, I had never heard about it before,” he said. 'So when I got invited to do this, I started to read and learn about the city and got inspired.

'I decided to work with the sentence ‘City of Five Seasons' because I think it really captures the spirit of the city. So this is my own interpretation as some who has never been here.”

The mural is a bright dash of color with hues of blue, yellow, green and more.

'I love Pedro's aesthetic as an artist and his point of view,” said Alexis Dagit, co-chairperson of Murals & More. 'His colors, brightness and vibrancy that he offers really speaks to the intrinsic spirt of Cedar Rapids and how we're such a diverse community.”

Murals & More - which installed its first mural in 2012 - aims to provide public art that engages the community and help the continued revitalization of the city.

'We like to say that we are advocates for artists and champions of our city,” Dagit said. 'We work tirelessly to get murals installed throughout Cedar Rapids using local architecture as the framework for what we do.”

The non-profit's volunteers said they were thrilled they could get an artist of Campiche's caliber to create art for the city.

Campiche, 32, started out as a graffiti writer in in his hometown of Lisbon, Portugal. He earned a degree in design and visual communication in 2007 and worked as a graphic designer before becoming a freelance illustrator, according to a news release.

In the field of visual arts, he is known for his ability to blend colors, typography and characters in eye-catching, humorous compositions.

'Pedro himself is just a wonderful human being who, it was clear through his proposal, really fell in love with the city,” Dagit said.

'It was interesting to see someone from Portugal submit a proposal to us and so well embrace what we are about as a community. He just got it. It was the perfect marriage between artist and idea and our community.”

A public celebration of the mural is planned for 6:30 p.m. Monday beneath the skywalk.

'We are thrilled to working alongside such a high-caliber artist and look forward to having a piece of his art as part of our city's story,” Dagit said.

l Comments: (319) 368-8538; elianna.novitch@thegazette.com