Ventura · Santa Barbara · and beyond
Complete Works
Fifty years of fired clay, bronze, paint and ink, much of the public work within walking distance of one another. Murals, fountains, building facades, sculpture, paintings and drawings for museums, municipalities, theatres, zoos and private houses, from Ventura and Santa Barbara to Las Vegas and the Disney parks.
Thirteen works
Ventura Historic Mural
San Buenaventura Mission, Ventura
Fifty feet of the city’s history in tile — the legacy project of Ventura’s 150th anniversary, privately funded by local sponsors.
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Las Palmas
60 California Street, Ventura
Two centuries read from the top down in a Class A office lobby, with the client’s dog and his wife’s name hidden in the tile.
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Watermark
598 E Main Street · formerly Limon y Sol
A 1920s bank, later Bahn’s Jewelry. Michael re-created the lost exterior tile and made all the tile for the added floor, so it reads as original.
Star Lounge
Main Street, Downtown Ventura
All the ceramics for a new building facade: a deep green tiled shopfront with orange diamond accents and a tiled entry sign.
Kaapicat Café
377 E Main Street · formerly Café du Suro
Ventura’s first Post Office. Working from a vintage photograph, Michael re-created the original building facade.
Dusk (The Angry Heron)
Dye sublimation on aluminium
“The great blue heron owns the lake and is not happy the beautiful nouveau damsel has arrived. All watched by chill turtle.”
Giving Back
Santa Barbara Foundation
One hundred and sixty tiles telling the life of philanthropist Clifford Sponsel at 102 — aircraft, motor cars and a one-room schoolhouse.
Animal Kingdom Fountain
Santa Barbara Zoo
Giraffe, jaguar, toucan and penguins around a turquoise basin, given by Shelby Bowen in memory of her husband Jack.
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Stepping Out
Performing Arts Center, Ventura College
A twelve-foot bronze dancer honouring Miriam Schwab, whose $12 million estate gift went to instrumental music and aquatics.
The Rose Room
Rubicon Theatre, Downtown Ventura
Thirty-two feet across five panels: every star who has played the Rubicon, in the colours of a Paris cabaret poster.
Channel Islands Fountain
Private residence, Ventura
Pelican, sea turtle, otters and dolphins in an arched wall fountain — the coast a mile from the house, in glaze.
Poseidon Fiddles with Time
Dye sublimation on aluminium
“Poseidon is now an aged hippie, a minor god who is unhappy, as half his body is a crab.” One of sixteen paintings in the Fine Art collection.
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Ancient Civilizations
Macmillan · Rainbird Press, London
Pen-and-ink drawings with gold leaf, commissioned for The First Emperor of China and The Encyclopedia of Ancient Civilizations.
Nothing catalogued under that heading yet.
Commissions
Want a wall like these on your building?
Lobbies, storefronts, whole building facades, fountains, theatres. O’Kelly designs each commission with the client, from the first pen-and-ink drawing to the last tile set on the wall.