About Me

Buffalo, New York artist Damien Raphael embarked on his intuitive art journey shortly after his mother's passing in May 2015. She told him of a dream she had where she saw him as a painter and sculptor. This cleared his path and filled him with renewed motivation, which still moves his brush today.

While he has no formal art training, he has produced over 500 paintings, most of which depict celestial landscapes or visions of heaven. 

“I dream in these other realm-type landscapes. These flowers that I do have a celestial appearance to them. When I dream of these places they’re not exactly space, but some sort of multiverse or multidimensional place.”

Images of celestial gardens became a focal point of inspiration for these uniquely abstract "garden-scapes." HIs collection is filled with whimsical plant life drawn from an ever-learning inner psyche. Arriving as dreams where colors and fantasy are intertwined with reality, Raphael’s art is rendered without start and without end, implying perhaps a glimpse into the infinite.

“The paintings have sort of beginnings of the universe for me, lots of collisions with colors, like the forming of new stars and. Death and rebirth. A lot of my art contains not just flowers but other life forms.” 

Some of Raphael’s strong supplemental influences include artists such as Jeff Koons, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Wassily Kandinsky, and Joan Miro. They have all been important ingredients in helping him to develop his distinctive style.

Raphael was also highly influenced by his mother Anne Candee, who was his first, and perhaps, greatest influence in understanding all that is good in himself and how to use that as a tool to understand, appreciate, and respect art. She is a major part of the story that continues to unfold.