Skip Willits - Camanche, Iowa
Artist's Statement
I live near the river and spend much of my time in the forests of its islands. I am drawn to the huge flotsam piles of driftwood the floods leave behind. Lately I’ve been borrowing these materials to create “bramble stacks”. I collect and collage these driftwoods into a steel skeletal framework, creating a solid wood and steel sculpture. The process is often times ritualistic and site specific.
Artist's Bio
Skip was born and raised in Camanche, Iowa, a small river town on the Mississippi River. He received a teaching degree from Western Illinois University and taught art for a number of years. Getting a bit restless, Skip became a professional firefighter for the City of Davenport, Iowa. It was during these years as a firefighter that Skip began making art in earnest. After 15 years, Skip put the hose down and began making art full time. The technique he uses to help create artwork, metal fabrication, is a skill Skip began learning at age ten from his father, who was a shop welder for 40 years. Through the years his father taught Skip the characteristics of many types of materials, steel, cast iron, aluminum and applications from arc to torch welding. In 1983 Skip completed and placed “Ring of Life”, his first large scale outdoor public sculpture in Clinton, Iowa. Since that time, he has continued to make art and lives, happily, on the banks of the Mississippi River.
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