James Shulkin

I am a self-taught artist whose early childhood love of fish, fishing, and Audubon’s paintings of birds led me to a late career fabricating representations of these fascinating animals. I refer to these creations as Sculptural Animalia.

I have long been attracted to and a collector of Outsider Art – a body of sculpture, painting, and other art created by individuals with no formal training as artists. These artists, often with mental illnesses or cognitive differences, are driven to create works that are beautiful, emotive, complex, captivating, and colorful. I was inspired by these creatives to make my Sculptural Animalia, as well as kinetic garden sculptures called Windflowers.

My work consists of mixed media and found objects. Materials include wood, insulation foam, fine paper, botanicals, vinyl siding, paint, powdered pigments, PVC foam, wire, florist’s tape, and other adornments. Recently, I have been incorporating botanicals (leaves, grass, flower petals) into my work, using these materials in the place of fine paper.

The result is wall-mounted or tabletop sculptures (either realistic or fantasy versions) of the subject matter, celebrating their infinite variety of color and shape.