By Andrew Firestone

Hathor the mighty, Egyptian goddess of war and wine. - Photo by Andrew Firestone

Skunk, real name unknown, of Somerville is a unique culture force in the ‘Ville. From his excursions on Saturday nights riding in his self-designed disco-ball  “Cloudbuster” bicycle, known as the leader of the “nerd biker gang” SCUL and his giant robot, which often startles individuals, perched atop his apartment. However, these brief instances of an individual only scratch the surface of Skunk’s artistic philosophical leanings, encouraging one and all to be “a superhero version of themselves.”

Skunk has been in the bike business for a while now, on hand to layout website and frame designs for custom bike-makers Seven Cycles of Watertown. As such, the graphic designer has taken some lessons from his peers in welding, and put his skills to use over the last eight years creating and developing his own style of robot art.

From the mighty Mobot who looks out over Winter Hill balcony, to the more recent, smaller, and pose-able Chastique, to the intricate and regal Hathor, Skunk’s art is a steam punk spirit merged with a modern-day techno-fetish, with a hint of the chia-pet thrown in to boot. “My goal is to make my robots last hundreds of years and outlive me,” said Skunk, “make ‘em super strong as cute as I can so that they’ll be taken care of.”

Skunk takes used parts, broken tools, and old machinery to compose his adorable scrap-metal men, taking care to develop his craftsmanship over the last several years.
“I know when I’m almost done, I start making beeps and whistles, and I say “ow” when I weld their arms on and stuff, because you look in their faces and you can definitely see a character,” he said.

Aside from robots, sold from Skunkedelia.com, Skunk also builds futuristic laser guns and light sabers, non-functioning of course, to add to the fun. “I started building whatever came into my mind,” he said, saying the sculptures originated with a bike-chain moose he welded for a friend. He was inspired by a silly, yet menacing clawed contraption from a Gary Larson cartoon in the “Far Side” comic strip, and realized that “giant killer robots” had a glint of fun to them, but insists that his newer, smaller ones are more like “party-robots.”

While Skunk says he’ll keep making “robots, ray guns and rockets,” adding more features and futuristic gizmos as he goes, he says that there are no wide plans for automaton takeovers. “I don’t worry about planning [what I build],” he said. “I just try to have a lot of fun.”