And Bring to Bloom the Flowers - Mustafa Shaheen

Mustafa Shaheen - TRVR,  2016

So there I am. Check it out. Even got some Boston on it.


My friend Mustafa is a phenomenally talented painter, with an excellent grasp of form and light. I was honored to have the opportunity to sit for one of the nine portraits included in this recent show of his. This is a fairly delayed posting on the show, I began writing this back before Valentine's day, but I wanted to finally complete this and get it published.

This past month Mustafa had his first solo show since his graduation last December. After our art club, Form, had a group show in the Union Gallery last fall, the gallery director asked Mustafa if he would be interested in having his own show in that same gallery some months later.  He is a very dedicated painter with quite possibly the best work ethic I've seen in any of my peers. It was stunning to see how he laid out and planned his paintings for this show, the scheduling he had from start to finish and the amount of time he had to block out for each canvas to get it all done to his own particular standards.

We've had many conversations about our mutual drives, the one that fuels our perhaps irrational attention to detail and craft, the particular way in which we both try to master our respective mediums, and the intriguing way we both seem determined to explore similar but opposing needs of ourselves inside the work.

He might be the first to tell you that he is more logical than emotional, and that empathy is not an common feeling he deals with. He might be more mechanical than anyone I currently call my friend. But this interest in understanding others and understanding the emotion of empathy drives the work he does as well as informs his interactions with others. His interest is the contrast of mine, where I have an interest in exploring a more logical and mathematical self, seen in the clean lines and well planned forms of my sculpture.

It was fantastic to be able to see his work displayed as it was on such a professional level. He does excellent work, with a desire to understand the inner workings of his subjects, why they do what they do and what drives their daily decisions. There is also an fascinating element to all his work that can inform one about the tendencies of the artist; despite Mustafa's desire to understand the emotional meanderings of those around him, his work is done in such detailed and meticulous practice. His paintings, in ironic and literal fashion, might be more about him as a person than the models that sit for his work.