MUSTAFA SHAHEEN @mustafashaheen - Tumblr Blog

My painting of Honus Honus (Man Man/Mister Heavenly) will be on the cover of his first solo album, "Use Your Delusion," which you can pre-order now. One of my favorite percussionists, Joe Plummer, is also on it and so is Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Jon Daly, and Shannon Shaw. Release date is September 16th. Link: pledgemusic.com/projects/honushonus

#Mustafa Shaheen #Honus Honus #mary elizabeth winstead #joe Plummer #shannon shaw #jon daly #man man

👀

#mustafa Shaheen #artists on tumblr #eyes

My portrait "Omar F." is now part of the permanent collection at CSUS, installed on the third floor of the University Union building.

#mustafa shaheen #university Union #CSUS #artists on tumblr

“30 Painters to Collect” at Blue Line Arts in Roseville brings together 15 established artists, many of them teachers or former teachers, with, for the most part, 15 lesser-known artists they have chosen as worthy of greater recognition.

Review of this group show with a tiny mention of my piece.

#mustafa shaheen #30 painters to collect #blue line arts #sacramento bee

Visit Original Link

I had to spend about two weeks in Washington, in 2013, maintaining the instruments for a rock ‘n’ roll exhibit I helped design. I stayed in a hotel room alone with two beds and bought an iPad. In my first two hours with it, I downloaded the very fun iMPC app by Akai and created this tune that’s unlike anything I do.

This one is about adjusting.

The bro-bro. 50"x40"

#artists on tumblr #portrait #painting #oils #work in progress #mustafa Shaheen #Art

Everyone, thank you for the messages. I appreciate them very much and they're definitely motivating. Love, Mustafa

Palette crop.

#palette #paint #artists on tumblr #mustafa Shaheen #color palette

Visit Original Link

This is one of four tracks I was commissioned by Everything Sounds to compose for their episode on the 52 Hz Whale, in 2013. I pretty much forgot how to play the acoustic guitar part of this tune, within the day of recording. I’m really proud of this piece and prouder to have been included.

You can listen to the episode here: http://www.everythingsounds.org/32/

The episode’s production is brought to you by STEM Story Project, with support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Presented by PRX, the Public Radio Exchange.

You can hear the other tracks I recorded for the episode here: http://soundcloud.com/mustafashaheen

#mustafa shaheen #everything sounds #george drake jr #craig shank #52 hz #whale #score

interviewtion

Mustafa Shaheen Interviewtion

Photo credit: Jasmine Tigner

Mustafa Shaheen is a painter who creates whimsical yet intimate portraits of his subjects. He is currently based out of Sacramento, CA, but moved to the United States from Egypt at the age of eleven. His myriad of world experiences inform both his art and music, which he deftly switches between to create an incredible artistic portfolio. In this interview he discusses the process of creating his paintings, keeping up a strong work ethic, and gaining inspiration from his life experiences.

Q: Have you always had an interest in visual art or is this a recent passion? What drew you to painting as your main medium to work with?

A: Yes, always had an interest. Like most children, I had a ton of action figures as a kid. I was always fascinated by these little, colorful figures made of plastic and I remember always having an urge to depict them. I drew my own comics depicting Michelangelo and Superman as crime-fighting partners. Michelangelo of the Ninja Turtles and not the Renaissance artist he was named after, of course. Though, Superman and the Renaissance artist would totally make a great duo, too.

Painting was just the next step in high school. I fell in love with the watercolors and cheap acrylics that my high school provided. I actually tried oils for a little bit, but was overwhelmed with the clean-up process involved. And like most people starting with oils, I found the slow drying time inefficient. Now, it’s all I ever paint with.

Q: You moved from Egypt to the United States at the age of 11. Did that move have an impact on the way you see the world and possibly how you choose to portray it in your paintings?

A: Oh it had a huge impact! I don’t even think I’d have pursued the arts if I was still in Egypt. My family was financially-fine, there, but art and music are primarily seen as hobbies. Knowing how fortunate I am to pursue this practice as more than just a hobby is a deep well of motivation for my ass and I have a good work ethic as a result. There are probably many other factors involved with moving that dictate how and why I make, and I may never know them all. I’m just happy that I have the opportunity to create.

“Madison M.” 36"x30" Oil on canvas (by Mustafa Shaheen)

Q: Much of what you paint is portraiture. What particularly draws you to this subject matter as opposed to something else?

A: Portraiture is such an old tradition and this really interesting record-keeper for the past. But since everyone has a camera now, I love that there’s this challenge in the artist creating a portrait unique to their experience with the model. If you’ve known a person for years or for just a few minutes, you’ll record your experiences with them in a way others wouldn’t, whether if you painted their face or decided to make a piece of music that you think represents them. And I love that with portraiture being such an old tradition, I have to find my place in it. I have to figure out how to tell my tale of my experiences with the people I paint. Even with photography, you have to bring your own unique perspective of how you address your subject, or your photos just end up being of people in front of brick walls or on train tracks. I’m interested in understanding and actualizing my perspective with the people I paint, and every painting gets me a little closer.

Q: I actually discovered your work when Ryan Kattner, who is the lead singer of Man Man, shared a portrait you did of him on Facebook. Besides painting do you also have a pretty big interest in music? Does music provide inspiration for your paintings in any way?

A: Absolutely! Ryan is so passionate about what he loves to do and busts his ass to do it. I relate towards that as a painter and I have a huge interest in it because I’m a musician, too. I’ve been playing and recording music for years and it’s hard as shit to make something that’s filled with integrity. Music inspires the paintings and the paintings inspire the music. I’ve figured out my color palettes before just by listening to how an instrument’s timbre interacts with another’s. And I’ve been able to take what I’ve learned from a really nice color palette and apply it to what I’m visualizing, when I’m mixing a piece of music. Music and visual art go hand-in-hand for me.

“Ryan K.” 60"x48" Oil on canvas (by Mustafa Shaheen)

Q: How do you think the advent of the internet has changed the public’s perception of art as a whole?

A: It’s broadened the public’s knowledge. I think it’s been a greater tool for artists, though. The Internet’s brought so much access to every facet of life that one can think of and with art, you can literally curate the type you want to be exposed to on various social media venues like Instagram or Tumblr. It’s pretty hard not to be inspired with all of the incredible work being made on a daily basis around the world. Even just seeing a favorite artist upload an image of what they’re currently up to in their studio can be an extra kick of motivation. I also love that I can connect with these artists and ask them for tips, which would have been crazy hard two decades ago.

Q: Your color palette is one of my favorite things about your work. It creates a sort of psychedelic realism that I personally love. How did you go about developing this color palette and what effects are you trying to achieve through it?

A: Thank you! When I first started taking painting courses at the university level, we weren’t allowed to use black in our work. When starting, it’s important to learn how to build a painting without it because beginners tend to rely on the shade too heavily for creating contrast. And I was definitely someone who struggled without it. Value-contrast was pretty weak in my work so a way to initially get around that weakness was to spend hours pre-mixing all of my colors in a wide range of values. This helped me get past the contrast issue, but I also loved seeing all of the hues on the palette, and I wanted to get it all over the canvas; especially in skin tones. I was and still am very interested in the idea of creating this sort of self-generating luminescence from the figure. And I want their light to mix with their exterior world’s light and create something new. Of course, what I want and what I actually get are often not the same. But I’m getting better.

"Charlie C.“ 42"x34” Oil on canvas (by Mustafa Shaheen)

Q: Do you listen to music when you paint? If you had to pick three songs to make a short “Mustafa’s Painting Playlist” then what would they be?

A: Picking three is so hard! I listen to music and whenever the latest episode of NPR’s Radiolab is available, I’m on it. I’ll list three random faves from my studio playlist:

“Pamparida” - Super Mama Djombo

“Argonauts” - Hospitality

“Ethio Invention no. 1” - Andrew Bird

Q: You mentioned earlier about your work ethic. What is your typical process for creating your paintings? Where do the ideas start out and how long until they are finalized on canvas?

A: Ideas start out with rough concepts of themes I want to pursue. And then I create a body of work, anywhere from ten to twenty paintings, based on that rough concept. I like stepping into a world and absorbing every part of it until it feels like there’s nothing left that I can take. I then ask my friends to volunteer their precious time by coming over to my place so I can photograph them. I explain the general idea of what I’m going for and start taking photos under my fabulous lighting setup. And by fabulous, I mean an Ikea lamp on either side of the model. After we find a pose and a lighting setup I’m happy with, I take a few hundred pics from every angle. After that, I spend a few hours choosing the photo that best resonates with me and could best convey what I’m going for. Then, I build some stretcher bars and stretch the canvas. After, I prime the canvas with some gesso. I’ve become pretty picky about the surfaces I like to work on and I really dislike the store-bought stuff. Plus, my method is also economically in my favor and more money means more pizza. Once the gesso’s dry, I lightly sand it, sketch out my image, and then the canvas is ready for some paintin’. It’s tough to determine how long it is before they’re realized. Sometimes, I make a decent painting, but the idea isn’t successful. What’s been beneficial to me is to work on multiple paintings from the body of work at a time. When I hit a snag on one, I move on to another. And sometimes, the solution to painting number one’s issue is found in painting number two. My current record is eight at a time and that was mentally and physically exhausting. But on average, I’m working on three-to-four pieces at once.

“Omar F.” 42"x34" Oil on canvas (by Mustafa Shaheen)

Q: You mentioned earlier that you are also a musician. What kind of music do you create and how long has music been an interest to you? How do you manage juggling all of your different interests?

A: The stuff I make within the live band context is folk-rock. But a lot of my recordings tend to be primarily instrumental, akin to film scores. Music has been an interest for me since my senior year of high school. My first instrument was drums and I played awful Nirvana and Radiohead covers with my first band. We were just plain terrible but we didn’t care. Then I moved after high school and I taught myself guitar out of boredom and not really knowing anyone. And then I was just hooked on learning how to play instruments. Took a semester of piano in college; never learned how to read music, but learned how to form chords and play by ear. Then learning how to record was just a natural transition. Then I watched Eternal Sunshine and Jon Brion’s score just made me want to weep from how great it was. I definitely credit that film’s music for directing the sonic path I would take. I started to take on projects and even got to work with The Hadley School for Blind, composing some tunes for their audio lessons. And that was a lot of fun.

I used to worry about how to juggle. I’ll always have this urge to be the best at whatever I take on, but it’s impossible, especially with all that I do. I’ve had to let go of a lot of egotistical tendencies and settle with the fact that I’d rather do music and art, than just choose. Both are incredibly important and I naturally bounce between the two. I’ll spend months with my oil paints, and then I’ll spend months with my music. There’s very little overlap, but it’s there. Besides, one provides a nice respite from the other! I can also function on very little sleep. Five hours of sleep and I’m golden, so I take advantage of that.

Q: What is your thought process when trying to convey themes through your work? Could you give an example of a specific theme you had in mind when creating a painting and elaborate on how you tried to convey that in the final piece?

A: The thought process changes with every painting. Like a lot of artists, my themes consider my curiosities. My last solo exhibit, “Friends and Sometimes Friends,” centered on the subject of empathy, which is prevalent in everything I do. I’m interested in how people connect to each other and I want to explore that with all of my portraits. So with that body of work, I decided to paint my models performing common actions such as shaving, combing your hair, look at your cellphone, etc. I wanted the viewer to relate to these actions that we either do, or see people do on a daily basis. But then color is heavily considered because hue has different connotations for everyone. A specific value of prussian green might be pleasing to someone and pure ugly to another. But after those paintings were done, the questions begin to arise that some of the models feel too posed and therefore, something else. And that’s when I go back to the drawing board. Pun totes intended.

“Frank N. 42"x34” Oil on canvas (by Mustafa Shaheen)

Q: What provides the biggest inspiration for your paintings?

A: Biggest inspiration is understanding relationships. Humanity is interesting in so many ways. I have a lot of misanthropic qualities, but I love figuring out why people do what they do. That answer makes me sound like such a dumb robot! Whatever.

Q: Do you feel like the paintings are an extension of yourself or an outlet for your emotions?

A: The technical aspects of my paintings are an extension of myself. I’m very controlling with my paint. I’m not your romantic idea of the artist that throws paint on their canvas. My friends can do that and make incredible paintings. I can’t. I like fine lines and clean palettes. I need order and neatness because it’s integral to my process and honors who I am as a person. I don’t think my paintings are an outlet for my emotions. I’m mentally centered when I’m painting. I hardly feel one way or another. I get frustrated just like anyone else, but I take breaks when that happens.

"Gabby G.“ 42"x34” Oil on canvas (by Mustafa Shaheen)

Q:How has living in Sacramento affected your artistic endeavours?

A: There’s a rich community of people constantly creating. And everyone’s doing something different, so there’s always something to learn to learn from someone. Plus, it’s affordable and only an hour and a half from all of the great museums and music venues of San Francisco, which is a big bonus.

Q: What are your own plans for the future of your work? What would you like to see happen with your work in the future?

A: I plan on joining a graduate program next year, which will push my work in many ways. I feel I’m almost where I need to be in terms of technical skill, but I have giant leaps to make with the content of my work and I’m pretty excited about that. I just want to keep learning and getting better at communicating on a visual level with my audience.

Photo credit: Jasmine Tigner

Make sure to like Mustafa on Facebook, follow him on Instagram (@mustafashaheen), and tumble with him on Tumblr! Also be sure to check out his website that will give you a full overview of both his artistic and musical portfolio!

mustafashaheen

I was asked some pretty great questions. Check out the interview and find out all ya wants.

#mustafa Shaheen #artist #artists on tumblr #interviewtion