Reunion 805, a free benefit honoring Ventura County’s disaster survivors, was held on Sunday, November 17 in the 500 block alley in downtown Ventura. The event recognized the second anniversary of the Thomas Fire. Funds raised will support the ongoing needs of impacted Ventura County families.

Free highlights included an art show by seven Thomas fire survivors, tribute wall, photo booth, magician, corn hole, live music and refreshments by local restaurants.

The benefit was hosted by Fox Fine Jewelry. In response to the disasters, Fox Fine Jewelry designed several necklaces depicting the communities affected, Named the “Strong” necklaces, Fox Fine Jewelry gave away over 700 necklaces to those affected.

Says Debbie Fox, co-owner of Fox Fine Jewelry, “Most fire survivors are still not in their homes. This event recognizes the trauma and the healing, while connecting neighbors and friends, many of whom scattered.”

Arts Leader – Denise Sindelar, Creative Entrepreneur – Stephanie Hogue, Artist in the Community – Larissa Strauss, Emerging Artist – Juan Manuel Cisneros and Arts Educator – Mario Boccali at the awards ceremony held at Museum of Ventura County. The reception honored the achievements and contributions of five residents dedicated to the arts community in Ventura.

For more information on the 2019 Mayor’s Arts Awards, please visit www.cityofventura.ca.gov/maa .

Photo by Michael Gordon

His eclectic art/work studio in Ventura is filled with a rich tapestry of different art forms.

by Amy Brown

He is passionate about several important public art projects for which he has been recently commissioned. “I was really pleased when Miriam Schwab wanted me to do her memorial sculpture for Ventura College, which was part of her 13-million-dollar endowment for the college’s Performing Arts center,” he said.  He has since designed the 12’ tall bronze statue of a dancer with a violin in her honor, planned to be unveiled in January. He is also working on a large oil painting and art nouveau installation with alabaster, stone and metal for a local historical building. He says that he is comfortable being versatile, moving from one medium to another. “It’s quite easy. It’s just a matter of problem solving.”

O’Kelly has created many pieces of public art, in addition to his prolific privately commissioned work in Ventura County, Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Local public art pieces include a major fountain and mural at Santa Barbara Zoo, the Camarillo Library, Cafe Sauro, and the Watermark, (now Limon y Sol). When asked if creating public art creates additional pressure for him as the artist, versus private commissions, he replied, “Public art is so important, thousands of people see it, but I don’t feel any additional pressure when creating it. I’m pretty confident and know what I can do. I’m just a working artist.” He shared that his friend, the late author Ray Bradbury, rarely wanted to discuss his craft. “If you ever asked Ray about writing, he hated answering. He’d say, ‘You want to write, write—don’t ask me about it. I’ve got nothing to say’. I feel the same way about painting.” O’Kelly is also currently working on a film about Bradbury’s storied life.

When you look around his eclectic art/work studio in Ventura, filled with a rich tapestry of different art forms—both his own and by others—you see styles, eras and mediums juxtaposed beautifully with one another. In the photo, he holds an intricate pen and ink drawing of a stucco Mayan head at the Mexico City Anthropology Museum, part of a series he made for the book, “Encyclopedia Of Ancient Civilizations,” while behind him leers a four sided Mexican dance mask from the early 1900s that represents the coming of Cortez as a wind God, Ehecatl Quetzalcoatl. While he appreciates and collects a wide range of art movements, he reflects that he believes people usually collect art for two reasons: it creates a visceral, immediate response for them, or that people told them it is or might become valuable. “A good painting, you can spend the rest of your life owning and looking at and you’ll always find something new,” said O’Kelly. “The only real criteria for owning art is if there’s enough to keep you interested in it.”

See part 1 in the Nov. 6 Ventura Breeze at www.venturabreeze.com

The mural took him more than a year just to draw.

by Amy Brown

Michael O’Kelly sold his first piece of art at age nine while on a family vacation. He was waiting for his family to come down to the hotel lobby in St. Ives in Cornwall, after getting up early one morning, and he passed the time carefully drawing a kingfisher diving off a branch. A lady who had been watching him said, “That’s beautiful. Would you sell that to me?” O’Kelly laughingly reports, “Well, I was brought up not to talk to strangers, so…I said ‘yes’!” He asked for the price of breakfast: a half crown, and with that, made his initial foray into the world of the professional artist.

He said that from the age of 14 through about 23 years old, that he was taught by Thomas Keating, (a friend of O’Kelly’s sister), whom he deems the greatest art forger in the world. He continued drawing and painting during his 20s, while he was a classical guitarist. He then left the UK with a scholarship from the British counsel to continue his education at the University of Mexico, working on a post-graduate thesis on pre-Columbian music and dance.  Later he worked at the local anthropology museum as a resident artist, going out on digs and drawing artifacts.

He first got interested in ceramics while in Latin America, because of architectural history there, along with the plethora of murals. “One of the things I loved about doing the digs and drawing artifacts, was that I came to realize some of the oldest things made on the planet by human beings are ceramics—it was pretty amazing to find that out,” he said. “When I had the opportunity to get involved with ceramics in 2000, I jumped at it, and wanted to find out how to do it, how to turn it into an aspect of my career—it was really exciting. I still feel that way about it.”

It became such an important aspect of his career that he went on to create many works of art in that demanding medium–including the beautiful ceramic mural highlighting Ventura’s history for the city’s 150th anniversary. The mural is near the San Buenaventura Mission, is 50’ long by 9.5’ high and took him more than a year just to draw. “Our son died while I was working on the mural and I nearly quit,” said O’Kelly. “It was a big responsibility, however, with about 100 private sponsors, so I found a way to make it work by incorporating him into the mural; it was a way of dealing with part of the grieving process.” O’Kelly said that homages to his son are tucked away five times in the piece, and that he now includes something honoring him into every piece of art he creates. “You really have to look hard, but they’re there” he said.

See part 2 in the Nov. 20 Ventura Breeze