Shamsul Bahari
Published by Shamsul Bahari
Who was Shamsul Bahari -Life of an Artist.
The works of Shamsul Bahari are in the collections of some prominent art galleries and collectors in Malaysia as well as abroad including the;
Penang State Art Gallery
University Sains Malaysia in Penang
Private Art Collectors in the United States, Japan, Dubai and Malaysia.
Shamsul graduated from the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay in Fine Arts with a 'self designed' degree in Fine Arts and interned for three years at the Miyagi Museum of Fine Arts in Sendai, Japan.
Shamsul has held numerous Solo Exhibitions in the US mostly in San Francisco and Green Bay, Wisconsin. Six Solo Exhibitions in the City of Sendai and a few in his home state of Penang, Malaysia.
Shasul has lived and traveled to many parts of the world including having lived for 21 years in the US and three years in Japan and over a year in Dubai. He has traveled as an artist to Europe, including Great Britain, Germany, Italy,and Switzerland and to South America including Colombia and Equador. In his travels he had met many great Masters and visited numerous Art Galleries as it was his favorite thing to do where he had learned and shared his talent as an artist and a versatile communicator.
Over the years during his travels Shamsul has kept an ongoing Art Journals in the form of drawings, sketches, photographs and notes of his art as well as personal thoughts and ideas about everything under the sun including, spiritual, philosophical as well as emotional feelings he call his, study towards self discovery. These journal has now culminated into his Blogging which is still ongoing and has over half a million hits from readers all over the world.
His Blog, Ramblings of the Cheeseburger Buddha or cheeseburgerbuddha.blogspot,com was started in 2005 and has more than 2000
entries to date.
Life Career.
In his llifelong carrer Shamsul has been a Medical Research assistant in the rural areas of Terengganu, East Malaysia under the Institute of Medical Research, (IMR) Malaysia assisting and American Doctor the late sixties. He later was employed by Bristow Helicopter Company when oil exploratoin was first carried out along the South China Seas carried out by Esso Exploration and Continental Oil Co, (CONOCO) which operated out of Huston, Texas. He later went on to work as a 'Roughneck' on board the Drilling vessel "The Discoverer 2" where he lasted for only a month. His next employment was as a tutor in English to the grand children of the Sultan of Terengganu, the late Sultan Ismail Nasseruddin Shah to whom he was also an occasional golf caddy.
Shamsul later in the early seventies moved back to his hometown in Penang and worked as a Sales Executive for Hagemyer Trading Co, a Dutch firm importing Japanese products such as NIVICO and Matsushita Appliances as well various Dutch and European products like Christian Dior and Houbigan cosmetics; he was the first Malay hired by the company in the sales department.
Shamsul met and married an American Lecturer who was teahing at the Institute of Technology Mara (ITM) while he was working in Penang and later moved to the United States with his wife and infant son. The family relocated to Green Bay, Wisconsin.where his former wife as from and his first job was at a tavern called Farr's Grove, located in Duck Cree, Brown Country. His job was to clean the bar and replenish it every morning.. Later he was hired as a Sweeper at the Brown County Arena and the Lambeau Field Home of the Green Bay Packers . Yet later on he was hired as a 'Boner' or meat cutter at the Green Bay Meats and Cold Storage and was fired after two years and was hired immediately by Peck Meat Packing of Milwaukee, Wisconsin doing the same job. After more than three years in the meat packing houses and a divorce, Shamsul decided to go to school.
In the late seventies till 1982 Shamsul was a University Student at the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay, (UWGB) where he was ablle to design his own Fine Arts Degree through a program called, "THe University Without Walls," a program initiated by the University of Wisconsin, Madison.He graduated with BA in 1982. While a student Shamsul was employed a a security Guard for J&J Security to pay for his school years. One of his posts as a security guard was to work at the Northwest Engineering Factory, one of the largest crane manufacturing companies in the US.
.In the same year upon graduation, Shamsul bought one way ticket to Alaska where became a Commercial Fisherman on board the Fishing Vessal, the ICELAND. He with three other crew members and the captain fished for Halibut in the Berring Seas out of the port at Sandpoint in the Aleutian Chain. Shamsul spent two years of his life in Sandpoint where he made more money selling paintings than fishing. While living in Sandpoint, Shamsul earned six credits from the University of Fairbanks for being involved in two plays directed by a teacher at the local high school.
Upon leaving Alaska where he was able to travel to Hong Kong, Thailand and Malaysia on vacation; he returned to Green Bay and spent over a year at the University Printmaking Studio where he did allot of printmaking at no cost to the University, he was the resident artist. The only artist allowed to sleep in the studio overnight courtesy of the security guards. .Sometime in the mid eighties .Shamsul left Wisconsin for good and landed in San Francisco with the intention of joining a Zen Buddhist Monastery..Later he spent two years as a Zen student at the Green Dragon Zen Buddhist Center at Green Gulch Farm on Star Route One, Sausalito,Marin County, California. There Shamsul earned his nickname as the 'Disrupter.'.The one who never really fitted in. At 'The Gulch', Shamsul worked on the organic farm and garden and the the general maintenance of the whole Green Gulch Valley. He was also exposed to the Monastic work practices like Zendo cleaning, working as a dish washer in the kitchen and other chores.
Upon completing two years of Zen practice, Shamsul almost found himself becoming a homeless on the streets of San Francisco had it not been for the help of a drug dealer friend who got to work for his friend at a family run company called H&H Ship Service and Environmental Company where he spent six years of his life. Later he was employed as a Produce Buyer for a company called Del Tomasso buying produce at the San Francisco night market and delivering the produce to the Supermarket in Oakland across the Bay..
To be Continued...
.. .
The works of Shamsul Bahari are in the collections of some prominent art galleries and collectors in Malaysia as well as abroad including the;
Penang State Art Gallery
University Sains Malaysia in Penang
Private Art Collectors in the United States, Japan, Dubai and Malaysia.
Shamsul graduated from the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay in Fine Arts with a 'self designed' degree in Fine Arts and interned for three years at the Miyagi Museum of Fine Arts in Sendai, Japan.
Shamsul has held numerous Solo Exhibitions in the US mostly in San Francisco and Green Bay, Wisconsin. Six Solo Exhibitions in the City of Sendai and a few in his home state of Penang, Malaysia.
Shasul has lived and traveled to many parts of the world including having lived for 21 years in the US and three years in Japan and over a year in Dubai. He has traveled as an artist to Europe, including Great Britain, Germany, Italy,and Switzerland and to South America including Colombia and Equador. In his travels he had met many great Masters and visited numerous Art Galleries as it was his favorite thing to do where he had learned and shared his talent as an artist and a versatile communicator.
Over the years during his travels Shamsul has kept an ongoing Art Journals in the form of drawings, sketches, photographs and notes of his art as well as personal thoughts and ideas about everything under the sun including, spiritual, philosophical as well as emotional feelings he call his, study towards self discovery. These journal has now culminated into his Blogging which is still ongoing and has over half a million hits from readers all over the world.
His Blog, Ramblings of the Cheeseburger Buddha or cheeseburgerbuddha.blogspot,com was started in 2005 and has more than 2000
entries to date.
Life Career.
In his llifelong carrer Shamsul has been a Medical Research assistant in the rural areas of Terengganu, East Malaysia under the Institute of Medical Research, (IMR) Malaysia assisting and American Doctor the late sixties. He later was employed by Bristow Helicopter Company when oil exploratoin was first carried out along the South China Seas carried out by Esso Exploration and Continental Oil Co, (CONOCO) which operated out of Huston, Texas. He later went on to work as a 'Roughneck' on board the Drilling vessel "The Discoverer 2" where he lasted for only a month. His next employment was as a tutor in English to the grand children of the Sultan of Terengganu, the late Sultan Ismail Nasseruddin Shah to whom he was also an occasional golf caddy.
Shamsul later in the early seventies moved back to his hometown in Penang and worked as a Sales Executive for Hagemyer Trading Co, a Dutch firm importing Japanese products such as NIVICO and Matsushita Appliances as well various Dutch and European products like Christian Dior and Houbigan cosmetics; he was the first Malay hired by the company in the sales department.
Shamsul met and married an American Lecturer who was teahing at the Institute of Technology Mara (ITM) while he was working in Penang and later moved to the United States with his wife and infant son. The family relocated to Green Bay, Wisconsin.where his former wife as from and his first job was at a tavern called Farr's Grove, located in Duck Cree, Brown Country. His job was to clean the bar and replenish it every morning.. Later he was hired as a Sweeper at the Brown County Arena and the Lambeau Field Home of the Green Bay Packers . Yet later on he was hired as a 'Boner' or meat cutter at the Green Bay Meats and Cold Storage and was fired after two years and was hired immediately by Peck Meat Packing of Milwaukee, Wisconsin doing the same job. After more than three years in the meat packing houses and a divorce, Shamsul decided to go to school.
In the late seventies till 1982 Shamsul was a University Student at the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay, (UWGB) where he was ablle to design his own Fine Arts Degree through a program called, "THe University Without Walls," a program initiated by the University of Wisconsin, Madison.He graduated with BA in 1982. While a student Shamsul was employed a a security Guard for J&J Security to pay for his school years. One of his posts as a security guard was to work at the Northwest Engineering Factory, one of the largest crane manufacturing companies in the US.
.In the same year upon graduation, Shamsul bought one way ticket to Alaska where became a Commercial Fisherman on board the Fishing Vessal, the ICELAND. He with three other crew members and the captain fished for Halibut in the Berring Seas out of the port at Sandpoint in the Aleutian Chain. Shamsul spent two years of his life in Sandpoint where he made more money selling paintings than fishing. While living in Sandpoint, Shamsul earned six credits from the University of Fairbanks for being involved in two plays directed by a teacher at the local high school.
Upon leaving Alaska where he was able to travel to Hong Kong, Thailand and Malaysia on vacation; he returned to Green Bay and spent over a year at the University Printmaking Studio where he did allot of printmaking at no cost to the University, he was the resident artist. The only artist allowed to sleep in the studio overnight courtesy of the security guards. .Sometime in the mid eighties .Shamsul left Wisconsin for good and landed in San Francisco with the intention of joining a Zen Buddhist Monastery..Later he spent two years as a Zen student at the Green Dragon Zen Buddhist Center at Green Gulch Farm on Star Route One, Sausalito,Marin County, California. There Shamsul earned his nickname as the 'Disrupter.'.The one who never really fitted in. At 'The Gulch', Shamsul worked on the organic farm and garden and the the general maintenance of the whole Green Gulch Valley. He was also exposed to the Monastic work practices like Zendo cleaning, working as a dish washer in the kitchen and other chores.
Upon completing two years of Zen practice, Shamsul almost found himself becoming a homeless on the streets of San Francisco had it not been for the help of a drug dealer friend who got to work for his friend at a family run company called H&H Ship Service and Environmental Company where he spent six years of his life. Later he was employed as a Produce Buyer for a company called Del Tomasso buying produce at the San Francisco night market and delivering the produce to the Supermarket in Oakland across the Bay..
To be Continued...
.. .
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