We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Rafael Rodriguez a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Rafael, appreciate you joining us today. We believe kindness is contagious and so we’d love for you to share with us and our audience about the kindest thing anyone has ever done for you?

The kindness thing someone has ever done for me is save me from myself. It starts with me being in a Federal Penitentiary with a 55 year bid to do. I was in prison acting like a savage. I had no care for life and that was including my own. I thought I was going to die in prison so I acted like it. Until one early morning I was in a cell having a physical fight with another man. Me and the guy were drenched in our own blood. It looked like a horror movie in the cell. The person who was to change my life saw that me and other guy were fighting in cell so he called a few of my friends to break it up. Which they did. I had a deep gash over my lip and other guy had a deep gash over his eye. We didn’t report our injuries because they would have put us in the SHU (another form of punishment) so we put toilet tissue and regular tape to try and close our wounds. When a week went by and the guy who would show me kindness realized that I didn’t go to the SHU for that fight. He approached me and asked if I had a moment to talk and I said yes. He asked me about my past and my what I like to do. In which I told him and he already knew that I liked to do art. I approached him before about teaching me but he said no because my savage jail mentality. He then told me if I was to stop my savage ways that he would teach me how to really paint. That I had a choice to change my ways. See I painted what I saw but he painted what he felt. Which is to different levels of painting. He gave me a ultimatum that I had to chose at that moment. And I chose to be his student. He not only taught me how to paint, he taught me how to think. When you paint, everything brush stroke has its purpose and if you put a wrong brush stroke in a wrong place on the canvas if would throw the whole painting out of wack. This is how he taught me how to live my life as well. And through his kindness by showing me how to paint, I found my calling and through it I found my way out of prison. Once I was home I start my Art business. His kindness saved me from myself.

Rafael, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’m a visual Artist and the way I came into my business is something a movie producer would love. I could actually say I’m not suppose to be here having this interview with you or even owning my own LLC. Just a years from today I was sitting in a cell with 660 months (55 years) to do. And was on my 16th years of my 55 year bid. So all this came from someone’s act of kindness in changing the trajectory of my life. I already explained to you how I came to be a Artist, earlier in our interview. So I will speak about what my business consist of. I’m a visual artist like I mentioned already. I started my business doing portraits for people to get my name and skills of a Artist out. But for me to stand out in this billion dollar Art industry, I had put my all into my skills. When I do a oil painting of someone, I look to paint the soul of the person. Not the shell of the person. See when you look at a person from far away and you can’t really see the features of the person but you know that’s, that person because the way he or she walks, the mannerisms and even the person stands. That’s the soul of the person.and that’s what I seek to paint. His or her character makes a painting stand out. And when I do the artwork or murals for businesses or clubs, I bring my clients character out in his establishment, no matter what idea my clients want for establishment. And that’s how I separate myself from other Artist. My must proud moment in my career is when I did all the Artwork for the restaurant/lounge in Queens called RedDistrict NY by myself. I put all of my clients thoughts and character into his establishment. If would like to see the work I’ve done, my IG is @rafaelrodriguezarts.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

My past is my story and how I got through all that turmoil to be here. I come from the inner city of the Bronx, NY. I’m going to give you a quick synopsis of my life’s journey. I went from being a shelter with my mother to foster care, to group homes, to Rikers island, to NY upstate prison until I graduate to Federal Penitentiary with the worst that the United State has to offer. Going through that at a early age would have drove a average man into a mental institution, becoming a hard drug abuser or even worst, commit suicide. But my resilience didn’t let me. I used my adversity to my advantage. I had the serendipity to find my talent inside the turmoil to help me get out of it and start a Art business..

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to unlearn that my situation is what defines me. Like going through all that turmoil I mentioned about my past led me to believe that I could never change my destiny in life. I felt like I was destined to dying in prison or even worst, get murdered on the streets. I managed through the grace of God to unlearn that chain of thought. And replace it with, that you are the author of your life and you could change it anytime you want. It’s never to late.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @rafaelrodriguezarts
• Facebook: Rafael Rodriguez
• Other: My email is rafaelrodriguezarts1974@gmail.com