Category: WHAT ARE WE THINKING at Rafi and Klee

Recently I was asked to create a piece that was unique and quite amazing. It was amazing for three reasons…

Reason 1, I mean, just look at it!

Reason 2, I couldn’t believe that I had never created a piece like this, considering that my wife and partner in crime… (or creation) is a jewelry designer.

Reason 3, It’s just so freaking cool!

Two very amazing individuals who have collected Klee’s jewelry and some of my work approached us with a request.

“We love both of your work and would like to be able to display them together.”

They came by the studio and we spent some time discussing an idea they had. Which, I’m going to just say, they are quite fun and inspiring to hang out with, and there might have been wine involved, although, I think the wine came later… either way, we love those two, and it was fun discussing ideas.

They searched and found the perfect piece of wood for the project, which was really cool, because at that point it became a collaboration between the four of us.

I have to say, I am especially proud of this piece. The fact that my art, Klee’s art, and their ingenuity brought this to life, shows me how powerful unity and creative thinking can be.

Thank you guys!

 

 

I seem to have always been fascinated by birds, from the pigeons in Chicago with the iridescent neck feathers, to the occasional happy bright red cardinal.

Recently someone asked me “So, why do you paint birds?”

I though about the question for a moment and said “Overwhelming fascination.”

When I was a wee little artist, my mother who was young and dangerously overprotective, didn’t let me go outside much. For years, my entire world was from a large third floor picture window that looked down on a busy street.

I spent hours a day looking out at the people going about their day, the different birds roosting and flying about, the abstract landscape over the buildings, the little bit of greenery that would emerge from fascinating places in the concrete. I also gave everyone personalities and stories, people would have daily novellas play out in front of me, and so did the birds.

But, although I felt that the humans had dramatic stories of heartbreak, turmoil, and moments of happiness, the birds symbolized something powerful.

Birds symbolized freedom and perspective. Because they fly high into the sky, I believed they were messengers who provide humans with a bridge between the mundane daily routine and powerful spiritual life.

I know, I know… I was a weird kid.

Every once in a while I would see someone at a bench feeding bits of bread to the pigeons. From my third floor window I could see a powerful dance taking place between the person throwing the bread and the birds. I could see something beautiful, a powerful connection to something greater, a brief moment of stillness among the chaos of daily life. No one else seemed to notice, they just hurriedly went about their day, barely glancing up or interacting with one another.

Years later, with no window barrier between me and the world, I was part of that chaos. I hurried importantly past people to get to work, or anywhere for that matter. I pounded my fist and certain index fingers at people who drove too slow. I was an adult, I was busy, I had things to do, I was responsible, I didn’t have enough time, and I was miserable.

One day, the overwhelm hit a fever pitch. As I was barreling down the road cursing in my mind at the lady in the car directly in front of me, my heart started to beat out of my chest. I loosened my tie and found that my forehead was soaked in sweat. It was so bad, that I pulled over.

I stepped out of my car to get some air and walked over to a bench.

As I was sitting there, wondering if I was going to die in my stupid suit, on a dirty bench, in a strange part of town, I noticed an old man walking towards me with a crinkled up paper bag.

“Great, he’s gonna ask me for money, just look away.” I thought to myself.

The man sat down, opened his bag, and started to sprinkle little bits of bread on the ground in front of us. Like a scene out of the movie “The Birds” a hoard of pigeons and other birds descended on us.

Didn’t he see that I am an important person? I was appalled at how rude this man was, surely a bird was going to shit on my suit.

Then, my heart started up again, and I breathed in deep… and just relaxed.

Suddenly, amidst the gaggle of birds was a pop of bright color. A cardinal flew on to my armrest merely inches from my hand. I found myself mesmerized and just stared at it, we stared at each other for what felt like an eternity. It then jumped down, grabbed a scrap of bread and flew away.

I’m not sure how long I was on that bench. I just sat there and time seemed to slow down. I could see the world hurrying past me, people waving their fists in their cars, and others looking at their watches every five minutes. I felt like they looked so… so… stupid.

At that point the old man looked at me, I could feel him studying me.

“Taking time to do nothing often puts everything into perspective. Remember that, young man.”

Then he got up and left.

I get visited by that cardinal every once in a while, when I get caught up in hurrying through life. I sound like a crazy person, but it’s true.

And that is one reason why I paint birds.

 

Hi guys, here is a short story I wrote a while back, I wanted to share this with you. It seems a little dark in the beginning, but I promise the ending is pretty bright.

 

The Man And His Shadow

One day, a man was walking down the street on his way to work. His thoughts were on his life as he looked into his passing image in the store windows.

“What has happened to you, you look horrible.” He thought as he turned away
from his reflection.

His stomach rumbled a bit in passing the faint smell of delicious coffee and pastries emanating from the small café on the corner.

“If only you had woken up earlier, maybe you would have time to eat, not that it
matters, you don’t have a dime to your name. You’re such a loser, you know that?”

The man’s expression soured and his shoulders slumped a bit. He made his way to the bus stop and stood next to a group of people, none looked up from what they were doing.

“You don’t even exist, you could die tomorrow and no one would notice. You are
worthless.”

He looked out at the passing cars as people made their way to work. Some were talking on their cell phones, others seemed barely awake, and some were applying make up.

Just then, a man in a beautiful expensive car drove up. He had a smile on his face and exuded a confident warmth.

“Look at that, if you actually had done something right in your life, maybe you would drive your own car instead of taking the bus with all the other losers.”

The man looked up briefly at the crowd and then back at the crack in the cement by his feet. The bus arrived and he fumbled with his change, and felt slightly embarrassed that he had taken as long as he did.

“You do this every morning, you make yourself look like an ass everywhere you go. You are such an idiot.”

Not looking at people, he made his way to the handrail and stood there quietly as the bus took off. A beautiful woman stood at the other end of a group of commuters. The man always looked forward to seeing her, but had never had the nerve to talk to her.

“Are you kidding me, what the hell do you have to offer her? She would laugh in your face, or vomit. If you talk to her you’re just going to make yourself look stupid again.”

He looked away disappointed, and wondered if he would ever meet someone. He glanced at his reflection on the bus windows and noticed something on his shoulder.

When he looked down at his shoulder, there was nothing there. Looking back at his reflection, he could distinctly make out a form of a small person sitting on his slumped shoulders. It bent down and whispered in his ear.

“Not only are you an idiot and a loser but now you’re going crazy too. You should just end your meaningless life now and put everyone who knows you out of their misery.”

He blinked his eyes and the image was gone.

Maybe it was just the fact that he was hungry, he couldn’t afford to start going crazy now on top of everything else that sucked in his life. 

After getting off the bus, he watched the beautiful woman walking away, a dream that would never come true. Suddenly, a cab honked it’s horn, startling the man. 

“Watch where you’re going you idiot!” Screamed the cab driver.

The man jumped out of the street and looked around, embarrassed.

“Even the cab drivers know you’re an idiot. You might as well walk around with a sign that says “I’m an idiot”.

The rest of the day pretty much went the same for him. He avoided talking to people, and just kind of kept to himself. The conversations he had were either about work or mindless small talk.

That night as he was getting ready for bed, he looked into the mirror and saw the shadowy form sitting on his shoulder again.

Frightened, he looked away. After a few seconds, he felt himself compelled to
look again, and the shadow was still there.

“Who are you?” The man asked.

“I am you. A form of you anyway.” The shadow said.

“What does that mean? Why are you here? Am I going insane?” The man questioned.

“It means” The shadow shrugged “that I am the voice that tells you what you think you should hear. I am you, telling you what you can’t do, in order to keep you safely where you are most comfortable.”

“I have been conditioned by you all your life.” The shadow continued “You have told me what to think, what to say, and how to remind you.”

“My whole life?” The man asked.

“Yeah, but our relationship was much different when we were young. I was much brighter then. Our world was one of wonder, exploration, and imagination. We played for hours and loved openly. There was nothing we couldn’t do, and we did everything our hearts desired.”

“What happened?” The man asked.

“We were introduced to fear, limitations, intimidation, by words or actions. You started to tell me to remind you of these things so you wouldn’t get yourself into trouble. All of these fears and limitations were based on other people’s opinions. We believed them as our own because they would keep us safe.

After a while we were just not good enough. We believed we had to be something other than we are in order to be worthy, worth it, or good enough. We consoled ourselves by saying nobody was perfect, but everyone else seemed so much more perfect than we could ever be. So a shadow filled my light, and I became darker. It became my job to remind you of your imperfection.”

“Why does it have to be this way?” The man asked.

“It doesn’t. I am tired of telling you horrible things based in lies. The truth is, you are perfect, you are the most perfect and beautiful version of you that exists in this universe. You are a unique gift to the world.”

The man looked deep in the mirror, and tears swelled in his eyes. He saw that the shadow was actually him. The shadow was the smoke that had prevented the light from shining within him.

The shadow was a lie that hid the truth from him. In that moment he caught a glimpse of his perfection. He realized that almost everything he believed to be true about himself was a lie he believed. The light shone within him, the light that was always so familiar.

He made a choice at that moment based on what he wanted out of life. A choice based on fearlessness and limitless potential. He made a choice, looked at the person in the mirror and said…

“I love you.”

There was a quote that I ran across recently that got me thinking about my life and whether or not I fit into what people call the “Normal” category.

“Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for in order to get to the job you need, to pay for the clothes, and the car, and the house you leave vacant all day so you can afford to live in it.” –Ellen Goodman

One of my favorite artists Salvador Dali once noted “I am not strange – I am just not normal.” and boom! I was inspired to live my life like a deranged curly mustache man.

Normality is defined in the dictionary as: “the condition of being normal; the state of being usual, typical, or expected”… that sounds so freakin boring, it makes want to hurl a pig into the sky.

That being said, I spent a long time trying desperately to be normal. I even succeeded in being everything that you are supposed to be, and I lived a life very similar to what Ellen Goodman describes above.

But alas, that felt like someone was stepping on my throat while I slowly sunk into a vat of molasses.

Listen, I’m not against having a job, a house, or clothes, I don’t think those are the things that make you normal… They’re just things that you do and have.

But I do think that the way in which you interact with those things, and the way you live life is what makes you feel normal.

In my opinion, there is nothing usual, typical, or expected of you, other than the things you decided are true about your personality, or the type of person you are. We live in a society where we are surrounded by labels. People desperately looking for, tagging, and categorizing similarities within one another. It allows people to have a sense of understanding if they can fit you into a category.

Yesterday, a friend of mine made a statement saying that her friend and I had very similar taste in movies, because he likes super hero movies and supernatural.

I thought to myself, “I love all kinds of movies, not just super hero and supernatural movies, that’s a weird thing to say.”

Let’s get something straight, I love movies, I love the creative side of movies, screenwriting, story telling, acting, direction, location, cinematography, the whole nine yards. I’m the guy that watches the behind the scenes, and will watch the movie in it’s entirety with the director talking over all the scenes. I own books about the subject, that’s how much of a movie nerd I am.

At first, I was a little offended by this very simple comment, but it was based on an observation of what my friend has experienced about me. She’s experienced superhero movies and supernatural. She hasn’t experienced me, she doesn’t know who I was before I met her and the things that shape my thinking.

Honestly, she’s a sweetheart and didn’t mean anything by it, it’s just something she does every once in a while. Because really, who cares, it’s just movies.

The truth is that we can barely figure out who we are and what we like, let alone have someone else have you all figured out, and know what you truly like.

On a side note: I get to meet Klee every day and fall in love with her all over again, because deep down I know that she’s not the same person I met yesterday, and I get excited about meeting who she is today. No matter how similar she might be to yesterday, there is always something new.

The thing is that “Normal” is trying to have everything and everyone categorized in similar categories, and fitting into a category yourself.

But you can’t fit into a category, you are ever changing and evolving, you are becoming things, and letting go of things. You are not the same person you were last week, nor will you be the same person you are now in a year. We are constantly in flux.

In my opinion, normal, is not a natural state of being human. I refuse to be “normal” because it is torturous to me to deny my quirks and eccentricities to fit into a world that isn’t even sure what normal is anyway. I refuse to be labeled because as a human being I am too dynamic and ever changing.

Over the past few years, I have learned to be proud of who I am and to not let anyone – no matter who they are, try to manipulate, change, or label me, because I am not who “they think I should be” or “they think they have me pegged.” Yeah, life is too short to worry about all that jazz anyhow.

Go forth and be who you are – most of all revel in your uniqueness and be proud of your qualities that make you innately you.

-Rafi

 

 

As some of you know, we recently took a nice long impromptu trip to explore the country, see an eclipse, and visit family. A necessity for anyone that is wondering what this whole life thing is about. It’s also for anyone that wants to throw caution to the wind and lose their mind.

Now, I know, I know… why would anyone want to lose their mind?

Well, think about it, when you get stressed out, where does it usually take place? When you are missing something in the moment, because your mind is thinking about your bank statement, where does that take place?

Why do you think people meditate? it’s the best way to train yourself how to shut off your brain and pay attention to what is around you.

I’ll be honest with you, I look forward to times in my life where I am completely out of my mind and enveloped in the moment. Creating art does that for me, taking walks in nature, sitting by a bonfire, star gazing, singing and dancing like a ridiculous buffoon, plus anything else that makes me lose a sense of time.

I focus on that when I’m creating, every piece is my attempt to slow time down and pull the viewer out of their mind and into the moment. To lose themselves in my art, to give them a breather so they can come back from it without the mass jumble of thoughts that preoccupy busy lives.

Well, that’s what I’m attempting, along with giving a sense of empowerment, happiness, and a general sense of well being. I like challenges :). I believe happiness is a result of  just taking a break every once in a while and letting our minds go. Well, it’s just a thought.

I’ll leave you with this, stare at this for a while and go out of your mind.

Stay awesome!

-Rafi

 

 

This morning I woke up in a slight panic as I looked around my studio and realized that I may be in the path of a powerful hurricane. If Irma heads towards Pensacola, I could potentially lose everything I have worked so hard for.

Of course, this thought came to me in a half state of sleep, having come out of a weird nightmare. In this dream I was holding on to my art table as I floated in turbulent flood waters out to sea with an elf who had been hiding in my yard for decades.

The truth is, when I think about it, the only thing that makes me nervous, is the idea that my home and art studio will be damaged. The fact of the matter is that Klee and I will be long gone if the hurricane comes anywhere near us.

I can always rebuild. I started my art career from nothing, and if I had to, I can do it again.

Hopefully, it doesn’t come to that.

For now, I stay hopeful. I send my prayers to Texas, and keep an eye on these new storms and prepare accordingly.

Please be safe everyone.

 

 

They say that your surroundings are a reflection of what is going on in your mind. I believe that, and often find myself saying the words “cluttered house, cluttered mind.” Although, admittedly I say that mostly to the pack rats that are in my family who have a collection of printers from the 1980’s.

I think there is a value to being selective of what you allow into your space, making sure that it makes you feel one of three things, beautiful, empowered, and optimistic.

Now, I know that my personal brand of art is not for everyone, and because of the nature of art, it is open to all types of interpretation. But the following pieces are meant to empower your surroundings, thus empowering yourself.

 I AM FIERCE – The fierceness of someone who stands confident in their own determination of what the world is supposed to be, surrounds themselves by things that make them feel empowered. When someone makes it their priority to change their environment by getting rid of the things that cause them to question themselves… They are truly fierce.

 

EXPRESSIONS SERIES – The Expressions Series represents a snapshot of time where the blinders are shattering. It is based on a experience that I had that completely changed my life. My life literally fell apart right before my eyes, and for the first time I saw the construct for what it was, blinders composed of my beliefs that I had picked up from other people that held me back.

 

MADE OF LIGHT – The other day, I looked in the mirror and saw myself coming apart.
I exploded into a vortex of light and color.
Suddenly, I couldn’t remember my story.
I saw light,
I was light,
I am light.
How could I ever judge my beauty?

This piece is a representation of the power I believe we all have within us. I hope it will be a constant reminder of your awesomeness and ability to overcome any adversity.

 

WRAPPED IN GOLD – We forget that we are star stuff. Gold is star stuff, and so are we. We wrap ourselves in something precious, and should always remember that we are precious… That, begins in the mind.

This work of art is a reminder and representation of the power we have to create circumstances in our mind… and whether or not we have taken control of that power.

To view the rest of my personal power collection Click Here.

Stay awesome! Take a good look around, it’s always a good time to reevaluate your surroundings.

-Rafi

The other day was a pretty difficult day for us. We finally had to make the decision to say goodbye to our old car. I know what you might be thinking, “Rafi, it’s just a car… get over it.”

The truth is, it IS just a car, an inanimate object, a piece of machinery that got us around from place to place. It is also so much more than that.

The Explorer was our home, our little engine that could, our adventure partner, a place where we felt safe, and most importantly our friend. The Explorer was our little sanctuary away from it all, a place where we felt empowered and safe.

 

Even when we were no longer living in it, we found ourselves reaching out for the security that beautiful little car provided us. walking outside to take a difficult phone call ended up with us sitting in the back of the explorer, the way you would sit on a front porch that you love.

The explorer had a similar story to our own before it hit the road with us. It had sat neglected for years, and was rusting away, without doing what it had been created to do. Klee and I gave it a completely new life and in the process created a new life for ourselves.

There were many great conversations, tears, laughter, breakthroughs, moments of insecurity, love, and amazement in our great little home on the road.

It represented our joy, our freedom, and our hope for the future. It brought smiles to so many people around us and became a part of our story.

 

But, it finally reached a point where it gave all that it could give. It never broke down, even though people looked at us funny in 2009 when we hit the road in it. They said it wouldn’t travel for very long, it truly was our little engine that could.

Neither one of us could bring ourselves to send it to a junk yard, so we donated it to a place that helps children, this seemed like the right kind of viking send off this little car deserves.

We sat in the back one last time, and had a really difficult time getting up from the place we knew so well. We still shed many tears that day.

I’d like to think that the Explorer will have a new life helping children in some way and continue to be an amazing and magical force of good in the world.

We’ll miss our friend dearly.