Today we’d like to introduce you to Habacuc S. Bessiake.
Hi Habacuc, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Art started as a challenge and love for me. Like most kids, I loved fictional stories and animated characters and was challenged at a young age to become better. When I was in third grade, I used to steal my older brother Marc Bessiake’s small binder of drawings. For context, my older brother was a professional dabbler. He dabbled in music, dance, invention, being a power ranger, and had a short stint of drawing. That stint formed this binder of decent drawings I would take to school, show to my third-grade classmates, and pretend that I made the drawings. A few kids didn’t believe me and challenged me to draw a specific cartoon character on the spot, to which I replied, “Oh, I don’t have them memorized.” It saved me for a while, but this challenged me to actually get good at drawing, which led to my childish aim to get better at drawing than my older brother and ultimately turned into an endeavor to become the best artist I can be, which is still the goal.
Since this challenge, the path has been highly serendipitous, to say the least. I am number 6 of 9 children. My parents were born in Cote’divore (Ivory Coast) and immigrated to the US about 30 years ago. I was born in Levittown, Pennsylvania, and shortly after my birth, my family relocated to Detroit, Michigan. I remember moving a lot as a kid, but we stayed in the Midwest. We went from Detroit, Dearborn, Southfield, Indianapolis, Indiana, to Holland, Michigan, and I’ve been back in Detroit since 2014.
This move back to Detroit was the only one I actually opposed. At this point, I was in 10th grade, and this was our third move that year. Coming from outside the city, it looked bleak. I knew I wanted to attend an art college, and I didn’t know Detroit had anything to do with the arts. On top of that, I was highly aware that if I didn’t get a good scholarship, I wouldn’t be able to attend college, period. I remember telling my mom, “We have to move to New York if I want to be an artist.” To make a long and eventful story short, luckily, I was wrong. I love Detroit. I landed here and went to Cody High School for a year, which was a great decision. Their afterschool art program run by CAP (Community Arts Partnership) led me to HFA: SCS (Now University Prep Art and Design High School), Where I graduated and earned a full-tuition scholarship to the College for Creative Studies. This was my chance to keep growing as an artist. I earned my BFA from CCS in 2021, and I’ve continued to make art since. I create in my studio, showing work in galleries nationally, Teaching art, and painting murals around the city.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The biggest obstacle for me has been uncertainty, and the answer to it, I’ve learned, is to continue. In most stories, the aspect that usually determines success is one’s ability to continue the pursuit.
It’s also funny. My last name,” Bessiake,” is a Baoulé phrase meaning “They don’t know.” I use that as a mantra. On one hand, “they” can be outside forces. They don’t know what I’m capable of, and on the other hand, if I am “they.” This means I also don’t know the end of my potential or future. In accepting this uncertainty, I find peace or a reason to keep taking steps forward.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
My work is my healthy escape, and I hope it serves the same for viewers. “Escapes” have a negative connotation but are necessary, so why not have a few healthy ones? Everything in moderation. I create Visual narratives that are pulled from the realms of reality and my imagination. At its core, my work depicts empowering life lessons, reflecting the guidance I and others have received from navigating through life’s bright and dark jungles. My drawings and paintings pull from traces of my West African heritage primarily through research and conversations with family, as I have yet to visit Africa. I find cultural artifacts like African proverbs as a jumping point for narrative works visually discussing the life lessons I find in them. My mural work aims to bring interest to walls across all communities with imaginative imagery holding hidden encouraging messages for viewers.
I’m a mixed-media artist, so in my work, you will find lively, rhythmic mark-making using acrylics, oils, chalk pastels, ink, and more. The mix of worlds comes together to form my current bodies of work.
Contact Info:
- Website: hsbessiake.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hsbessiake/?hl=en
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/hsbessiake
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCu1ka-gQdo6ra8SI0_9Wy4w
Image Credits
John Sippel
Elonte Davis
Jimel Primm
Mesgana Berhane
