Using a combination of carved & painted wooden forms, aged metal, found objects and various bits, I seek narrative in my sculptural work. At times literal and sometimes abstract, the “stories” the artwork tells can come across as apparent or obscure. Influenced by outsider and folk art, I strive for a union between the humorous and the dark, which reflects my personal view of the world. The work rarely edifies or draws conclusions: I prefer to pose the questions and stand back. The resulting playfulness of this approach is balanced by the grittiness of my materials.
Raised in the wilds of blue-collar New Jersey, I attended art school in NYC, moving there for the art scene. I spent years in NYC, eventually finding urban life overwhelming. I left Soho, returned to NJ and began to work with found materials (influenced by a Dad who saved everything), combining these bits and pieces with painting, carving and welding.
I married, bought a home and settled into domestic life. I began showing work nationally. I won a state fellowship, which temporarily freed me from part-time jobs. Selling work from both studio and gallery also helped with finances.
A divorce, my parents’ passing and a milestone birthday prompted a move west to New Mexico. These days, I work outside of Santa Fe. The effort spent making art is like breathing rather than a chore-not always pure joy, but never far from it.
Raised in the wilds of blue-collar New Jersey, I attended art school in NYC, moving there for the art scene. I spent years in NYC, eventually finding urban life overwhelming. I left Soho, returned to NJ and began to work with found materials (influenced by a Dad who saved everything), combining these bits and pieces with painting, carving and welding.
I married, bought a home and settled into domestic life. I began showing work nationally. I won a state fellowship, which temporarily freed me from part-time jobs. Selling work from both studio and gallery also helped with finances.
A divorce, my parents’ passing and a milestone birthday prompted a move west to New Mexico. These days, I work outside of Santa Fe. The effort spent making art is like breathing rather than a chore-not always pure joy, but never far from it.
Reconstructions from a deconstructed lot of; cloth, rusty bits, spindles, spools and old tools. Skrips makes standing and wall sculptures that are quirky, quixotic, ironic, often deeply mysterious. Just who are these disposed kings with their rusty crowns askew on their tilted heads? Skrips skripts a plethora of feisty dogs, gazing ravens, sailors aft and daft, some on stands for table top – some for the walls indoors or out. Abstract and bio-morphic forms along with giant full-faced portraits of Scrips is always surprising us with what he makes - evocative sculptures of unknown histories; scraps pivoted to profundity.
