The benMUSA Collection

o over 6 feet wide. Over the years, my work has grown to include replications and functional art such as jewelry and night lights. Since coming to Austin in 2013, I continue to expand my collection. It all began in Houston, which i called home for over 3 decades. A friend commissioned my first painting, so I began exploring my Mediterranean and North African heritage. I was dissatisfied with the available colors and paints. The lack of richness and deeper hues began my research for alternative methods. I eventually adopted old world techniques from such admired Masters like Michelangelo and Da Vinci that incorporated modern mediums. I mix acrylic gels with pigment powders, fabric pigments and sometimes high quality acrylic paint to create deeper and richer colors. The result and message I convey is intensely spiritual art. I further explored these methods after relocating to Chicago in 2005. I realized the intensity of my art is due to my fascination in the cosmic evolution coupled with my spiritual Muslim background. My thoughts and emotions often delve deeply about this thin line between science and faith. I call it the event horizon. For many, they consider this place of no return terrifying. A place that science theorizes not even light can escape. Over the years I found comfort visualizing it. To ask what is beyond the event horizon. With each brush stroke my sense of time slows. And in that moment the fine line becomes blurred. I begin to see all of creation revealing itself. The more I paint, the more I realize how this continuous juxtaposition permeates every aspect of life. I see it revealed in humanity's hopes and dreams. I witness it in today’s revolutions. That fear of the unknown, the fear of change and progress is humanity's greatest event horizon. My life's work amplifies our constant state of flux, illustrating how the universe in every way is on the edge of a continuous event horizon. Each moment, each glimpse encourages me to paint again. And there is nothing more gratifying. To further envelope myself in that wonder. That humanity's imagination and sense of hope can take us beyond and through the event horizon.