It shouldn’t be any surprise to anyone that my favorite concept and mystical beast is the phoenix. The symbolic meaning of the phoenix is about renewal. The phoenix is about overcoming darkness and rising to the challenge to become powerful and succeed over adversity.
It’s a symbolism that I have used a few times, but never like this piece that beautifully displays the body language of both anguish and freedom.
I wanted to create a piece that showed the transitional moment of someone taking a leap of faith into the unknown. This leap is taken with complete abandon and freedom.
Several years ago I took a leap of faith that was terrifying. I remember thinking that I had to forget everything I thought I knew, because all those thoughts were telling me I was crazy. I was essentially burning the bridge to my old life, a life that was all I knew for 30 years. It wasn’t the most happy life I could live, which is why I decided to change it. This required me to hop in my car and leave all security and certainty behind… which was absolutely terrifying, yet was such a pattern interrupt in my monotonous life that I needed.
Essentially, from the ashes of my old life which had completely self destructed, I rose and felt stronger than I ever had.
The thing is, I could have stayed in my old life… there is always a way to keep things going, but I had made a decision that I wanted things to change.
I feel like the Phoenix is a powerful reminder that no matter what, you can always be reborn from the ashes of your old life.
Hi, Rafi,
As an aspiring artist in need of encouragement, I am a huge fan of your YouTube channel and your blog. Your advice about being yourself, busting ass, and not letting other people’s fears interfere with your way of life keep me on track to greater things. In fact, when my friend first pushed me into my first art fair, I devoured everything you made that very same day. It was impressive.
My questions today are such: How long does your work take to complete? I’m sure the answer is “it varies,” but I looked at your beautiful phoenix and wondered how long it took to come together. Everyone works at their own pace, and I imagine you are probably juggling 478392047302 things. How many pieces are you working on at the same time?
If you have time to answer, I would be so grateful! Sometimes I feel like I’m taking too long on a project to the point of overworking, and other times it feels like I literally can’t tell someone if I heartfully threw together in 30 minutes because they will somehow value it less. The whole point is that you have a superpower that nobody else has, right? The superpowe rof expressing YOU… right? PHEW.
Thanks.
<3 to both
Sophia
On Wed, Feb 20, 2019 at 4:04 PM Rafi Was Here Studios – Rafi & Klee wrote:
> Artist Rafi Perez posted: ” It shouldn’t be any surprise to anyone that my > favorite concept and mystical beast is the phoenix. The symbolic meaning of > the phoenix is about renewal. The phoenix is about overcoming darkness and > rising to the challenge to become powerful and succeed o” >
Hi Sophia, that piece took several days, due to drying times, while working on that piece I also completed about 4 other pieces. I work on things while other things dry enough to continue working… only because I have no patience when things are drying 😊