LukeDingman.com
Title
Fine Art and Iconography Gallery
Description
Fr. Luke, in front of The Monastery of the Holy Transfiguration on Mt. Tabor, Israel in 1998.
His life-long fascination with art and wildlife began in the Arizona desert, where he grew up. Born in Mesa and named Rolland Ellis by his parents (of blessed memory), Rev. James was, at different times in his life a pastor, photographer and restauranteur, and Vera, homemaker (with a very capital "H"!), author and the 1970 "Arizona Mother of The Year." He is now known by most people as Fr. Luke Dingman since his ordination as a priest in the Orthodox Christian Church, he is a priest in good standing in the Jerusalem Patriarchate.
He grew up (along with his 5 and 9 year old brothers and nearly 1,000 other children!) in a Christian children's home for homeless and abused children, that his parents founded in 1954, when he was 7 years old. Sunshine Acres Children's Home is still filled with children of all ages and his mother continued to keep busy having weekly devotions with separate groups of children, speaking engagements about Sunshine Acre's and God's blessings and writing letters (thanks to those who send donations and to keep in touch with as many of her "children" as possible) until her last few months. She went to be with the Lord in 2005, and join her husband who had died 24 years earlier, shortly after her 94th birthday. May their memory be eternal!
As a youngster Fr. Luke had many wild pets - a fox, an owl, skunks, and numerous scorpions, snakes and lizards. He often sketched his menagerie, selling his first wildlife painting of his pet Screech Owl, at the age of 14 . He can't remember a time when he was not sketching or painting, even as a toddler his mother kept him busy scribbling with crayons on paper placed on the kitchen floor.
