Mustafa Shaheen: Portrait of an artist

posted on: May 6, 2015

Mustafa Shaheen looked like a million bucks as he walked hurriedly around Witt Gallery, making final preparations for the opening of his first solo art show, “Friends and Sometimes Friends.” On a small table by the entrance was a pencil-drawn image of celebrity chef Guy Fieri, screaming. The picture was titled “Welcome To Flavortown.” Like Fieri, Shaheen attended American River College. Unlike Fieri, everything else.
Born in 1985 in Egypt, Shaheen remembers his early life being centered around the concept of family. In fact, the majority of his family lived in the same building owned by his grandfather, who gave each of his children a section of the building to begin their families.
“I had a ton of cousins. English was my first language, but I picked up Arabic just playing with kids,” said Shaheen.
Shaheen and his parents, along with his younger brother, moved to Qatar, where both of his parents worked.
But they wouldn’t be there long, before having to move to America in 1996 as political refugees after his father, a firefighter for Qatar’s Royal Navy, unsuccessfully tried to blow the whistle on a string of corruption that he had seen.
According to Shaheen, co-workers of his father were stealing military equipment and selling it elsewhere. His father was jailed by Qatar’s military until he was released on the condition that he and his family leave the country.
“When you’re 11, you don’t really think about how deep that s— is in any way. You’re just like, ‘Oh, my dad’s in this weird solitary jail facility and I have to visit him once a month,” said Shaheen.
None of this was hidden from Shaheen as a child, which he sees as a good example of the differences between Middle Eastern culture and America.
“There is no coddling with children (in the Middle East). You grow up fast and mature quickly there,” said Shaheen.

Source: www.arcurrent.com