Rafael Navarro Leiton
Imagine an Angel of Jesus, a boy with a smile, a military-style haircut, blue jeans and white t-shirt.
His parents gave him the name at birth, providing him all the wealth that they could from their life as coffee plantation workers in Costa Rica. It was six weeks later that Maria and Chepe would give their Angel, their fifteenth child, for adoption to an American family stationed in Panama. Just six weeks old, Rafael Angel de Jesus Navarro Leitón became Eddie Proetel. He was to keep his original middle name from his buddies for a long time, carrying with it as it does the burden of the spectacular.
His parents gave him the name at birth, providing him all the wealth that they could from their life as coffee plantation workers in Costa Rica. It was six weeks later that Maria and Chepe would give their Angel, their fifteenth child, for adoption to an American family stationed in Panama. Just six weeks old, Rafael Angel de Jesus Navarro Leitón became Eddie Proetel. He was to keep his original middle name from his buddies for a long time, carrying with it as it does the burden of the spectacular.
But there was no escaping the spirit. It strikes him everywhere, the grand simplicity of every human action, reaction, interaction.
To the young Costa Rican immersed in his American military family life, everything appeared spectacular, from the street carnival atmosphere of the markets in Germany to the vast fields outside his father's home town in Montana; from the B-52 Bomber stretching impressively dark and far away at Castle Air Force Base to the look on the face of the runner completing her race in the Special Olympics; and, to his own reaction as photographer, which brought him to his knees.
Awe. The profound simplicity of the spirit enchants Rafael on a daily basis.
After years of travel, his family settled in Lake Elsinore, California, where Rafael proceeded to blow up volcanoes in his closet. But that was back in the day; first he had to get a note from his mother to buy saltpeter at the pharmacy.
Eddie, Fast Eddie, Edwardo, Rafael discovered ceramics, delving into the complexities of clay and kiln firings. He tried to catch the cones at just the right melting point with an alarm clock once, but only succeeded in melting the clock on top of the kiln. During the early eighties at his Bristclecone Studio in Southern Utah, Rafael created detailed sculptures of dragons and mythic creatures on his hand-thrown tea pots. It was while working in earth tones that Rafael discovered how easy it really is to make red and blue become purple. That was the first step towards the bold colors he can't resist today.
In his mid-twenties, Rafael, still going by Eddie at the time, traveled to Costa Rica to meet his biological parents for the first time. Standing among the homes with the chickens clucking across the freshly swept dirt floors and the wood fires crackling in the ovens, Rafael's knees went weak as one of his sisters led Maria and Chepe towards him. It was his hands, Rafael's funny looking sausage fingers with the wrinkly skin, that inextricably linked him to the Navarro Leitóns. He was laughing and crying as Maria took hold of his hands saying, "Las manos de tú papá." The hands of your father. His father, coming to him now, seeing his hands now, saying to him now, "The hands of your grandfather."
Generational hands, working hands, laboring hands, Rafael's grandfather hands would have spent a lifetime of picking coffee, chopping wood, carrying water. Every day he thanks Maria and Chepe for giving him up out of love so that his sausage fingers could spend their time working clay, kneading, pinching, coiling, throwing, sculpting, shaping a thing of beauty, then setting it all to flames.
Then in the late eighties, (not 'in his late eighties' Sorry, webmaster) Rafael expanded his artistic talents when he moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, the Pacific Northwest glass wilderness. Raf quickly discovered the similarities and differences between glass and clay. It was about the same time that he returned to his real name, Angel of Jesus and all.
Rafael has created a diverse body of work in glass and clay. All of his pieces are original; no two are exactly alike. While he continues to throw and paint platters and bowls and to cast, slump, melt, paint, fuse, and blow glass, Rafael is also producing a series on glass that he has titled PoorTraits, reverse paintings that reveal his Costa Rican Angel of Jesus' perspective on the wonders of the world through iconic poisonality.
Whether drawing, sculpting, painting, firing, or sandblasting, Rafael's own enchantment at finding himself part of a magical world generates a brilliance that resonates throughout his works. He sees our modern world, with all of its vagaries and simple pleasures, as yet another natural wonder taking shape right before his eyes.
To the young Costa Rican immersed in his American military family life, everything appeared spectacular, from the street carnival atmosphere of the markets in Germany to the vast fields outside his father's home town in Montana; from the B-52 Bomber stretching impressively dark and far away at Castle Air Force Base to the look on the face of the runner completing her race in the Special Olympics; and, to his own reaction as photographer, which brought him to his knees.
Awe. The profound simplicity of the spirit enchants Rafael on a daily basis.After years of travel, his family settled in Lake Elsinore, California, where Rafael proceeded to blow up volcanoes in his closet. But that was back in the day; first he had to get a note from his mother to buy saltpeter at the pharmacy.
Eddie, Fast Eddie, Edwardo, Rafael discovered ceramics, delving into the complexities of clay and kiln firings. He tried to catch the cones at just the right melting point with an alarm clock once, but only succeeded in melting the clock on top of the kiln. During the early eighties at his Bristclecone Studio in Southern Utah, Rafael created detailed sculptures of dragons and mythic creatures on his hand-thrown tea pots. It was while working in earth tones that Rafael discovered how easy it really is to make red and blue become purple. That was the first step towards the bold colors he can't resist today.
In his mid-twenties, Rafael, still going by Eddie at the time, traveled to Costa Rica to meet his biological parents for the first time. Standing among the homes with the chickens clucking across the freshly swept dirt floors and the wood fires crackling in the ovens, Rafael's knees went weak as one of his sisters led Maria and Chepe towards him. It was his hands, Rafael's funny looking sausage fingers with the wrinkly skin, that inextricably linked him to the Navarro Leitóns. He was laughing and crying as Maria took hold of his hands saying, "Las manos de tú papá." The hands of your father. His father, coming to him now, seeing his hands now, saying to him now, "The hands of your grandfather."Generational hands, working hands, laboring hands, Rafael's grandfather hands would have spent a lifetime of picking coffee, chopping wood, carrying water. Every day he thanks Maria and Chepe for giving him up out of love so that his sausage fingers could spend their time working clay, kneading, pinching, coiling, throwing, sculpting, shaping a thing of beauty, then setting it all to flames.
Then in the late eighties, (not 'in his late eighties' Sorry, webmaster) Rafael expanded his artistic talents when he moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, the Pacific Northwest glass wilderness. Raf quickly discovered the similarities and differences between glass and clay. It was about the same time that he returned to his real name, Angel of Jesus and all.
Rafael has created a diverse body of work in glass and clay. All of his pieces are original; no two are exactly alike. While he continues to throw and paint platters and bowls and to cast, slump, melt, paint, fuse, and blow glass, Rafael is also producing a series on glass that he has titled PoorTraits, reverse paintings that reveal his Costa Rican Angel of Jesus' perspective on the wonders of the world through iconic poisonality.Whether drawing, sculpting, painting, firing, or sandblasting, Rafael's own enchantment at finding himself part of a magical world generates a brilliance that resonates throughout his works. He sees our modern world, with all of its vagaries and simple pleasures, as yet another natural wonder taking shape right before his eyes.