Stan Padilla

Colfax, CA

Stan Padilla is a multi-media heritage artist, educator and cultural activist of Yaqui Indian and Chicano heritage. He is one of the principal mural painters of the RCAF Art Collective. He began painting murals during the cultural revolution of the 1960's. His original intention to begin mural painting was to use it as a vehicle to tell the story of cultural identity and territorial integrity with the emphasis upon cultural reclamation of heritage symbols, myths and legends, color and language. His current work focuses on cultural and spiritual transformation.

His work is represented in the Sacramento region with murals in the Southside Amphitheater, Macy's parking structure "Metamorphis" mural, Dept. of Health "Eartharium" rotunda mural. He recently completed a mural, with his compadres of the RCAF, at the Golden One Arena. This mural is entitled "Flight" and is a three storied vertical panorama, high relief tryptich painting, portraying the Meso-American myth of the evolutionary journey of the passing of the fifth historical era (our times) to the coming Sexto Sol (next evolutionary era of time). In addition he has painted, consulted, inspired, conspired on murals in cultural exchange in the Soviet Union, Canada, Cuba, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Brazil.

He maintains an active studio and heritage arts compound/stronghold in rural Placer County. For the last decade he has been an Artistic/Cultural Mentor for the students of the United Auburn Indian Community Tribal School in Auburn, CA. He is a well known humanitarian, a friend to many diverse communities and a spiritual advisor to the youth of those communities.