Who am I?

My name is Wesley Jobe! Thanks for being here (>w<)

The Vision

Being AuDHD brings a unique set of challenges, but it also offers a profound capacity for love, appreciation, and sensory wonder. My work is an invitation to look deeper and to find connection in the tiniest details and all the way to vivid stimulation. By recognizing our capacity for feeling as a core way to communicate, I like to creates imagined spaces that encourage playfulness and a raw enthusiasm for the world’s endless variations.

The Process & Style

Based in Victoria, BC, I am a watercolour painter whose work evokes serenity through vast, contemplative landscapes. My style is characterized by:

  • Fine Brush Detail: Inviting the viewer to be absorbed in the present moment ~ plus it’s very soothing to do :p

  • Dreamy Pastel Palettes: Layering soft colours to create altered spaces for opening up to big emotions across the full spectrum.

  • Whimsical Subject Matter: Drawing inspiration from the organic (mushrooms and fungi), the structural (old architecture), and the sensory (shiny objects and sparkles)!

My artistic journey began at a dining room table filled with home crafts and a lot of crumpled pages of raging self-doubt and perfectionism. Eventually blossoming from a fear and frustration with the careful process involved with painting into a deep-seated passion for watercolour. Full credit to my wonderfully gentle and skilled partner who introduced me to the medium! <3

Advocacy & Impact

For me, art is more than an aesthetic pursuit; it is a personal therapy and a potential resource for advocacy. It provides a safe way to express the nuances of the autistic and ADHD experience ~ things that are often challenging to put into words. And it offers a soft and nuanced way for viewers to interpret what is being expressed beyond words.

Giving Back: In the spirit of community and acceptance, a portion of all sales will be continually donated to advocacy organizations like ASAN (Autistic Self Advocacy Network). These contributions support continued education and bring light to the beautiful, diverse ways of being human.

If you know of others doing good work out there for disability rights and advocacy, please let me know in a message!

So ~ art ~ right. How did it start?

Well,

I grew up in Calgary on the east side of town. Most of my youth was a healthy mix of activities like:

  • climbing skinny poplar trees and medium sized maples

  • pretending to escape walking down train-tracks until sunset

  • mostly falling off of DIY scrap bike jumps

  • being a bonafide Pokemon trainer sneaking around farmers fields

  • all of the Nintendo video games I could whine for

  • any available cartoons (some favourites being Ninja Turtles, Pokemon, and Dexter’s Lab)

  • mountains of lego

  • dancing and flailing to classic rock/pop records with the family

  • awkward birthday parties

  • trying hard to be a real nerd in school but mostly getting distracted drawing (thanks ADHD)

  • and of course countless hours of arts and crafts!

These things have stayed with me in some form or another, and evolved into many new branches of discovery and depth of creative hobbies. I love being physically engaged and active, venturing and exploring habitats, and making beautiful, delicious, and innovative things with my hands.