Artwork Descriptions
Fractured Thread-Light, 9" x 12", Acrylic on Canvas Board, 2025
Fractured Thread–Light is part of my series Traces of Self, a year-long body of abstract mixed- media paintings created alongside my high school art students using leftover materials. The series serves both as a bridge for introducing abstract expressionism in the classroom and as an extension of my research into how painting—like teaching—symbolically conveys inner emotional life, fragmentation, and movement. This work, in particular, responds directly to my dissertation data analysis and the coded themes emerging from participants’ lived experiences in our art studio classroom.
Fractured Thread-Light is a 9" x 12" horizontal mixed media original on canvas board — acrylic, paper, and collage — created in 2025 as part of the Traces of Self (2025-2026) series. Its expressive interplay of neon pinks, earthy rusts, and electric blues balances energy with restraint, inviting pause and presence. Signed on front and back, one-of-a-kind, with no prints or reproductions. Ships flat via USPS with tracking. A striking addition to any modern home, office, or studio — and a meaningful gift for birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, or housewarmings.
Paradise, 9″ x 12″, Mixed Media on Paper, 2020
This 9" x 12" horizontal mixed media original on paper — acrylic, drawing materials, and collage — belongs to Dispersed Together (2020–2021), a series born from personal reflection and an exploration of the COVID-19 pandemic. Layered textures, paper fragments, and gestural mark-making channel the tension, stillness, and emotional charge of that moment with quiet intensity. Signed on front and back by Ben Tellie. One-of-a-kind; no prints or reproductions. Ships flat via USPS with tracking. A nuanced, conversation-starting work for contemporary homes, offices, studios, or gallery walls — and a meaningful gift for collectors or anyone seeking art rooted in a powerful moment in time.
Sickness Spreads, 20″ x 20″, Mixed Media on Canvas, 2020
Sickness Spreads is a 20" x 20" mixed media original on stretched canvas — collage, acrylic, graphite, and pastel — created during the emotionally complex year of 2020 and belonging to the series Dispersed Together (2020–2021). Richly layered and full of visual tension, the work depicts the disorientation, fragmentation, and emotional weight of living through a global health crisis. Structural forms dissolve into figures, houses, and ghostly spaces — echoing how illness, both physical and emotional, reshaped our relationships to home, memory, and public life. Signed on front and back by Ben Tellie. One-of-a-kind; no prints or reproductions. Framed in a natural wood lattice frame, ready to hang. Ships securely via USPS with tracking.
Sickness Spreads was featured in the juried exhibition Celebrating Bridges: Art and Art Education Program Alumni Exhibition, Macy Gallery, Teachers College, Columbia University, 2021.
NYC, April 2020, Au-dessus de la ville, 16” x 20”, Mixed Media on Canvas, 2020
NYC, April 2020, Au-dessus de la ville is a 16" x 20" horizontal mixed media original on stretched canvas — collage, acrylic, graphite, and pastel — created during the early, uncertain days of the COVID-19 pandemic and part of the Dispersed Together (2020–2021) series.The work juxtaposes a ghostly skyline with a hovering abstracted form — evocative of a body, cloud, or fragmented spirit — visualizing the physical stillness and internal turbulence of New York City in April 2020. Layered architecture, distorted scale, and mist-like overlays capture how sickness, fear, and urban silence pressed down on the city and lingered in memory. Signed on front and back by Ben Tellie. One-of-a-kind; no prints or reproductions. Framed in a natural wood lattice frame, ready to hang. Ships securely via USPS with tracking. A haunting, contemplative piece for collectors, New Yorkers, or anyone seeking art that holds the emotional weight of a defining moment in time.
Velocity, 9″ x 12″, Mixed Media, 2021
Velocity is a 9" x 12" vertical mixed media original on paper — collage, acrylic, and graphite — created in 2020 as part of a limited pandemic-era series, Dispersed Together (2020–2021).
The composition surges upward. Collaged strips of torn paper — angular, tilted, overlapping — push through a dense field of blue-grey acrylic and graphite mark-making, suggesting scaffolding, falling structures, or the fragmented architecture of a world in motion. Flashes of electric blue, muted yellow, and dusty rose punctuate the darker ground, offering moments of unexpected light within the visual turbulence. Gestural lines cut across collaged surfaces, and layered washes of white acrylic create depth and atmospheric pressure throughout. Nothing is fully resolved — forms lean, intersect, and press against one another with restless energy.
Velocity doesn't depict speed so much as it embodies it — the feeling of a moment moving faster than it can be held, processed, or named.
Signed on front and back by Ben Tellie. One-of-a-kind; no prints or reproductions. Ships flat via USPS with tracking.
Study of my Whiteness, 9” x 12,” Mixed Media, 2021
Study of my Whiteness is a 9" x 12" horizontal mixed media original on paper — acrylic, collage, and drawing materials — created in 2020 as part of Dispersed Together (2020–2021), a limited series born from personal reflection on racial identity and sickness during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This work was featured in the peer-reviewed article Decolonization Through Artistic Self-Expression: Addressing Racism in the Secondary Art and Design Classroom with Fanon and Pinar, co-authored with Dr. Elliott Schwebach and published in the Journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Curriculum Studies (JAAACS, Vol. 16, No. 2, 2025).
Signed on front and back by Ben Tellie. One-of-a-kind; no prints or reproductions. Ships flat via USPS with tracking.