James Lykins Sculptures

About the Artist -



"James E Lykins, from South Charleston, WV, is the son of HF Lykins(an organic research chemist for Union Carbide, and ME Lykins, a registered nurse. The artist was always interested in art and practiced all the time, but didn't like the attention it brought him. His teachers would have doing holiday murals for PTA while missing important class studies. People were always wanting him to draw something for them or their families. He entered an art competition on a whim to see what would happen and won more than he expected. He was offered a full four year arts scholarship to a prestigious university in Hawaii, but he was only 14 and too young to accept. When old enough, he accepted a different kind of full four year scholarship, at seventeen he enlisted in the USMC. After the Marines, he traveled around the country picking-up odd jobs to pay rent then move on somewhere else. His second wife helped him settle down and raise two children. She convinced him to take-up his art again as therapy. His work was seen by several influential people and he began selling small pieces here and there. Word got out and he was commissioned to do The Chuck Yeager Monument, The Dr Carter G Woodson Memorial(The father of black-American history), The WV Fallen Firefighters Memorial(located at the WV Capitol Complex in Charleston, WV), and The "ThumbsUp" Project. Lykins has won several other competitions and recently won the "Best of Show" at the coveted Creative Arts Festival by the VA for veterans. Lykins is rated as "totally and permanently" disabled with combat PTSD. He has been decorated for valor and "gallantry" by both the US and the South Vietnamese."

If you would like to contact the artist, please feel free to email him - Lykins@suddenlink.net

