ABOUT
Natalie Rafeedie is an artist whose practice explores perception, emotion, and sensory experience. Originally from California and now based in Chattanooga, Tennessee, she brings a unique perspective shaped by both her creative practice and her unconventional path to becoming a full-time artist.
Before pursuing art professionally, Natalie spent 15 years working in corporate finance and government contracting. Following her 2022 diagnoses of autism and ADHD, she began to better understand the ways she perceives, processes, and responds to the world around her. This deeper awareness became an important catalyst for her transition into a full-time art practice and continues to inform the way she approaches her work.
Natalie’s paintings explore the interplay of sound, feeling, memory, and movement. Drawing inspiration from music, nature, wildlife, weather patterns, and intuitive awareness, she translates sensory and emotional experiences into layered compositions of texture, fluid form, and immersive color. Her work moves between tension and release, chaos and harmony, structure and flow, creating spaces that feel both spontaneous and deeply considered.
Each work becomes an exploration of energy, connection, and transformation. She leaves space for ambiguity, inviting viewers to slow down and experience the work on their own terms. The paintings are not intended to dictate a particular meaning, but to create an opportunity for viewers to pause, feel, and find something of their own within the work.
What is synesthesia?
Synesthesia is a neurological phenomenon in which stimulation of one sense automatically and consistently triggers experiences in another. Although synesthesia varies from person to person, it creates a unique way of experiencing the world where the boundaries between the senses become beautifully intertwined.
My synesthesia
For me, music is never just something I hear, it's something I see and feel.
I experience sound to color synesthesia, a form of synesthesia in which music creates vivid visual experiences in my mind. Songs emerge as moving colors, textures, patterns, and energetic forms that shift with rhythm, frequency, and emotional intensity. A deep bass line may appear as expansive movement, while bright melodies can spark bursts of color and light. Changes in mood, tempo, and energy often influence the layering, texture, and flow I perceive.
As an autistic adhd artist, these sensory experiences are deeply connected to how I process and interact with the world. Painting allows me to translate what is often invisible and difficult to describe into something tangible and shareable. Through abstract compositions, I transform sound, emotion, and sensation into visual form; creating artwork that offers a glimpse into the way I experience reality.
SUBJECTS & Inspirations:
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Synesthesia
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Music
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Nature
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Wildlife
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Energy & Movement
STUDIO SOUNDTRACK:
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EDM
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Ashley McBryde
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