Oversized portraits of Hasidic Jews dancing and praying, a group of ladies at the Wailing Wall in Israel, and paintings of Mideastern landscapes are among the offerings when Dennis Ellman shows his original artwork on Sunday, Jan. 21, from 7 to 10 p.m. at Chabad of University Town Center, 3813 Governor Drive.
“I have a collection of Jewish art that I have painted and drawn over the last number of years, and don’t usually look for venues to show it because usually I show it privately,” Ellman said. “Every once in a while, I build up enough work that it makes sense to me to put it on display and to see if I could get people interested in purchasing it, and my hope is that I can benefit the community in some way by selling this work so I can help someone else and not just me.”
Although neither a member of Chabad UTC nor a Hasidic Jew, Ellman already had one painting on display the center when he and Rabbi Moishe Leider, a longtime friend, decided that a benefit art show would be a grand plan to help raise additional revenue for Chabad and the community it serves.
“I have different styles that I do and a lot of the ink work I do are drawings of strange characters, which I have been doing since childhood, although they have gotten more sophisticated and larger over the years, but that is one of those idle passions that just never goes away,” Ellman said. “The Jewish art I started a number of years ago because I felt a passion toward that community, and it just seemed to evolve in a way that was consistent with my feelings toward the good things that the Chabad community has done for my family over the years.”
Ellman’s creative repertoire includes writing, a talent that he used to found Beck-Ellman-Heald, a marketing and public relations firm, in 1986. Jewish artwork aficionados can find their fill of offerings on display at the office in Sorrento Valley.
The art-ist’s Jewish experience began early, when he was in Los Angeles and his grandfather took him to the Russian Orthodox synagogue in Venice. In 1980, he moved his family to San Diego, where they took an interest in Chabad and Hasidic tradition. While attending San Diego State University, he discovered a love of poetry, and soon he was featured in national publications. This work afforded him the opportunity to gain a fellowship to the University of California, Irvine’s graduate program in creative writing. He earned his MFA and soon began teaching creative writing and poetry at institutions such as SDSU and Pepperdine University.
Ellman also creates art that is not Jewish-related, and so this show is geared toward those who have a passion for Jewish art and those who are interested in abstract impressionist works that are primitive and sophisticated, whimsical and poignant.
“It is open to the public ” you do not have to be Jewish to go the Chabad center, which is one of the great things about it,” Ellman said. “Anybody is invited and everyone is invited, and you do not have to purchase anything; you can just come, view the art and get to meet the artist, and that would be wonderful.”
For information, call (858) 453-9600.