Baker Artist Portfolios

Dr. Benjamin Tellie is an abstract artist, art and design educator, consultant, and scholar whose work investigates inner emotional states and socially traumatic histories. Working across painting, printmaking, and mixed media, he draws on heavy brushwork, palette knife techniques, and layered mark-making — weaving together acrylic, pencil, and digital processes — to render the emotional weight of historical and personal memory. His subjects have included his grandfather's experiences fighting in World War II, the 2003 American invasion of Iraq, the COVID-19 pandemic, and systemic racism.

Ben holds an Ed.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from The George Washington University, a Psychoanalytic Studies Certificate from the Washington Baltimore Center for Psychoanalysis, an M.A. in Art and Art Education from Columbia University, and a B.A. in Studio Art with a Minor in Art History from Temple University's Tyler School of Art. He teaches visual arts at Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Rockville, Maryland.

His academic work and abstract artworks have appeared in the Journal of Curriculum Theorizing, Art Education, School Arts Magazine, the Journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Curriculum Studies, January House Literary Journal, The Ekphrastic Review, and the Maryland Art Education Association Gazette. His artwork has been exhibited widely across the eastern United States at venues including the NAEA Studio & Gallery (VA), BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport (MD), VisArts Center (MD), Macy Gallery at Columbia University (NY), Benrimon Contemporary (NY), Kirby Center for the Performing Arts (PA), and Temple University (PA), among others.