Red Fold, mixed media on canvas

While in Santa Fe I was lucky enough to get to do a studio visit with a friend of mine, Siddiq Khan. Born in Guyana, his family moved to Canada where he grew up. His artistic career began at an early age when he convinced his parents to buy him a paint by numbers kit. By 12 years of age he got a permit to sell his works at the National Arts Center in Ottawa in order to buy more kits. Before coming to Santa Fe twelve years ago Siddiq spent time in the interior of British Columbia and Austin, TX. Santa Fe is a good fit for him because it allows him to make a living as an artist.

Standstill, 2008, wood steel, paint

Cipher, ceramic

In addition to mixed media works Siddiq is also a sculptor and teaches a ceramics class at St. John’s College. He enjoys teaching because it allows him to observe and become more aware of his own process by having to verbalize techniques. Initially he took a ceramics class to get more physical with his work and to see how far he could push the medium. He utilizes ceramics in order to create a combination of painting and sculpture. The ceramic works are constructed on their sides so he never knows where their balancing points will be until they are completed. For him the process is much like drawing –but in clay. He has loose ideas about what he will make but by moving line around, the works come together organically, especially because he completes them all in one day. They take about one month to dry and then he fires them 3 or 4 times, adding color and lines with each subsequent fire. It has taken him 6 or 7 years to get to where he wants to be. He has now moved from table top works to larger scale pieces made of wood. He uses the wood in the same manner in which he uses slabs of clay. For his upcoming show in September he wants to wrap one of these larger wooden sculptures in canvas.

Live model drawing

More live model drawings

Siddiq’s mixed media works are also explorations in line. He begins by attending a live model drawing class once a week. Using charcoal, oil pastel and conte crayon he draws overlapping images and figures. These drawings in and of themselves are wonderful. But they are not studies for larger works, nor are they completed works themselves. They become part of the fabric of Siddiq’s larger works on canvas. He tears these drawings up, deconstructing the body into separate entities that are sometimes barely discernable.

Work in progress

In his earlier works he planned out a geometrical shape for his canvas and then from there he instinctually added etchings, drawings in oil stick, charcoal, elements of the ripped up drawings to his work until multiple layers were created. The layers are placed on canvas which is then affixed to another canvas adding to the texture of the work. He explained that he puts the drawings on canvas to contain the spontaniety and energy of the life drawings. Recently, his geometric planning has occurred less frequently and Siddiq lets the organic and instinctual process guide his work. I am drawn not only to the color and line in his works, but also the multiple layers. I see something new and interesting every time I take another look at a piece.

Study 2, 2008, mixed media

He told me that he works in series so that a number of works might play with the same color variations or ideas. Some of the work I saw in the studio had incorporated letters in this layering process. Text added a whole other element to the work. The two works he was currently working on had left letters behind and were more geometric.

Longing, mixed media

Though he does not have a regular routine for working, he estimates that he works in  2-3 hour stintswith periodic breaks every day. It is a way of life and he loves the organic process and the chance elements that occur as a result. For him the most important thing is to keep doing the work. He is not trying to create something in order to sell it. He has been successful and had a market for his works because he is a wonderful person and is very interesting to talk to. He told me that he loves meeting people and if they are gallerists or collectors, that is great but building relationships with people is really what is important to Siddiq.

Mixed media

I asked him how he knows when a work is done and he explained that it is done when he feels separate from it, when he can be surprised by something in the work that was unintentional.

One of my favorite pieces is a 36 x 24 inch mixed media work that incorporates the life drawing collage as well as circles made up of what looked like beans. I asked him what they were. He said no one had ever asked him that before. They are prayer beads given to Siddiq by his father who received them from his Sufi teacher. Siddiq’s father studied Sufism and it is where he got his name which means wise and honest one. He is both of those things and I thank him for a lovely visit.

His works range from $1200-10,000. Please contact me if you are interested in anything. His upcoming show is in September at Chiaroscuro Gallery in Santa Fe. The link to their website with more of his works is: www.chiaroscurosantafe.com