We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Tamara Rafkin. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Tamara below.

Tamara, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

In 2019 I had been reading a book about the way in which the Western world navigates grief and mourning with a book group I participate in. While reading that book I envisioned my first performance/installation work ‘Dust to Dust’ which creates a communal space for mourning around a ritual for processing loss.

As the pandemic took hold of all of us, I realized the idea of this project needed to be brought forth and created even more than before. So, during quarantine I collaborated remotely with the people that helped me create a soundscape for the project and another artist that formed my vision for the sculptural tools for the project ( a large wooden mortar and pestle). The project involves my creation of un-fired clay Ex Votos that participants write who or what they are mourning on the back of, I then take these and crush them with the mortar and pestle turning them into dust. This dust used to create a communal circle ( with the mortar and pestle in the center) that durning the hours of the ritual I walk the interior of in a meditative observance. Creating this communal circle to recognize the losses the participants have encountered. The circle stays making a sacred space for all to think on and observe loss.

I was able to present this project to Newburgh NY in late September of 2020, and I spent two days for 6 hours each day turning peoples grief into dust, scattering it and transforming it into a sacred space for the community. Since I have been approached by many people that participated in the project that weekend and they have thanked me for giving them a moment and a way to process the grief they had been carrying – especially in the isolation of that pandemic time. This project I believe was meaningful to begin with but the way it touches people that have chosen to participate makes it even more meaningful to me.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My life is one that weaves in and out of many creative endeavors. I have been visually creating for most of my life having started seriously studying art while still in high school and following that with a bachelors of fine arts in college in Atlanta. That fine art training, along with being raised in a family that has a background in creative endeavors and community engagement gave me a solid foundation for all the ways my creative life has evolved.

I’ve a fine art career of several decades with exhibitions that have occurred on three continents, a commercial editorial career that has given me the opportunity to photograph notable people and document sublime moments for magazines, record labels and international news outlets, plus I’ve helped create and shape creative communities in several places through organizations I’ve worked with and founded.

All of these directions are connected by the way I see the world – how I want to interpret it and give back to it. I’ve always seen creativity as an essential part of life for how it helps us translate our emotional life, and gives us a way to connect with each other thus creating community. I guess I’m always striving to do those things in the best way possible in my own work and the work I do for my clients.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

I have this conversation a lot, with friends and acquaintances that feel they aren’t able to understand a ‘creative persons’ life (I believe creativity is inherent in everyone, just manifests through different abilities) –

My creative journey is just that – a journey. Yes, I have goals and have had the great fortune of succeeding in meeting several goals along the way, but the best part of my creative life is the practice of creating. The end objects/moments are lovely, and it’s always exciting to fully manifest something I’ve envisioned but it is truly the process and being in the process of it that makes me the happiest. It’s the ongoing ‘play’ of my life.

I think more people would find themselves in great spaces if they just let themselves play more and stopped being so concerned with the end result!

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

There are so many aspects I find rewarding about my creative, artistic life that it is difficult to single one out but as odd as this might seem, it’s probably the fact I can find beauty in almost any place/moment. I’ve worked hard on keeping the wonder of my childhood and that simple joy of looking out on a world that even at its worst still has moments of something beautiful is something I’m great full grateful for. I do have to admit at times seeing and producing something beautiful can feel like a rebellious act – so maybe I just like being a bit of a rebel.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.tamararafkin.com / www.trafkinimages.com
• Instagram: @tamararafkin / @trafkin-images
• Linkedin: LinkedIn.com/in/tamararafkin

Image Credits
Portrait of Tamara Rafkin by Sara McKay All other images / works by Tamara Rafkin