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.
Blue Phoenix By Rafi Perez
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.
Blue Phoenix By Rafi Perez
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.
Blue Phoenix By Rafi Perez
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.
Blue Phoenix By Rafi Perez
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.
Where the Pensacola News Journal building once stood is now a series of luxury apartments built to add affordable living space to beautiful downtown Pensacola. Developers tore down the old News Journal building to make way for Southtowne Apartments, which is made up of rental units and retail shops designed to appeal to the downtown crowd.
Rafi Perez At Southtowne Apartments
I was invited to live paint at a private event held for their new residents. Although the project is still under construction, I have to say, it is a beautiful location. I couldn’t help but look around and think to myself that I could easily live there.
Balconies, views, sidewalks, stores, amenities, parking, and downtown right out your front door… right up my alley. My only concern is that wherever we go, the studio comes with us and the need for room to create.
Rafi Perez At Southtowne Apartments
Anyhow, Klee and I mingled while I painted and showed off a few of my finished works. We had an amazing time, with some really beautiful and sweet people.
This project along with other things going on downtown gets me excited for the future of Pensacola and the direction it is heading in. This town has really embraced its creative community and moved forward with a lot of events and projects that support local art and artists.
Rafi Perez At Southtowne Apartments
In my opinion, we can use a few more commercial art galleries downtown, but I’m sure that will happen eventually and for the time being I love the relationship I have with the businesses that show my art.
My only criticism of the Southtowne project and big projects like it is the lack of local art on their walls. I could be wrong about this, but walking around I saw beautifully decorated spaces with all kinds of art, but no one I recognized locally… Still, beautiful stuff, but I would be highly disappointed if it came from Kirkland’s.
Either way, we had a blast Saturday night and met some amazing folks. We look forward to seeing it in all its glory when completed.
I have a series called the nature of being, or as some people like to call them “Rafi’s Lady Trees.” This year I have really enjoyed reigniting the series as I set a goal to add subtle differences to the message in pieces within the series itself.
Nature Of Love By Rafi Perez
The series itself is about being rooted here and now in your world, yet constantly growing and reaching higher than you ever have, naturally and organically. It’s about being flexible and naked to the world and showing yourself as you are, never hiding behind a facade of fear.
I wanted to showcase a unity within the scope of the collection with pieces that showed masculine and feminine intertwined with one another.
Nature Of Love By Rafi Perez
These pieces are inspired by the journey that I have been on with my beautiful wife Klee and some of the lessons I have learned about what it means to be in love.
In the past I always assumed that being with someone meant that it was your job to make sure they were happy, and in return it was their job to make you happy.
Yet, this never seemed to work out.
Nature Of Love By Rafi Perez
It wasn’t until experience brought me to a place where I started to question the status quo of relationships and love that I realized that I had it all wrong.
It wasn’t about making the other person happy, it was about finding your happiness and sharing that with the other person. This in no way was a guarantee that it would make them happy, but that was alright. See, I found that the only person that could really make me happy was me and it was unfair to try and throw that burden onto Klee… She had enough on her plate just trying to make herself happy.
Nature Of Love By Rafi Perez
It was during that realization that I started to understand unconditional love. It meant that I had no conditions or expectations that she would behave a certain way in order for me to be happy, she had the right to be herself. To express herself and continue on her journey of finding out what life was all about for her.
I did the same, and we shared those moments with each other, talking about our experiences and realizations. We also share in our moments of growth as we journey on this road to find what makes us happy and how to enjoy our lives to the fullest.
It is quite beautiful.
Nature Of Love By Rafi Perez
I’m not saying there haven’t been moments of turmoil, because we all experience them, but with every moment there has always been an honest revelation and a stronger bond than ever before.
The thing is, we are both growing, learning, changing, evolving, on our own, yet our lives are intertwined because we choose to walk side by side.
It just wouldn’t work if one of us decided to carry the other… and it wouldn’t look as cool in a painting.
One of my favorite things to do as an Artist is to help my collectors plan, display, and curate the space in their home. It is amazing how art will change the mood and feeling of a room, or the whole house for that matter. I have people email me all the time telling me about their morning empowerment routine with one of my bright pieces of art.
My only challenge has been bringing that sense of color and energy to a smaller space, or to a small work space.
Luckily, I have a solution. I am working on pieces that will allow you to curate any space. Small specialty pieces to bring that energy and power to a small bathroom or even a cubicle… or any place you can think of.
“Curate your space” is a new series of enhanced prints. This is a high quality print of my work on textured archival art paper. I enhance my prints using either ink, paint, pastel, or a combination of mediums. Each one is unique, the piece is mounted on wood and ready to hang out of the box. It is completely hand crafted by me, with unique texture patterns added by hand, no two are exactly the same. These pieces are signed and dated on the back.
I am adding several new pieces to my store daily, so check back often. I will be doing an official launch on November 15th of the series, but I’m just too excited about it… So, the cat’s out of the bag.
I recently sold a piece of art that symbolized a very special story. When I posted it on social media I captioned it with:
Life can be a thrilling ride, or a terrifying one. It’s just a matter of perspective. It’s not always easy to remind yourself that you are on fire for life, but it is necessary if you want to ignite yourself, and blaze your own trail.
This piece symbolizes what I think all of us have inside, a flame that burns and refuses to be snuffed out, no matter how hard we might try.
When I look at my life, I can see a very clear separation between the person who buried their ambitions and dreams behind a wall of fear, and the crazy risk taking weirdo that I am today. I’d be lying if I said that I am completely devoid of fear, but it is worlds away from the old version of me.
The thing is, that if you ignore that flame, that passion that burns within you, it doesn’t go away, you are just constantly reminded of the things you are suppressing.
We are all such beautiful creatures, with amazing potential. I feel that we all know that to some level or another, but might be too scared to express it.
But the flame within you doesn’t go away.
We are brilliant in our uniqueness. In the history of the world there has never been anyone like you, there is no one like you, and there will never be anyone like you… soak that in for a moment. Yet, we tend to compare ourselves and put ourselves down.
But the flame within you doesn’t go away.
It is simply a matter of perspective… The flame within you, is that part of you that sees your beauty, ability, potential, brilliance, your worth, and uniqueness. It see’s what you really are…
One of the pitfalls of selling my art is the fact that many times I don’t get to see where my piece will live. I create a part of me and expose it to the world in the hopes that it will end up in a good home and be appreciated. I spend so much time just staring at a piece as it is being created, that I develop a very close relationship with my art.
Don’t get me wrong, I interact with the person buying it whether in person or online (and have turned offers down because of the persons vibe) but for the most part, that’s where the interaction ends. They buy the art, and I never see it again.
When I created the glow tree, I had this piece in mind for a special person that would appreciate every single deliberately molded peak of texture.
This tree represents a concept and idea that is very special to me.
“We are rooted in reality, and yet we expand and grow out towards the heavens. We are constantly expanding and growing, even when no one else can see it.”
With this piece, I was hoping this would be one of those rare occasions where the person stayed in contact during the process of receiving the art.
Every once in a while, I get to see how the piece is welcomed into the new home, and I it is always a joy.
I received a special message last night from the Alfredo Z. who purchased this piece online from me a couple weeks ago.
He had contacted me several times asking for suggestions on the size, color, and style of frame. He sent me pictures of his favorites, and I made my suggestions and that was that.
The color and texture of this piece requires the frame to be very specific as to not take away, but add to the message.
I could not have imagined how amazing the piece would look with the hardware that surrounds it.
I was invited to create something new out of something old that will be something awesome for something that we all care about.
This old chair that you see pictured here will be converted into a work of art… maybe even one you can sit on. This is for “From Blue To Better Campaign” to prevent child abuse.
I recently did a mural for Child Abuse Awareness at the Graffiti Bridge, which if I’m honest with you, was a little outside of my comfort zone… but, it is for such a great campaign that I had to try it.
This is a little outside of my comfort zone as well, I’ve never created an “art chair” and of course my mind is trying to over think it with all kinds of elaborate plans, that are a bit ridiculous. That being said, what I have planned is going to blow you away… just sayin. Wish me luck, hope I can pull it off.
If you get a chance to be there, I will be putting the finishing touches on it on Thursday, 6pm, April 6th, 2017 at Beyond The Grape at the Cordova Mall, where you will be able to buy a raffle ticket and win the chair.
Here is More Info From Event:
“Wine Tasting And Live Painting Thursday April 6th 6-9pm in support of the From Blue To Better Campaign to prevent child abuse. What goes better with wine than a delicious pairing of live art. Join Rafi Was Here Studios – Artist Rafi Perez on Thursday April 6th from 6-9pm at Beyond the Grape at Cordova Mall, right across from Red Robin. He will paint one of our former conference room chairs to be raffled off that evening. His work will be displayed and we will have other art pieces from local artists available for raffle … It doesn’t get much better.
There will be complimentary wine tasting and a special 15% discount on bottles purchases that night. Munch on light hors d’oeuvres and enjoy a fun evening of Wine, Art and Food! Beyond The Grape will host a wine tasting with their range of specialty Florida fruit and infused wines as well as their monthly selections of the best traditional varietals from around the world. Enjoy a glass of wine at the antique tasting bar, or Pensacola’s favorite Wine Smoothies.
I am getting ready to become a recluse for the rest of the month as I go into finishing up a very powerful and special work of art. I’ll be entering it into a prestigious international art competition, that may give me the opportunity to show work in Japan. Needless to say, I am both excited and nervous, but I’m making progress on my weird phobia of art competitions, so I’m getting close to being fearless… kinda. I’ll be sending you for information on my progress and what happens, so stay tuned.
Rafi Perez Dream Like In The Garden, may be one of the pieces entered.
We have some new creations to share with you this week, both Klee and I are super excited about it!
But before we get into that, here is an amazing quote I would like to share with you:
“An artist never really finishes his work; he merely abandons it.” Paul Valéry
This actually made me laugh a little, because it is so true. As an artist, I get the feeling that a piece is finished, but there is ALWAYS something else that can be done. I think as long as you enjoy the process, and not simply trying to get to the end of your work, you can have fun with it.
Ok, as I promised here is the art and jewelry! Enjoy!
14k gold filled Australian Fire Opal Necklace By Klee Angelie
“Opals are fascinating to me, like a bit of magic in gem form. Today, we still don’t know exactly how precious opal was formed but it’s incredible to me that it exists at all. The predominant theory of how Australian fire opal formed is this.
It’s believed that opal was formed from water containing silica running into cracks and fissures in the earth and combining with other materials. Around 30 million years ago, lots of silica was released into a solution which filled cracks in the rocks, layers in clay, and even some fossils. Some of them became precious opals.It takes approximately 5 to 6 million years for 1cm of opal to form.
Opals are made up from tiny uniformed spheres of transparent hard silica, which fit together in an orderly three dimensional frame. These tiny spheres also determine colors and patterns of opals. The size of the spheres determines the colour produced. The more orderly the structure of the spheres, the more fire the opal will have. This is what separates precious opals from common opal.
Ancient people believed that precious opal was a stone of luck, majesty, and magic… known as the “Queen of Gems” and honestly, I can’t argue with them.”
-Klee Angelie
I AM Fierce original painting by artist Rafi Perez
“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.
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.
I created this when I was thinking of the powerful women I have known, or in history who changed the world into a brighter place, simply because they didn’t quit, because they were fierce.”
-Rafi Perez
Rustic Hammered Textured Sterling Silver Circle Necklace By Klee Angelie
“One of the oldest symbols known to us, the circle has been around since before the beginning of recorded history, representing many ideas to many cultures. Eternity, natural order, life cycles, elemental forces, sacred geometry, the universe itself.
This pendant necklace is a beautiful and simple representation of a timeless and powerful symbol. Made of solid hammer formed sterling silver and dangling beautifully between two jump rings, it has a nice weight and texture and looks amazing worn alone or layered with other necklaces.”
-Klee Angelie
Moonlight Mermaid original painting by artist Rafi Perez
“In the deep ocean of the mind, swimming through the vast pools of logic and analytical thinking, is a touch of magic. The mermaid, a symbol of wonder and fear, beauty and death, love and hate. the idea of something either completely imagined or never witnessed, yet as real as something you can touch is a fascination to me. It says so much about the person observing it. How do you see the mermaid? As a beautiful wonder… A treacherous siren… or a stupid fantasy.
This work of art is a reminder and representation of the power we all have within us.”
-Rafi Perez
Have an amazing week! You are awesome! Just remember, we never really get it done, and we can never get it wrong, because it is constantly being worked on, and being improved little by little… like a well lived life.
Remember to stay endlessly inspired by the stuff of life!
I want to announce that my exhibition is currently running at Artel Gallery, in downtown Pensacola, so if you are in town come out and see it :). We will be having the reception March 16th, from 6-8pm.
Rafi Perez Solo Art Show 2017
We have some new creations to share with you this week, both Klee and I are super excited about it!
But before we get into that, here is an amazing quote I would like to share with you:
If I create from the heart, nearly everything works; if from the head, almost nothing.” Marc Chagall
Man, this is so true for me. I can easily overthink something to death, and suddenly I’m frozen with indecision. When I follow my heart and feel my way through a work of art, that’s when the magic truly happens.
Ok, as I promised here is the art and jewelry! Enjoy!
Hammered Sterling silver and 14k Solid Gold “Mini Gong” Earrings
“Mini Gong” Hammered Sterling and 14k gold disk earrings. These little sterling silver concave disk earrings feature subtle hammered texture, beautiful light play, minimalist design, and mixed metals with a 14k solid gold hexagonal bead nested in each. A perfect companion to the “Mini Gong” necklace, they might just be your new favorite earrings to wear everyday.”
-Klee Angelie
The Glow Of Silence By Rafi Perez
In the silence of my mind, I reach for a thought and push it away. These thoughts, these things that I think and feel are nothing more than an illusion in my silence. In this moment of focus on the glow that radiates from me, burning away the darkness of my mind, burning away at disillusion, discontent, and misery. In this moment I am glowing..”
-Rafi Perez
Sterling Silver and 14k Gold Mini Gong Disk Necklace
Mini Gong” Hammered Sterling and 14k gold disk necklace. This little sterling silver concave disk necklace features subtle hammered texture, beautiful light play, minimalist design, and mixed metals with two 14k solid gold hexagonal beads (one front and one at the clasp). It might just be your new favorite necklace to wear everyday.”
-Klee Angelie
Flight Of The Hummingbird By Rafi Perez
The imagination is one of the most powerful attributes of the human mind. We can simply visualize ourselves in any and all situations and scenarios. We can literally bring ourselves to our knees, worried about a terrible outcome that hasn’t or will probably never happen… or we can fly on the back of a hummingbird, to the song “Flight of The Valkyrie”.”
-Rafi Perez
Have an amazing week! You are awesome! No matter what you decide to create, whether it is art, a good dinner, or your life, do it from the heart… that is where the magic happens.
Remember to stay endlessly inspired by the stuff of life!
I had the honor of meeting with a wonderful person who wanted a statement piece for her new digs. Her story was inspiring, and right up my alley for the kind of commission I love to work on. I love it when people jump out of their comfort zone… It’s awesome.
She had reached out to me after a good friend recommended that she should own a “Rafi” piece in her new abode.
The Reveal With Stephanie
After a fantastic phone conversation where we talked about everything from having a positive mindset, to pushing past comfort zones, and I scheduled an appointment to meet in person.
I like meeting with someone, whenever possible, to get a feel for who they are. I have a series of questions that give me a little insight to who they are, and what they want.
After a great conversation, taking measurements, and staring at the space (I’m sure it looks weird as I attempt to visualize the piece and how it will interact with the other objects and colors in the room) I had what I needed to get started.
My notes are usually very simple, I use single words to evoke the conversation we had, the colors that mean something to the person, and my own intuition.
This is what I wrote:
Mermaid
Bright Light
Turquoise
Positive Energy
Inspire Others
Blue
Purple (Different Shades)
In tune with touch (Massage)
Fierce
Empowered
Create a piece that will be a magical and constant reminder of self development and self empowerment.
The end result was amazing, and the mermaid just came to life in the space, and in the energy of its new home.
I am very proud of this piece, and honored that I was given the opportunity to create her.
-Rafi
Upcoming Public & Virtual Events:
FAM JAM Festival May 18, 2024 at 2:00 pm – 5:00 pm
2 Central Ave, Oil City, PA 16301
Come watch Rafi and Klee create art and jewelry demonstrations at the Fam Jam festival.
Red Brick Gallery Exhibition Reception And Poetry June 2, 2024 at 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm
17 Main St, Foxburg, PA 16036, USA
Join us at Redbrick Gallery for some awesome art from myself and other local artists. Poets will recite poetry written about the art in this awesome group show..
The Manos Gallery 24 Minis Reception September 7, 2024 at 4:00 pm – 8:00 pm
320 E 5th Ave, Tarentum, PA 15084, USA
Join us for this amazing group show and witness a collection of mini art from myself and 42 other fantastic artists.
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After a great conversation, taking measurements, and staring at the space (I’m sure it looks weird as I attempt to visualize the piece and how it will interact with the other objects and colors in the room) I had what I needed to get started.
