Maybe it's because the awesome crew at Seed Gallery seem to always have my back. Or perhaps it\'s the closest urban art scene outside of New Brunswick. Oh, wait. New Brunswick doesn't have an art scene (well not much beyond performing arts). Their gallery is participating in the Newark Arts Council "Open Doors" weekend and asked me to contribute work for the event. The city is having a bus tour around all the galleries and various studios in the area. What\'s really exciting about this is that I should be done with a whole slew of new work to put up in their show. Hopefully they can spare an entire room for display purposes (hint hint, you guys reading this?).

I just got back from dropping a piece off at the Therese A. Maloney Gallery in Morristown NJ for their upcoming show titled Calculating Art: Mathmatics in the Visual Field. The curator is was quite nice and enthusiastic for next weeks reception, as am I. The title kinda describes the scope of the show, math used as part of the process in the creation of the artwork. For sure my process will not be nearly as complicated as others who will be there, like this one person I met today who created a sculpture that maps all the possible moves of the Horse piece in a game of chess. Quite interesting! BTW, I hate math. Never made it past calculus although I think if I had another go at it I might study harder just to prove I can do it.

Coming up in September I'll be a guest on WBAI - Pacifica Radio, station 99.5, from New York City. Be sure to listen in as I'll be trash talking about everyone I know. Well, not quite. But I will talk extensively about art and Islam, and how my work has fit into the US scene as well as perceived by the Muslim community.

Contemporary Portraiture in Brooklyn

Participating Artists: Bill Ades, Mary Ann Aitken, Eric Alugas, Arielle Angel, Gennadi Barbush, Brett Beyer, Christopher Boswell, Jordan Buschur, Nan Carey, Nat Castañeda, Fat Che, Head Clausnitzer, Caitlin Clifford, Erin Courtney, Lauren Denitzio, Michael Dotson, Rachael Gardner, Carey Garris, Basem Hassan, Spring Hofeldt, Hokuto Ichikawa, Nancy Johnson, Robin Kappy, Heather Kelly, Theodore Kersten, Richard Kessler, Aaron Krach, Erika Kuciw, Luiza Kurzyna, Naomi Leibowitz, Diana Leidel, Jack Lovell, Jennifer Lui, Paul Meinel, Rick Midler, Patricia Paludanus, Celeste Rapone, Geoffrey Raymond, Baseem Rayyes, Julia Rice, Jenn Romaniszak, Marshall Sponder, Greg Stephens, Mare Vaccaro, Lara Wechsler, Sheila White, Heidi Yockey and Grace Yung Ting Teng

Curator: Michele Jaslow
Gallery Assistant: Spring Hofeldt