Bakersfield College started an “Art Department Faculty Show” exhibition at the Jones Art Gallery to display professors’ art work on Sept. 14. The gallery also featured many different artworks like multimedia video, sculptures, and paintings.

One of the paintings was the “Abstract Landscape 1 -3” by Adel Shafik, 59, a full-time art professor at Bakersfield College for 14 years. He was born in Cairo, Egypt, and immigrated to the United States in 1986. He received a BFA Degree in Cinematography and Telecommunications in Egypt; when he came to the U.S., he went to Indiana University, in Bloomington where he also completed his MFA degree in Graphic Design.

When asked about his painting, “Abstract Landscape,” that was featured at the gallery, he said “most of the work that I do is graphic design digital base.” He mentioned that his painting is about color and texture.

When asked about his inspiration on the “Abstract Landscape” painting, he said “I’m interested in abstract work landscape, I don’t show a lot of detail in the subject matter, I just show a lot of texture and color of the paint.”

He mentioned that his inspiration from this painting were the pictures from NASA because he’s very much into space and the abstract.

He mentioned that he used a palette knife to finish the painting.

When he started painting, he was very young, and his parents helped and supported him in pursuing his dream to be an artist and continue in that field.

Shafik mentioned that his favorite artist is Henri Matisse, whose work also inspired him to do what he loves.

He said that the struggle of doing the “Abstract Landscape” is by having no specific subject, “the challenge was having no subject, because I keep adding and subtracting colors until I get the composition that I’m looking for. It’s like having no end, because I don’t have a specific subject. When you start something without a specific target in your mind, that is challenging because you don’t know what your work is going to look like,” he said.

The exhibit will run until Oct. 12.