Jeff "Skele" Sheely | In Residence

Vivid Color; Emotional Punch
—by Lauren Owens

The art of Jeff “Skele” Sheely is an eccentric take on various emotions, primarily through paintings made with mediums like spray paint, house paint and oil pastels. 

While some of Skele’s paintings are humanoid, most consist primarily of non-humans, such as skeletons and animals. His work takes on real life and fantasy by combining abstract elements with the various creatures portrayed in his art. The bold brushstrokes and shapes that give them life invoke feelings of whimsy in the viewer. 

Another key attribute of his work is vivid color, with each piece having a different yet elaborate color scheme. Some of the main subjects of these paintings are pieced together from various objects, for example, human heads made of flowers, eyes, airplanes and other miscellaneous things. Others are more straight-forward, clearly portraying animals like alligators and dogs, yet keeping the abstract touches that make them recognizable as Skele’s work.

Skele’s art also plays with emotions, namely through written text in some of his paintings. For example, two skulls sharing the same row of teeth with “hold on tight” at the top of the canvas give off a sense of togetherness. Paintings of soup cans with skull-like features that look the same yet contain different labels, such as “bummed out soup” and “extra hope soup,” convey various emotions through text while the features of the art remain the same. 

Skele was born and raised in Virginia but found his footing as an artist in the Kettle Art Gallery in Dallas, Texas. He is currently based in Austin. In addition to paintings such as those seen here, Skele has also begun to dabble in forms of art like t-shirt making and stop motion.

Skele's art is often shown at Deep Ellum gallery Kettle Art in Dallas. Find his story in the book For the Love, by Jason Hensel (K.Co Press 2025) which chronicles the gallery’s history.