The studio is located at 1320 S State Street, and the tours are offered on Fridays from 12:00 (noon) to 2:00 p.m.
We didn't know what to expect, but I can say that we were surprised by what we saw.
Rafael is not associated with any religion, but he has studied the Bible, Book of Mormon and the Torah, among other religious writings. His art is based on the theologies he's read and interpreted. It was an interesting experience, if not creepy at times.
He has hallways, and staircases going off into narrow passageways. Many of those, were ones he didn't show us. At one point, deep into the "depths of hell," my friend and I looked at each other, and I could read that her expression was what I was feeling. We were very deep into the ground and I thought, I hope I've been paying attention because if Rafael was to turn off the lights, we'd have no way to know how to get out...it was a labyrinth in many places.
Although I didn't get a negative vibe from Rafael, I was relieved to get out of the building at the end of the tour. I felt pretty unsettled.
Here are some of the pictures I took that day.
The first of the many statues he showed us was this version of Eve, climbing onto the back of the serpent to reach the fruit.
This hellish version of the serpent is found deep in the ground, in the depths of Hell.
This is Eve as Lady Wisdom:
Rafael didn't explain this one to us, we walked past it and I wanted a picture:
Hanging on the wall are these old instruments. Rafael used to work at Summerhays Music before it burned down. This is what he recovered:
This is the only picture of Rafael that I have. He turned right as I snapped the picture.
To see more of the pictures, click here.
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