Ted Ellis (born 1963) is an American artist and former environmental chemist. Ellis is best known for his African-American themed art and styles which blend elements of folk art, naturalism and impressionism. His personal rendition of Barack Obama in acrylic, Obama, the 44th President, was presented in honor of the 2009 Presidential Inauguration. Ellis' art business has sold over 1.75 million fine art products, and he works with a number of prominent corporations. He is also known for his community work, especially advancing arts in children's education.
Personal life and early career
Born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, to a professional musician-father and a housewife-mother, Ellis' earliest hints of artistic talent began to show at five-years-old. Ellis' first attempt at art was a third-grade freehand sketch of a dog from Archie Comics, which he drew so accurately that friends and family believed it had been traced. Growing up, one of his favorite characters to draw was Wile E. Coyote, and as an adult he continues to enjoy comic books as "refreshing". When he was old enough, Ellis would ride the bus alone to downtown New Orleans so as to be exposed to and spend time with the area artists. He and his friends would in their spare time compete with one another to see who could draw the best designs, and Ellis continued developing his art skills throughout primary school despite only receiving "satisfactory" marks in art class. In elementary school he attended a summer program at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, and later attended an after-school program at Lawless High School. Ellis says that he knew he wanted to be an artist in the seventh grade, and credits his teacher in that class for keeping him focused. Ellis worked for a time with charcoal and pastel before settling on oil and acrylic. He took art classes during high school and enrolled in four months of private art lessons, but is otherwise self-taught. Ellis followed advice from Anna Torregano, his mentor, friend and high school art teacher, and his parents, all of whom advised him to pursue an academic career so as not to become a "starving artist". His mother especially stressed university and earning a professional degree. Ellis earned a B.Sc. in chemistry at Dillard University on a United States Army ROTC scholarship as well as academic scholarship, and went on to be commissioned a second lieutenant in the United States Army's Field Artillery Branch. Ellis spent the next ten years working in the field of chemistry, eight years of which were as an environmental chemist at Rollins Engineering Services. Ellis has lived in Louisiana and California and currently resides in Friendswood, Texas with his wife, Erania. They have a daughter, Chaney, and a son, Tanner. Chaney is an aspiring rap artist and has produced a parent-friendly CD about school and drugs titled Off the Chain.
Art career
Ellis maintained a passion for art that preceded his professional art career; he painted throughout his time in the Army and as an environmental chemist, generally working out of a studio in his garage. His first commissions were produced for two co-workers at Rollins. They had wanted to purchase the piece that he was then working on, but he refused and instead offered to paint them two similar pieces, which they purchased for $40. When he first got started, Ellis passed on an opportunity to do work for the J. C. Penney catalog because he was too busy, but ultimately found success in a similar publication. Ellis published his first prints through Market Arts' Dan Rose in Houston, but his art career took off when he noticed that his wife's Avon boutique magazine, targeted at African-Americans, lacked any art. He sent Avon a proposal which they accepted, and through the magazine he sold 42,610 signed prints of Thee Baptism. Since he was still working as an engineer at the time, he autographed the tens-of-thousands of prints during his lunch-break. After quitting his job as an engineer in 1996, Ellis competed against 500 others for, and won, a 1998 Walt Disney Studios commission for art in honor of Black History Month. The piece was used in the 1999 celebration at Epcot Center and appeared on T-shirts, souvenir-mugs, and posters.
Art Business
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