Skelly’s practice as we know it today began when he was living in San Francisco and studying design. He worked as a graphic designer for about ten years before beginning to experiment with wood carving—which to begin with was inspired by the books he would find at William Stout bookstore, specifically Leslie Williamson’s Handcrafted Modern. This was how he first learned about the work of self-taught artists like JB Blunk, who had also been working in the Bay Area decades prior.