Photo by Courtesy RaSul Hijaz El

RaSul Hijaz El is many things. He is an African American man of 44. He is tall, of medium build, slim, (but thinks he needs to lose weight), and has just the beginnings of dreadlocks. He spent his childhood in Chicago, but frequently traveled to the Jackson area to visit the many family members that live here.

"RaSul" means the messenger in Arabic and is not the name he was born with (that was Robert Cason), but an Islamic man gave him the new name after he adopted the faith.

Hijaz El has a biology degree from Tougaloo College and a master's in teaching education from Jackson State University and currently works as a part-time substitute teacher for Jackson Public Schools. He also attended acupuncture school in Austin, Texas, and is a veteran of the armed services, having served in the U.S. Air Force in the early to mid-1990s.

He is also a talented portrait artist known to a small following in Jackson for bringing his subjects to life with pen, pencil and pastels. He won first place for a color drawing in the 2007 Veterans Affairs Creative Arts contest. The drawing, in colored pencil on black paper, is of a cousin and his wife and titled "Unity."

Hijaz El recalls art always being a part of his young life. "I remember as a kid, my mom used to draw the fashion pages for papers in Chicago," he says. "She drew with a ballpoint pen, so that's why the first thing I picked up was a ballpoint pen."

Unfortunately, not many of Hijaz El's works are on public display. They are generally given to individuals for their use and enjoyment. Hijaz El doesn't draw for others; he does so because he has to do it. It is part of who he is. Toni Morrison, the author, said it best, "... the essential thing, the compulsion to create--where you know that if you don't do it, something dies in you--that's there or it's not."

The Smith Robertson Museum does have one of his pieces on display--a magnificent full-size drawing in pastels of two Muslim women, a mother and daughter, in headscarves gazing toward the artist. The daughter grins boldly, while the mother's expression is one of serenity and contentment. You know their personalities just from the art.

"We are excited to have this piece at the museum. The artist is very detailed and captures the true essence of his subject," Charlene Thompson, the curator of the Smith Robertson Museum, says. "We would very much like to feature more works of art from him."