Being an artist runs in Jamal’s veins, for his late mother and father, Ozella and George Stewart, were both artist. His mother painted for a hobby and his father was the more serious one. In fact, Jamal’s father was commissioned by the Smithsonian in 1968 to travel from California to Washington DC with the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and capture through his art “The Poor People’s Campaign from Coast to Coast”, but the assassination of Dr. King happened before the march took place. However, the late Mr. Stewart still made the trip and captured the heart and essence of the movement with his art.
When Jamal’s father passed in 1971 it seemed as if something came over him and he just couldn’t stop drawing and exploring the world through art. Once in a radio interview Jamal said, “I knew I was blessed the day I drew my first ‘Apple’”. Jamal was the youngest to be enrolled in the then Literary Arts Program in 1971 in Washington, DC. He has given shows in and out of Washington and the Baltimore area. His artwork can just about be found all over the western hemisphere.
Jamal now resides in Northern California and he says his greatest pleasure of the arts is when he sees the expression of his clients faces once they see the finished artwork! If you ever get the opportunity to own one of Jamal’s pieces you would have obtained an affordable treasure.