Westlake Artist Rocks Guitar World

Cleveland is home to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, but Westlake is home to an artist who rocks the rock & roll world!

Nancy Elhallak works on a unique canvas. She hand paints, or custom prints, artwork on guitars.  “I started painting guitars about 10 years ago. I was trying to think about something I could enter in an art show back then that was different than the other entries, and we had an old guitar I decided to paint. I was surprised, but it sold, and I decided maybe I had an idea for a part time business.”

The guitars are either supplied by the customer, or purchased locally as used instruments, then sanded, painted with acrylic paints, and clear coated to protect the art. Her husband Adnan enjoys his hobby of buying many guitars to be painted.

Nancy devotes many hours to each hand painted guitar. Each hand guitar typically takes many hours to complete and requires a lot of attention to detail.

Customers often ship their own guitar to her. They may want a special birthday, anniversary, or memorial gift to honor a musician in the family. Nancy works with each to include any important details requested in the artwork.

She also creates her own one of a kind, hand painted designs that are sold online. In addition to the hand painted guitars, there are new designs with UV inks printed directly on the guitar from an artfile.

Nancy paints several guitars every year for a variety of charities. The artwork is donated and then the guitars are signed by musicians to auction off at fundraisers, such as Headcount for voter registration, OSU Cancer research, and charities supporting musicians and the arts.

Some of her guitars include those painted for Sally and Ronnie Wood of the Rolling Stones, Dead and Company, Twenty One Pilots, Dave Mathews, Phish, Luke Bryan and Dolly Parton.

“I really enjoy creating the guitars for these fundraisers and am happy to be able to use my art for so many worthwhile causes,” says Nancy. “This past summer I actually got to meet Sally and Ronnie Wood and go backstage at The Rolling Stones Cleveland show. I had dropped a guitar off for them at their hotel earlier in the day, and Sally texted me and asked if I wanted to stop by at the show and say hello. It was amazing, and they were both so nice and friendly. Definitely one of those experiences I will always remember.”