Skip Schuckmann

Skip Schuckmann is a nationally known environmental artist and radical. He sculpts homes and living spaces from the earth as well as ceremonial stone ampitheaters, called kivas. He has exhibited at Bard College in New York and has taught at Oberlin College in Ohio. Schuckmann was born in Arvada, Colorado. He received his bachelor in science degree in forestry and wildlife management from Colorado State University and his master's in teaching from the University of Massachusetts. He currently lives in Ojai, CA. He also works as a consultant for those wishing to live closer to nature. He will rearrange plants and trees or divert rivers to get houses more attuned to nature.

"I had become familiar with this thing called environmental art. I said this is about something nurturing the life force. It's all about the definition of environment. It's the 'I' plus what you are looking at. At some point the 'I' stops and the environment begins" (Skip Schuckmann). 


"For me, he is the greatest artist I can imagine. He knows all the aspects of living together with nature. It is not talk, talk, talk with him, it's real. It's living art in the deepest sense. It's basic survival, but in such a playful and beautiful way" (Gerhard Steinliger).


I chose this artist because of his close relationship to nature. His final product is nowhere close to what I do but I can appreciate what he does because of his deep connection to the environment. I also like his whole attitude towards life. He lives outside of our culture, creating environmentally friendly homes out of all organic materials. He doesn't try to conquer nature like so many of us do. He works with it to create something beautiful. I really like what Steinliger said, that Schuckmann's work is "living art." To me, that is an artist in the greatest sense of the word.

http://articles.latimes.com/2001/dec/04/local/me-11323


Because of the nature of Skip Schuckmann's work it cannot really be represented in galleries. However, he has exhibited work at Bard College.


avant-guardians.com/schuckmann/index.html