Pellegrino at the bench: Oaklands Rise Woonerf, 2025

About Me

John James O’Brien
hello@johnjamesobrien.ca
Victoria, B.C. Canada

Life is too short for a single focus; the urge for creative expression too strong for a singular oeuvre. That’s my rationale for the variety in my works and activities through time.

An “Auntie Mame” childhood in New England grounded a fascination with how we shape and understand the many worlds we inhabit. I look for it in the cultures we create, drawing on life, work and travels in Asia, Europe and North America. I find it in the unfolding layers of human experience and in the constancy of life in nature. I explore these inner and outer worlds through soft pastel, ink, acrylic, line, digital and print media. 

Studies in art at UVIC, and a pivotal instructor earlier at Shawnigan Lake School, fostered critical tensions: art as practice, as connection, as release. It has served me well in the search for insight, rigour and meaning.

In the 70s, my focus was poster art for club and orchestra promotion. In the 80s, line art in vintage-style print media for environmental newsletters. Graphic arts peppered my writing in a career spanning multiple sectors and industries. On the side, I stretched my design interests through creating Garden Oaks Fine Accommodation, providing housing in the Capital Regional District with partner Robert Tornack. Artjamming in Hong Kong and exposure to contemporary and traditional influences in Southeast Asia rekindled interest in molded works, papier maché and acrylics. Of late, I am mono-printing with natural elements and up-cycling objects using molded techniques and continuing multi-media works incorporating soft pastel.
Art:        1) F.A.S. Gallery  (2) Retrospective Gallery 
Design:     On Houzz – Inspired Living by Design  

As one might expect from an international career in intellectual capital development, archives, records & knowledge management, I also write (when I find time). Visit me on the Anisotropic Road (My SubStack).

Curious about my broader background? Here’s a look via LinkedIn. Our IRM Strategies backgrounder with graphics is here.