MEMBERS:

Patrick John Mills

Tami Galili-Ellis

Tami Galili Ellis is currently a resident of Ottawa where she upholds a studio as well as teachs art. An active member of the Ottawa art community and a member of Blink Gallery Cooperative, she exhibits her work regularly in Ottawa. She is a passionate painter working in oils and other variety of mixed media . Her art reveals an interplay between the two worlds of abstraction and figuration, and explores the themes of memories and the human condition.

Born in Israel and immigrated to Canada in 1986. She graduated from the University of Ottawa with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. Shortly there after, she joined the Ottawa School of Art as an Instructor, where she is currently teaches Diploma Painting as well as Mixed media art in the childrens' program.

Tami's paintings have been featured in solo and group exhibits in Israel and Ottawa, and can be found in private collections both in Canada and abroad.

I am an artist whose work is inspired by the complex world around her. I explore the themes of human struggles through the visual enforcement of opposites such as fear and courage, violence and peacefulness, strength and weakness, and giving versus sacrifice.

I paint in oils with an unusual palate of colors which is inspired by memories of the Negev desert. My paintings are an interplay between the two worlds of abstraction and figuration which promotes the revealing of a thread from the past to the present, from the imaginary to reality. Memories and experiences of growing up in Israel allow me to draw upon inspiration of subject. During my childhood, I became fascinated with the Ibex, an indigenous mountain goat. Often used as symbols of sacrifice in Judaism, they are both strong and beautiful, able to climb mountains at 90 degrees.

Now as an artist in Canada, I continue my fascination into my adulthood and paint female mountain goats in their uncommon “human experience.” Through depictions of the Ibex, they have become a symbol of my personal journey as an artist, a woman, a mother, and an immigrant.