Arguably the most visible Muslim Arab fine artist working today in the USA, Mr. Bendib is a resident of Berkeley, CA who grew up in Morocco and Algeria and came to California at age 20 after receiving his Bachelor’s degree in Algiers.

After earning his Master’s at the University of Southern California in 1982, Khalil Bendib proceeded to become both political cartoonist and professional sculptor/ceramicist. In 1987, he worked as editorial cartoonist with the Gannett Newspapers, at the San Bernardino Sun, a position he later resigned to devote himself entirely to his career in the fine arts.

In 1994, Khalil Bendib completed his first major public monument, the “Alex Odeh Memorial Statue,” an over-life size bronze at the Orange County’s seat of government, honoring the regional director of Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee assassinated in his Santa Ana office in 1985, and followed that with “Ode To Diamond Bar,” a nine-foot leaping bronze cougar at the Summit Ridge public park in Diamond Bar, a suburb of Los Angeles.

Among his more recent public artworks, are the Deir Yassin Remembered Memorial Sculpture at the Hobart and Smith Colleges in Upstate New York (bronze on granite,) a 40 feet by 40 feet mural for the Arab Cultural Center in San Francisco, (with two other artists,) a Venus and Mars bronze frieze in Walnut Creek, CA, and the GAIA Unveiled wall sculptures in downtown Berkeley. He was also artist-in-residence at the Legion of Honor Museum of Art in San Francisco, in the Rodin gallery, in 2002.

Mr. Bendib’s work has been exhibited and collected on five continents and it graces numerous businesses, homes and gardens in the United States and abroad.

Shems: When did you decide on becoming a cartoonist?

Ironically, when I was thirteen years old, in response to my father, who was trying to discourage me. I was spending entire days drawing comics during my summer vacation in a beach house near Algiers, when one day, irritated, he asked me this (rhetorical) question: “Why do you waste so much time drawing this stuff? You’re not planning to be a cartoonist, are you?...”

And of course, at that very moment, it finally dawned on me that that was exactly what I wanted to do as a grown up! Not wanting to break his heart, I’ve never told my father, who, to this day, would have been much happier with me continuing in his foot steps as an accomplished radiologist instead of an artist, even a successful artist (be careful what you tell your teenage kids...!) Ironically, it is now I who get to influence and inspire other people’s kids, when I’m regularly invited to give talks, presentations and keynote speeches to youth conferences and schools around the country.

Shems: What are your favorite subject matters?

For the cartoons, all matters having to do with the absurdities of politics and social mores. I’m compelled to challenge the inconsistencies and hypocrisies present in any society that I happen to be living in. Back in Algeria, already publishing as a teenager, I was criticizing the Algerian authorities, and here in America, our US politicians for their mediocrity and cravenness, whether it be on matters of social justice, foreign policy, the environment, you name it, I’ll lampoon it. Social satire is what comes to me naturally.

But in my fine artwork, it is usually more of a positive impulse that drives me. In my bronze sculpture, I draw heavily on my roots in Morocco and Algeria, reminiscing in a bittersweet, nostalgic fashion, depicting the beauty that prevails there. I like the different pace of life in the Maghreb, the more serene, fatalistic attitude, which makes for a gentler, softer atmosphere; I like depicting the little old men and women who sit in public squares in Morocco, relaxing and chatting, philosophizing, aspects of life that I do miss a little here, in our more frantic, modern American landscape.

And in my ceramics, it is my happy childhood impressions and memories that come forth, which, I think, is why their style is simpler, more naive, whimsical and child-like. It is the little world of a happy North African kid reflected in bright pastel colors, childhood recollections that deeply touch my patrons and collectors in the diaspora, who can relate to that artwork which brings them closer to their own sweet nostalgia of lands and times left behind.

Shems: How did your upbringing influence your artistic mind?

Being from North Africa, I was influenced by all the fantastic art and architecture that was all ar<\h>ound me, and it is the abundance of colors, flavors, aromas plus the scathing sense of humor that jaundiced eye that pervades our Maghrebi societies, that have always been the source and inspiration for everything I have ever done, whether it be the cartoons, the sculpture or the ceramics that I continually produce.

In terms of direct artistic influence, I ‘m sure that the fabulous ceramics and mosaics of Andalous are reflected in my overall style; my colors, decorative patterns, my themes, all seem to spring from a subconscious memory of the glorious times of Southern Spain, where three great monotheistic faiths were able to coexist and blossom in an atmosphere of tolerance and harmony under the enlightened rule of Muslim rulers of the times.

Like me, a great many artists and poets from the Arab world are still, to this day, profoundly influenced by those glorious, magical times spent by their forebears in medieval Spain, when the arts flourished like never before or since. I have often, in my wild, artistic fantasies, felt that I was a direct descendant of those famed poets, musicians and artists who revolutionized Europe’s and the world’s civilization with their creative genius.

For a more detailed look at Khalil Bendib’s work, you can visit his two web sites:
http://www.studiobendib.com for the fine art
andhttp://www.bendib.com for the cartoons.