PSU Magazine Fall 2000

• adopted from an African language. When he joined the Nation of Islam in the late 1960s, he took the name Shamsud-Oin, Arabic for "sun of life." I n 1967 the More Bookstore in San Franci co exhibited his work. And when he returned to Portland to live near family a year or two later, the exhibits continued, including a place in the Portland Art Museum's Spec– trum '70 and later a one-man show at the museum. He taught black tudies and mural painting at PSU briefly, served as vi ual arts ombudsman for the city of Portland, and earned a National Endowment for the Arts fel– low hip. The Univer ity of Oregon Museum of Art mounted a traveling exhibit of hi work, which it described as "confrontive, sensitive, and vibrant with color and expression" and with "dynamic use of paint and line." But it i for his murals that Sham– sud-Din is perhaps best known. H is vivid wall paintings adorn the Portland Justice Center, McMenamins Kennedy School, and other buildings, schools and commu– nity centers throughout the city. But one dream has eluded Shamsud-Din for more than 20 years. Shamsud-Oin envisions a street in the heart of north Portland lined with perhaps as many as 50 or 60 mura ls. Funding from the Comprehensive Emp loyment and Training Act (CETA) in 1977 allowed Shamsud– Oin and five other artists to create six of the panels. They covered the exte– rior of the Albina Human Resources Center in north Portland, but over time the panels deteriorated and when the center was moved, the panels were removed and returned to the arti ts. Still committed to his vision, Sham- sud-Din hopes one day to raise funding to complete the project. Meantime, Shamsud-Oin continues his own work and pursues other dreams, especially to earn a graduate degree. He returned to PSU in 1998 at the age of 57 to earn a bachelor's degree and is now finishing a master's degree. Part of his program require that Shamsud-Oin teach; fittingly he chose Art 199 and 399-mural painting. For four weeks in mid ummer, under his guidance, a dozen students covered the stairwells of Neuberger Hall with murals of their own de ign and execution-in a sense bringing Shamsud-Oin full circle. 0 (Melissa Steineger, a Portland freelance writer, wrote the article "The Science of Swat, " which appeared in the spring 2000 PSU Magazine.) FALL 2000 PSU MAGAZINE 17