Untitled

Ibrahim Mohammed
Oil on canvas
24" x 36", approximately

Ibrahim (pronounced Abraham) proclaims himself a beatnik and has lived in Venice Beach since 1968. Although he has a following and has been in some shows, it's hard to believe his paintings haven't yet been "discovered" by the taste-setting Art World. Maybe it's because this is not what Ibrahim really cares about. He has painted all his life and began by painting houses with his father in Calvert County, Maryland. Each day, Ibrahim plants himself, his art, and his painting supplies on the same piece of boardwalk where he and his wife raised their daughter. His daughter is now 24 years old and an artist and musician like her parents. He talks with people who pause at his display, and shares his lunch with a crow he saved as a chick (and that still looks up to him).

We asked Ibrahim the meaning of the letters in this epigrammatic painting (left). He said he didn't know their meaning. He simply painted the image as it came to him.