New year, new Konversation. We are ushering in 2014 with a new Konversation exhibit: Turn ft. Rafaela Fdda

Turn comes as a huge treat from Lebanese American artist Rafaela Fadda. Ceramics is her main squeeze at the moment, but we got that *b0nUs* good good with some 2D warped scans from her home photos. After literally meeting IRL in a bathroom at an Antwon show, we are so excited for the collabs to come for y’all with this special lady in 2014! Much community art functions to ensue, but until then, learn more about Raf:

How did you start getting into creating art? Does it run in your family?

I remember my mom pulling out this huge piece of paper. We would put it out on our garage floor and spend a few hours a session, coloring in this huge Troll doll scene. My mom is an artist. She was always painting pottery when my sister and I were little. We’d come back from school and her work would be all over the place. She dedicated a hallway in our house to our art. I had one side, facing my sisters. I mean, yeah, it all started then, I guess. I never really knew how to stop. I had these intense phases where I became obsessed with one thing. Like making miniature people out of tiny glass beads… and sewing googly eyes onto things. Now it’s ceramics. Hopefully it’ll stay this way for a while, I can’t see myself getting sick of it.

Where did you find the materials for these pieces? 

For these 2-D pieces I wanted to use images from my recent trips to the Middle East and combine them with images taken of my family in their homelands. When we were traveling, I couldn’t help but feel like a ghost of my own relatives, experiencing my history while in the present. It was really surreal to me. Anyway, I went through my mothers photo albums and chose an image of her, her mother, and her four sisters taken in Lebanon. My mom is the only one that looks like she’s crying in the image. I also used this image that my dad gave to me of himself in a doctors smock, on a tank in Lebanon. He was going to medical school during the war and had some free time to hop onto some tanks, apparently.

As someone with psychology and fine art backgrounds, how do the two disciplines collide for you (either intentionally or unintentionally)

Okay, so, I studied psychology, it was very research based. However I did my best to get what I needed out of my education. I am constantly peeling away at myself, my fears, my definitions. And the only way to communicate these personal conversations is through my artwork. Almost all of my works aid me in dealing with relationships I have with others or with myself. After completing a piece, once I physically see my internal convictions, I am able to turn a new leaf, to move on.

–> See the full Konversation exhibit!