Hasaan Kirkland

 

ARTIST STATEMENT

The Alchemist is a work reflecting my social metaphoric view of the spirit and motivation of Hip Hop. This painting with its subtle likeness to the "Godfather of Rap", Gil Scott Heron who I believe is the originator of conscious rap and all of the context of rap (before it became in part-ignorant and lost its way)-and a contemporary spin on the powerful relevant work created by Rene Magritte - Son of Man. The Alchemist, is an acrylic painting that explores the visual presence of lyrical metaphoric story telling. Like the science of Alchemy, the chemist/Rapper manipulates a solid state of one form to reflect, disguise or mask that of itself into that of another.

 

 

 

BIO

Hasaan A. Kirkland., MFA is a tenured Associate Professor of Fine Art at Johnson C. Smith University. He received his MFA from Washington State University. He resides in Charlotte North Carolina via Sacramento California. Professor Kirkland is the recipient of the O’Herron Distinguished Faculty Award and has been nominated and received recognition from Who’s Who amongst Americas Teachers on various occasions. He was recently was featured on the cover with opening essay about the cover on a history course reader: Readings in World Civilizations: Prehistory to the Present and has various articles published with the journal of research with the Faculty Research Network at NYU. His professional craft of painting expresses visual literacy and conceptual imagery. This thrust of research is associated to the relevant need to develop and produce more visual literacy in our schools, social constructs as well as the need to broaden the link between communication and literacy toward culture, history, and ourselves