LAS VEGAS - Key Persons
Mona Lisa, Mona Lisa. MOTOR LISA was a fun collaborative project that Raphael and I worked on together in 2002. Watch for a special post on her soon. It'll share the real reason Mona smiles.
Raphael Schnepf has been on the Art scene since he graduated from New York's High School of Industrial Art in 1954. After a brief tour with the Navy as a photographer, he went on to graduate from Cooper Union Art school in New York and completed his B.F.A. at the San Francisco Art Institute. In 1965, he became active in the emerging San Francisco counterculture, creating psychedelic paintings, postcards, drawings, music posters, and illustrations. After seeing his poster for the 1967 Summer of Love, the Family Dog commissioned the first of seven posters Raphael was to create in '67 and '68. This led to commissions for a comic book for the band "Canned Heat", record jackets, more posters, and illustrations.
During the '70s, Raphael continued to explore new mediums. After rediscovering the airbrush, he developed a photo-real style, creating images for book jackets, record jackets, murals, packaging, and posters. In the late '70s, Raphael joined with Savoy Studio as a designer and glass painter on many revolutionary glass projects. In 1986, he moved with Savoy to Portland, Oregon to continue the collaboration as well as his own fine art, design and illustration career. He has worked for clients like Intel, Tektronix, Nike, Precision Castparts, and Grateful Dead, always seeking out poster commissions as well. In the 90's he continued to work with Savoy on major glass projects for architectural installations across the nation.
Raphael's work has been in many publications such as "A Concise History of Posters", "Eureka" and "The Art of Rock." His work has been shown in the Museums of Modern Art in New York, San Francisco, Denver, and San Diego.
Raphael has been working on a series of fused and painted glass portraits and nature scenes and recently began doing more immediate oil studies in the manner of Plein air painting.