While Yisehak Selassie’s art may have been shown in art galleries around the world, his personal goal is to be supportive of his home community.
Since he moved to East County in 1998 he has volunteered his time as an art docent in his daughters’ elementary schools. This week he is taking his dedication to his community one step forward by offering a one-man art show at Brentwood’s Weber Gallery.
Yisehak not only wanted to give the residents of East County the chance to see his art, but also made arrangements with Brentwood elementary schools to conduct field trips to the gallery for the youth of his community to view his work.
“Yisehak feels it is very important to make a local contribution to his community,” his wife, Asqual Teferi, said. “This is where we raise our children and building a strong community is so very important.”
The international renowned artist learned about building strong communities from his great-grandfather, Haile Selassie, who was the emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974 and a king in his country before that, beginning in 1916. Haile Selassie was an international icon of his time, showing the world for the first time a human face to the people of Ethiopia. He also arranged for Ethiopia to be one of only two African countries as part of the United Nations.
Yisehak brings a lot of his homeland’s Christian beliefs into his art. As an artist he paints in acrylic, pastels and oils. He also works with multimedia presentations, utilizing everything from bronze to papier-mache and sculptures.
He has shown his work nationally at many galleries, including Washington, D.C., and the New York Art Expo, as well as internationally in several countries, including France, Sweden and Italy. He has also been commissioned to do murals in the United States and Germany.
Yisehak describes his art as being very biblical with a Middle Eastern feel to it.
“The way I paint is not realist in the conventional sense. Although it has realistic elements, it conveys matters beyond the reality we see in nature into the spiritual, in the realm of faith,” he said.
He believes that faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen.
“It comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God,” Yisehak said. “The source of my inspiration is the word of God (from) the Holy Bible, and the guiding principle, the creative force is the spirit of God, which lives in me by faith.”
While he does depict his faith in his art, it isn’t necessarily considered religious when reviewed. Many times it is considered retro, literal or abstract, realist or surrealist, he said.
Yisehak said that he was inspired to become an artist by his grandmother, Princess Wolete-Israel Seyoum. Princess Wolete-Israel was the daughter-in-law of Haile Selassie, a princess in her own right, passed down from her father who was a king. Princess Wolete-Israel was also a devout Christian who often dedicated her spiritual artwork to the church. Yisehak said that she lived the life that God would have us live.
Yisehak has always held an interest of art. As early as the third grade he studied art in school. But after the communist militant group “The Dreg” took over his great-grandfather’s monarchy in 1974, his family members were endangered, he said. At age 11, Yisehak and several of the Emperor’s young relatives were rescued from Ethiopia by a missionary, the Rev. Denton Collins and his wife. The rescue received international media attention, including coverage on “Good Morning America” and in Time magazine.
Yisehak continued to work with his art through his youth and studied at the Rhode Island School of Design, where he earned a bachelor of fine arts degree. After graduating he studied with the masters of Italy. Since early 1990, after graduating from art school, he has been working full time on his art.
At the Weber gallery, he is showing 40 paintings and a couple of sculptures. The exhibit, which started last weekend, will continue until Feb. 26.
IF YOU GO
WHAT: Yisehak Selassie art show
WHEN: Through Feb. 26
WHERE: Weber Gallery, 700 Harvest Park Drive, Suite L, Brentwood
