Les Scruggs
Les Scruggs was born in 1941 and raised on the south side of Chicago. He began woodworking in grammar school and over time slowly moved from furniture to sculpture, making his first piece of sculpture in 1959. In 1960 he went on to study at Northwestern University and then at the Art Institute of Chicago, where he mostly studied the figure.
While teaching industrial arts in Belize, Scruggs was inspired by his experience working with and observing craftsment building mahogany sailboats. As a result of this experience, he returned to Chicago as a sculptor primarily choosing wood for creating forms that would present an alternative to the rectilinear grid and cityscapes like Chicago. He has taught sculpture at the high school and college level, and in the 1990s opened ARTDECK, an indoor/outdoor gallery in northern Michigan.
Artist Statement
In my own work the sculpture is its own subject, except obviously when I am doing figurative work. I also use mathematical forms, such as the Möbius strip, as a starting point to create organic shapes and forms that are an alternative to the rectilinear grid that controls our lives both physically and psychologically.
