Author: Artist Rafi Perez

Rafi is an award winning contemporary artist who creates emotionally charged works. He is best known for his use of texture and bold color palates in striking pieces that each has a story to tell. Rafi is a self taught artist who spent years refining his own techniques and creating a style that is all his own. He has a unique ability to absorb colors and emotions in a very abstract way and is somehow able to translate it into the high energy fine art for which he is known. "He is driven to communicate visual qualities of perhaps the external environment which offers us freedom and inspiration as we cope with awesome focal points in the vast open space surrounding our existence. He attempts to show the internal passion of human sensuality that brings quality to our senses stimulating and extending our consciousness elevating life as individuals or sharing space with others around us. Ultimately Rafi seems to convey simple sophistication and intellectual freedom as he uses the visual language to express the human potential." - Spiros Zachos (PO10TIAL Magazine)
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Plastic Egg Carton Addiction

Spring is in the air, and I feel myself wanting to change things around, and get rid of superfluous art garbage that I’ve collected. Klee and I are not pack-rats with our personal belongings, in fact we are pretty minimal. The art studio is a different story…

I have all kinds of things taking up room in the studio that I may never use. I’ve been collecting plastic egg cartons for almost half a year, thinking that I may use them. I became so dedicated to collecting them, that my friends started saving their plastic egg cartons for me. I’m sure they thought I would use them for an amazing art project or something, but honestly I think I just have a problem. Even now, I’m looking at a pile of them and wondering  if I should keep them.

spartan

 

The thing is, the studio is a chaotic, harmonious and creative balance of awesomeness. If I don’t purge unnecessary items from its environment, It can easily become cluttered and overbearing. I’ve always believed that a cluttered environment equals a cluttered mind, and in the studio’s case, a killer of creativity. Unfortunately, as an artist there is a plethora of art projects that you can work on with just about any item, thus the collection of junk.

Here are two questions I ask myself when spring cleaning my art studio, hopefully this helps you if you have the same problem.

Have I used it in a year? If it is something I haven’t used in a full year, then chances are I’m not going to use it. If it’s something I’m on the fence about, I will pack it in a box with other items and write an expiration date of one year on it.  Next year, if I haven’t gone in the box for anything then it’s time to get rid of it.

Will I use this next week? This question applies to things like plastic egg cartons or other knickknacks that just take up room because you are planning on using them someday. If you are actively using them, then you can determine if they will work in a project. If you are not actively working with the stuff, it is just taking up room, both in your environment and your brain. So either get rid of it, or plan to use it next week.

 

Have fun cleaning out your space and remember, it’s just stuff… You can always buy more plastic egg cartons if you really need to.

Do you have any weird things that you find yourself collecting? Or am I the only one?

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This Art Will Make You Smile – Compassion Project

On March 5th Klee and I attended an event called “Curated Compassion” in which several artist showcased art installations that would interact with the viewer. We set up a piece that would allow for several people to be involved in the creation of a beautiful work. We had over 30 people put their hands in the clay (or magnets) and helped create this amazing work of art. Thank you to everyone involved in making this project beautiful… Enjoy.

 

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Believe it or not… You are an Artist

I use the word artist a lot when I’m talking to people about life, love and the pursuit of happiness. That’s because I think we are all artists, even if you’ve never picked up a paint brush.

When I look at my life, I see life as a giant blank canvas that I am constantly adding and subtracting meaning to. Essentially, the world around me is perceived by my beliefs about it.

Watch this video to see what I mean :)

Enjoy all you awesome artists.

 

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A New Series Is Born

I recently was commissioned to capture the emotion and feeling of a sunset over the ocean. Despite the fact that I don’t do landscapes, I agreed and was quite excited about working on the concept. I think it was the new approach to the idea of a landscape, instead of copying what you see, which is not challenging to me, it was all about the feeling of what you were looking at.

 

A sunset has so much power, beauty, and meaning, that the idea of capturing that in texture and color was an enticing challenge. As it turns out I absolutely LOVE working on this series. Time to go photograph the ocean and different landscapes.

 

If you want to find out more about the process I used to create the piece “Allison’s Ocean View” watch the video below.

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Angel of Light

When I was a kid, I did a lot of really weird and dangerous things that my parents don’t know anything about. I remember crossing streets with my eyes closed and jumping off of high places, I honestly shouldn’t have survived. I had a such a powerful belief that I was protected by an angel, that I had no fear when attempting these dangerous acts. I would have to say, due to the evidence, I must have been right.