PURA VIDA ART GLASS

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To take time to study Rafael’s artistic career, it does not take one long to see the strong impact his surroundings take hold of his imagination. It compels him to create and speak through his art, telling you a story through the world of glass.

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For over 30 years of Rafael’s artistic career, marine life has come to express itself in his work from ceramics to glass. Inspiration has come from making his own lures for trout fishing as a young boy, to scuba diving in Hawaii, touring the rivers of the Grand Canyon, to the cartoonish characters in the movie ‘Finding Nemo’. Living in the West coast of British Columbia has plenty to captivate Rafael’s imagination not to mention the fact that for the past 2 years he has lived with his family on a float home on the river within the community of Ladner where the fishing industry once thrived. In Rafael’s eyes, glass and water seem the same in their liquid transparency and aqueous properties which is the perfect canvas for marine life and glass.

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"I often think as the few fishing boats go by our home how much more can the ocean give and how much we can take. The eco systems of the Under water world have become so delicate that it’s current fragile state is overwhelming. Salmon have been such a gift, the offering of food, its importance to culture and it’s current ‘availability’ is our barometer to take notice. I hope to be one of the many artists around the world who create from its beauty to bring awareness of conservation and to protect its well being."

Rafael’s expression of marine life comes in many forms in glass from elegant glass blown vessels of the captivating salmon series, glass sculpted jellyfish that holds the viewer with inquisition to his painted glass series that humanises and characterizes marine life to cartoonish beings which offers every age group a piece to fall in love with.