Algerian Abdulwahab Mihoub was born and raised in the oasis city of Touggourt world famous for the exquisite dates harvested from the palm trees there. Touggourt is a city of about 140,000 people located in the Sahara Desert some 500 km southeast of the nation's capital, Algiers, which is a port city on the Mediterranean.

“Besides Touggourt,” Abdulwahab says, “I lived a couple of years in Algiers and went to high school in Ouargla (100 miles from Touggourt). In Ouargla is where the nearest university is.

“I have visited most parts of Algeria. I used to be in the Scouts, and we used to camp all over the country during our summer vacations.

“For a person from the Sahara, the need for seeing the sea and green vegetation is a real longing. Summer by the seaside is a luxury, knowing that temperatures get very high in the summer in Touggourt and that people start ‘living' after sunset.”

After completing his education as an accountant, Abdulwahab soon left Algeria to ‘discover' Europe. He traveled through a few countries, and it was in London where he met Farida, a student from France studying the English language. They married in 1985 and lived in Touggourt.

Back in Touggourt raising a family, Abdulwahab experimented with several occupations, particularly agriculture, and during this time, pyrography was always part of his life. Over the years his pyrography, which he continued to learn alone, steadily progressed to what it is now.

.Since 1990 Abdulwahab, Farida, and their children divide their time between Algeria and France. When Farida and the children left Algeria in 1994 to establish the family in France, Abdulwahab had to stay behind part of the time to keep his advertising agency going. Wherever he goes, though, he always keeps his art work with him. His original work focuses mainly on traditional scenes of landscapes, people, and customs of the Sahara.

“Yes, my art lives inside of me,” Abdulwahab says, “Wherever I am and whatever I'm doing, I always take my pyro tool. I do not go out very much now. Activities are not so many in Touggourt. There are no music clubs, for example, nor theaters, and only one cinema, showing mostly old movies and westerns. Cultural life is very limited—you have to move to bigger cities to see that. If I have an opportunity to work on a pyrography piece, I take it, even if I'm staying somewhere on holiday.”

                                                - Kathleen Menéndez