This article was written in ynet
Phenomenon in Israel: 16-year-old Mark, unable to speak, began to paint like a genius
A boy from an olim family diagnosed with autism shocked specialists by independently learning to draw from videos from the Internet. He developed his own drawing technique, which is considered unique
Mark with his mother Natasha
(Photo: Kobi Kuankes)
Mark Rafaevich’s drawings are breathtaking. And not just because this boy is only 16 years old. Mark is a non-verbal child, he doesn’t speak. At the age of one year and a half, he was diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. Since then, his mother Natasha has been looking for a way to help her son express his thoughts and feelings. There’d been countless specialists and therapeutic methods that they tried to implement, and then suddenly Mark showed an unexpected talent. The impetus was a personal tragedy: Mark’s beloved grandfather died. And the war in Ukraine started. Mark Rafaevich’s first exhibition is now taking place in Tel Aviv. The journalist of Vesti heard the unusual story of the young artist, who is clearly bound to succeed, from his mother Natasha.
“My son is a child with autism who has a hard time socializing. He does not speak, but he has found a way to express himself, and he has learned this on his own. Thanks to his drawings I realized that he understands the world around him,” says Natasha Rafaevich. “If at the beginning of our journey someone had said that dozens of visitors would come to his exhibition, I would not have believed it. It’s just incredible”.
Peacekeeper. Work by Mark Rafaevich
(Reproduction: Natasha Rafaevich)
Ukrainian Fairy. Work by Mark Rafaevich
(Reproduction: Natasha Rafaevich)
►”My son’s happiness is more important to me than my own”
Natasha Rafaevich is 49 years old. She has two children, Moti, 23, and Mark, 16. Natasha is divorced, and lives with her sons in Rishon LeZion. The older son served in the IDF. Natasha gave birth to the younger son, Marik [Mark], after the repatriation, in Israel.
Mark in water: “He loves swimming very much”
(Photo: Natasha Rafaevich)
“As an infant, Marik was an ordinary child. He developed like everyone else, established eye contact, played and even began to speak. Only when he was a year and a half something went wrong: his behavior changed. To this day, I wonder why this happened. Then my son was diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder.
“Autistic people are special people, they have a special ability to feel, they have an amazing sense of humor, they are diverse. People can learn from them how to truly love life,” Natasha says.
After the diagnosis, Natasha devoted herself to caring for her son and finding a solution to the problems with his development.
“I looked for specialists all over Israel and even abroad, I was obsessed. Since childhood, speech therapists and other specialists worked with my son, he went to occupational therapy, but there was no marked improvement. Mark became sad, and he didn’t get better. And I decided – why all this? He will never be “like everyone else”, and it is not necessary – after all, we are all different. I think I finally wrapped my head around his peculiarity and accepted it: by the age of 7, we’d stopped everything that did not bring him joy, except for walking and swimming, which Marik adores. He loves music, performances and plays, and I realized that this is more suitable for him than endless classes. The most important happiness for me is his, not mine.”
Natasha asks to emphasize in the article that her words are not a recommendation to other parents of children with autism: “What’s right for Mark isn’t necessarily right for someone else. It is very important to listen to the child and analyze what brings them joy.”
The main difficulty was the lack of communication: Mark hardly tolerates mass events and crowded places. According to his mother, he painfully experiences the ridicule of his peers, understands what they mean and closes in on himself. “But adults do not always behave adequately either. When Marik was young, parents shouted to their children, “Don’t approach him! It’s contagious!” Too many people don’t understand what autism is. Now I can say this without pain, because I am used to this situation,” Natasha explains.
►”Grandpa’s death changed Mark’s life”
In the midst of the coronavirus epidemic, the Rafaevich family suffered great grief: Grandpa Valera, Natasha’s father, who was especially close to Mark, died.
Mark and Grandpa Valera
(Photo: Natasha Rafaevich)
“I’m divorced, and my dad took the place of a father in Mark’s life. Marik and Grandpa were very attached to each other. After the birth of my son, my dad, who had suffered a stroke, said: “We don’t need any babysitters, I’ll recover and raise Marik.”
“And indeed, my dad raised my two sons – which is amazing, because when I was little, Dad could not even pour himself borscht, my mom did everything. And after becoming a grandfather, he mastered everything for the sake of his grandchildren – bathing them, cooking, and so on.”
Valeriy Rafaevich repatriated to Israel from Achinsk, Russia in 1999. His wife and two daughters followed him.
“My father was a high-ranking military officer; he finished his service with the rank of colonel. And, like a real colonel, he rushed to provide for his family in the new country. He took any menial job he could find until he found his feet and started working as a teacher of mathematics and physics,” Natasha says. “He was an amazing man. Unfortunately, Dad got sick two years ago, and three months later he was gone.
“We didn’t know how well Mark understood what had happened. But every time he visited my parents’ apartment, he would look for his grandpa, and when he could not find him, he would get very angry, become aggressive and withdraw into himself. It got to the point of changing the place of residence: my mother decided to move to a new apartment so that Marik would stop looking for his grandpa.”
Mark and Grandpa Valera
(Photo: Natasha Rafaevich)
“Then we went to the cemetery, I showed Marik the grave and explained that this was Grandpa’s new home. He was silent, and then lay on the ground next to the grave, stroked the grave and retreated into himself. He misses his grandfather very much – as do all of us.”
►To draw to be understood
To help her son cope with the loss of such an important person in his life, Natasha decided to organize a drawing corner for him. She noticed that Mark enthusiastically watches videos of artists working and tries to draw something himself.
“It was amazing, because I always dreamed that Mark would write – because in this way you could understand his requests. But he never showed any interest in it, quite the contrary. And then suddenly he began to draw something. I bought him the first canvas and paint, and Mark painted an abstract painting. I didn’t really understand it, but everyone who saw this work would fall silent for a moment – and then would say that I had to give my son the opportunity to paint.”
Mark’s first painting “Ein Karem”
(Photo: Natasha Rafaevich)
Natasha listened to the advice and bought everything necessary for painting. And then her son’s talent suddenly revealed itself in full force.
Mark is painting
(Photo: Kobi Kuankes)
“When Mark paints, he is fully concentrated, he should not be disturbed. If someone comes into the room while he’s working, he gets very angry. Sometimes I put on classical music for him. When my son hears Tchaikovsky, he draws flowers.”
“Marik loves nature, bodies of water, and we often go hiking – I, my son and our loyal dogs, Hilik and Toy,” says Natasha. “Hilik is a big dog, specially trained to protect Marik and inform me if my son is misbehaving. And that’s how we travel around the country, for now we need to look for inspiration for Mark’s work, and I try to give him more joyful experiences.”
Thanks to painting, Natasha made a discovery: it turns out that Mark not only perceives the surrounding events, but also recognizes their context.
“I follow what is happening in Ukraine, as I was born in Kyiv. For our family this war is very painful. About a year ago, it was on the news that during the shelling of Vinnytsia died a 4-year-old Liza, a girl with Down syndrome. The blood, the stroller, all this horror got into the frame. Mark’s first reaction was to smash the TV. Then he put on Moti’s army boots – he wanted to leave the house, shouted and punched the wall.
“I convinced him that he could not help Liza, she was gone, but he could paint her in another, beautiful place, and maybe her soul would be there.
“It was not easy to calm him down, he was angry, but he began to paint – and the first picture about Liza was born. There the girl stands in a magical forest, among yellow flowers, with a smile on her beautiful face.”
Liza from Vinnytsia. Work by Mark Rafaevich
(Reproduction: Natasha Rafaevich)
“Then Mark saw a photo of Liza on Instagram in a lilac dress in a lavender field – and drew Liza in shades of lilac.
Liza. Work by Mark Rafaevich
(Reproduction: Natasha Rafaevich)
“We got in touch with Liza’s mother, Irina, and afterwards Mark drew them both. I am struck by the depth of his work. We had no idea that Mark thinks and feels so deeply.”
Irina
(Photo: Natasha Rafaevich)
According to Natasha, Mark’s drawing process itself is not easy: “He might get angry, cry, be happy, sometimes even eat paint. Or he paints on dogs, running around the house. It’s not easy.”
►”Mark is a phenomenon in art”
Acquaintances introduced Natasha to Shuki Kuk, the owner of the studio in Tel Aviv, who deals with professional reproductions of paintings for museums. Shuki saw the works of the young artist and was stunned. He convinced Natasha that her son’s art should be seen by art connoisseurs and offered to organize an exhibition in his studio.
“How did Mark take the news? Did he understand what was going on?”
“Honestly? I don’t know. We had a tense moment – Marik cherishes his paintings very much, and it was not easy to explain to him the need to take the works out of the house. After that, we visited Shuka in the studio several times, he showed us how copies of paintings are made, and only after that Mark calmed down. He just made me hang at home the copies of the paintings on display so he could see them even when they were far away.
“It is not easy for Mark to be in situations where there are a lot of people around, and many guests and visitors came to the exhibition. But he enjoys the reaction: he understands that they are proud of him. Most of all, I want Mark to be happy. Therefore, I am glad that he is fond of painting – after all, this is how he will be able to find a profession and make a living.”
Natasha proudly talks about her son’s five sold works – the museum copies of his drawings. The first painting sold was a work called “Mom” – a portrait of Natasha herself.
“We went to the house of the family who purchased the drawing, and Mark himself handed the painting to the new owner. Now he likes to watch the video we made about it. My son hardly understands the value of money, but I explained to him that he earned this amount himself and can spend it on anything he wants. Mark pointed to the refrigerator and asked for a cake,” Natasha says. “You have no idea how important this is for me: my son is gradually becoming independent, at least in something. Now my goal is to organize a full-fledged studio for him to paint at home so that he can create for his own pleasure.”
Shuki Kuk, who discovered | revealed Mark’s talent, shared his discovery with the journalists of mynet. In the interview, he says that this boy has a special, unique sensitivity to detail. “From the moment I saw Mark’s work, I myself became attentive to the details that he paints, while creating the context of an image or idea. Since there is no verbal connection with Mark, it is difficult to say what exactly he understands from what has been said and how he interprets it. But the more I look at his work, the more I am amazed at his phenomenal attention to detail. From conversations with his mother, I realized that the trigger for his creativity is different situations, for example, a meeting with a neighbor who saved a bird from a cat – and his feelings about this, which he expresses on the canvas.
“Mark has never studied painting, but he watches a lot of videos and has developed his own drawing technique.”
Other news of Israel can be found in the “Vesti” channels on Telegram and Facebook
Mark Rafaevich’s exhibition is open until the end of June in the studio of Shuki Kuk at 11 Rukhama Street, Tel Aviv.
Mark’s works can be found on his page on Facebook.