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From the large ceramic sun adorning the façade of her home-studio to the naked sculptures that border the stairs and driveway, to the full-blown sculpture garden and that blossoms in the backyard, it's clear Kit Skeoch is not one to restrain her impulses. 

While the 46-year-old started out more than 20 years ago as a dance ethnologist, performance artist, instructor and artist's model, for the past six years sculpture and painting have consumed her passions.  

From life-size to knee-high, Skeoch's Sticky Fingers Sculpture Garden and Studio on Curtis Street is peopled with hundreds of expressive nude figures of men and women lying languidly, slouching indolently and everywhere expressing the deeply sensuous nature of the human heart. 

Skeoch opens her home studio and garden, free to the public, every Sunday afternoon from June through October. She teaches figurative art classes year round for a modest fee.  

It was as an artist's model that she first experienced the power of sculpture. 

“The first time I was a model for a sculpture class, I thought, 'Oh my god, I want to do this!',” Skeoch recalled. “But it took me ten years before I actually did.” 

Shortly after taking a sculpture class from Tebby George at Fort Mason in San Francisco, Skeoch decided to open her backyard studio to other like-minded artists. Her years of experience as an artist's model made it easy for her to arrange the logistics and her long career in dance and dance instruction drove her passion for helping others find the beauty in the human figure. 

"We started the group in '97," she said. "It's a working situation. People come who have never sculpted before in their life. What I do with first timers is I just put them next to me. My belief, totally, is that anybody could sculpt because you have this wonderful model in front of you and what you do is you just look at that model and you try to imitate what you see. And then the model turns and you imitate again. Eventually, doing the process over and over again, you get a three-dimensional figure." 

A typical class is made up of eight to 14 artists, mostly women, working side by side.  

"We always have a model and there's a lot of other people working with you, at different levels," she said. "People come from all different backgrounds. Some people are professional artists, some are just coming because they love it and have a passion to do it. When somebody starts I always say, 'Come sit next to me,' so they're more comfortable but everybody's working in their own way, and batting around ideas. What I really try to do is encourage people to find their own style. Some teachers would encourage you to make (a classic, representational figure). If somebody wants to do really realistic work I can guide them, but what we really try to do here is encourage the creative space for people. It's a very loving group and they really help each other. People usually get very comfortable quickly." 

This time of year the garden gallery blooms with flowers and sculptures. Wooden bells clack gently in the background as the wind rustles through the foliage. Skeoch smiles quickly and offers everyone a hug. 

"When I moved into this neighborhood [in 1986] it was a crack neighborhood and we still have some remnants of that. I was very naïve about crack. I was like, 'No. I'm going to be safe here,' and I have been." Skeoch said.  

"I have to say, the drug thing is sad. I see it now. When I see people that are troubled I know now. The neighborhood is one of these neighborhoods that keeps changing. It used to have a lot of African-Americans. To my sadness those are the people who’ve been pushed out. We still have a very diverse neighborhood, which I love, but more and more homeowners are buying in the neighborhood." 

Her neighbors don't seem to have a problem with her numerous nudes. While several of her sculptures were stolen from her porch last Christmas, that hasn't dampened Skeoch's enthusiasm. 

"I think the human body is one of the most magnificent things. One of the wonderful things in working with the figure is you get to see so many different bodies. In a way it demystifies the whole mystery of us."  

Skeoch whispered conspiratorially, "What do we look like naked?" Laughing, she continued, "Some people would really not want to have all these naked people around but I love it and I wouldn't change it. I love seeing the body move. I try in my work to capture movement. Even when the person is sitting still.  

"I guess the question is, 'why not all the naked people?' Why not all the nude figures? Why not? Definitely we live in a culture where all the naked stuff is hard for people. I could project tons of things on to that, like the fear of their own bodies or whatever but again it's my passion. I don't know where the whole thing with the figure happened but it happened early on when I was modeling for a sculpture class. I want to do this! This is what I want to do." 

Kit Skeoch's Web site: http://www.clerestory.com/kitskeoch/.