Jorge Rodriguez Gerada and his giant portraits

Jorge Rodriguez Gerada is a Cuban artist who immigrated to the U.S where he formed the culture 'Jaming movement', a group of artists that auto-defines as a 'guerilla art group'.

He expresses his creativity with giant portraits made on earth, almost as big as a soccer field, becoming part of this original art movement of works visible from space.

Some of his most popular pieces are: ''Expectation'', ''Vogelvrije Vrouwen: Defend Women Who Defend Human Rights'' and ''Wish''.
''Expectation'' is a portrait of President Obama, realized before the elections of 2008 and created in Barcelona with 650 tons of colored sand. For Gerada, painting on sand is a metaphor for the cures necessary for our future and to guarantee a safer future for new generations to come.
"Vogelvrije Vrouwen: Defend Women Who Defend Human Rights" is a work in honor of the Dutch foundation ''Mama Cash'', that takes care of the safeguard and promotion of women's rights around the world. Gerada supported the cause by creating an environmental work in Holland, precisely in Zeeburgereiland, a triangular island at east of Amsterdam.
The portrait created is of a woman, an activist for women's rights, and the use of rich soil in this occasion is a metaphor of what can be generated if the vision of these women gets respected, allowing them to change things.
''Wish'' is the most recent of Gerada's work. It's placed in Belfast and with 11 acres of land and years of work, it's the biggest portrait in the United Kingdom and it's the image of a child, based on the photograph of an anonymous 6 year-old Belfast girl.
About this work the artist said: "Wish wasn't something that just got presented, it was a process.

Getting to know the city on multiple trips and letting the creative flow helped bring the image to me of what I wanted to do. I told them it was going to be based on what kind of feedback we got from the city.

This is not a project I wanted to do based on throwing money at it, but based on a collaboration with the city, using different entities within the city, from major construction companies like McLaughlin Harvey to the fire brigade.

It's a very large mix, a lot of people, a lot of volunteers, a lot of really dedicated workers that gave a month of their time."
Gerarda creates works of art with unusual mediums, constantly reminding us of the infinite possibility that creativity can offer even outside a canvas and the deeply meaningful messages art can send.