Biographical Information

 

From a very young age, Rafael has had a talent, a compulsion even, for art and design. Rafael lived in many countries before coming to the United States at age 28.

 

Rafael’s father was a vintner and when Rafael was a child, his father moved the family from place to place before settling in the Middle East. There, in the cradle of civilization, Rafael’s father could own his own vineyard and make wine.

 

Rafael’s family sent him to technical school so he could apply his artistic talents in the stable, albeit grey, world of mechanical engineering. Ever the good son, Rafael completed his studies and took a job in the engineering field.

 

Yet all the while Rafael was driven to create art. Rafael was not satisfied with dry engineering projects, he needed to create big, physical, tactile and colorful objects. In the family basement where Rafael had built his own art studio, he brought those personal visions into existence. He incorporated his drawings and paintings, and his favorite substrate….. glass.

 

Although the family would have preferred Rafael settle down with a wife and his good job at the engineering firm, Rafael knew that his destiny was elsewhere. Still in his early twenties, Rafael left the family home for Europe. Landing in Hamburg, Germany, Rafael found work with an uncle who was a jeweler.

 

Life in Germany was exciting and fun. Rafael was enamored of the modern design and the European aesthetic. Rafael also enjoyed working with his hands in the jewelry shop. Rafael savored the love and support of his extended family in Germany, yet again there was somewhere else calling to him. It was the USA calling. Rafael spent hours staring at the massive American embassy building and dreaming of how he could get to the states.

 

As if by sheer force of will, Rafael did meet exactly the person who could help him get to the US. Through a network of friends Rafael met an older woman, a longtime secretary at the embassy, who admired his determination and persistence. Rafael knew that his dream of being an artist was meant to happen in America.

 

For twenty years now Rafael has worked and seen manifest the colorful dreams of his youth. His engineering background has proven advantageous as Rafael creates big, colorful, and often useful, art. Rafael’s love and fascination with glass can be seen in all of his work. Glass formed by fire and pressure. Glass colored with pigments and minerals. Glass manipulated to create objects both beautiful and functional.

 

Rafael’s creative vision informs his sculpture, wall art, and functional design projects that can be found in homes and galleries around the world.