Meet the Sketchers: Mohammed Shamma

UC Berkeley
Faculty Club
Jun 13, 2014

Mohammed Shamma

I’m a writer/illustrator living in Berkeley with my lovely wife and two wonderful kids.  My story, “Echoes,” was recently published in Salaam, Love: American Muslim Men on Love, Sex, and Intimacy.

I grew up in Houston, Texas in a bi-cultural Egyptian-American household and was always captivated with stories of my father’s homeland and it’s rich history. 

In 2012, I underwent heart surgery that forced me to change the way I was living.  I walk to work now and spend more time "smelling the roses" so to speak.  I also rediscovered my passion for journal writing and painting, returning to where I'd left off nearly fifteen years before.  Shortly thereafter, I discovered Urban Sketching and fell in love with it at first site.  

I could list so many reason why I love Urban Sketching, but the most important ones are the simplest.  We open ourselves when we sketch and we reveal who, where and what we observed.  We share our sketches.  And when we share them, we are sharing our beautiful human experience, as fragile and short-lived as it is.  

Feel free to connect with me at mohammedshamma.com, Twitter, Flickr and/or Tumblr.