Using a realist approach that produced what one critic called an "exactness of rendition", he made colorful landscapes, cityscapes, and marine scenes as well as some notable portraits.

He gave few solo or small group exhibitions in commercial galleries and showed his work mainly from his own studio and in non-profit venues.

[6] In 1939, Howard Devree of the New York Times wrote: "Shokler's work is quiet and unostentatious, possesses a real feeling, and combines a rather traditional approach with modern vigor and spirit.

[8] He graduated from the city's Woodward High School in June 1914 and subsequently enrolled in the Cincinnati Art Academy, where Frank Duveneck was an influential instructor.

[9] Based in Europe during World War I, he designed naval camouflage as an Army private and, in his spare time, sketched portraits of officers and enlisted men.

Shokler subsequently rented a studio in New York, where he made realist portraits of celebrities including Babe Ruth, the author Irvin S. Cobb, and a trio of acrobats called the Allison Sisters.

[11] Using the scholarship to travel and study in Europe, he spent 1927 taking classes at the Académie Colarossi in Paris, mixing with American artists on the coast of Brittany and painting on the Côte d'Azur.

[14][15] The following year he contributed to a group show held by the Society of Independent Artists in New York and was given a small solo exhibition of Provincetown landscapes and harbor views at the Woman's City Club in Cincinnati.

[18][19] Shortly after his return to the United States, the Baltimore Museum of Art gave him a solo exhibition of a few of the Provincetown paintings and many that he had made while abroad.

A critic writing in The Baltimore Sun praised his ability to depict atmosphere, particularly in his use of bright pigments to convey "the warmth of strong and almost tangible sunlight.

"[20] This critic gave as an instance a work in which "the blue dusk of the Arabian evening seemingly extended outside the bounds of the frame of the canvas, to form an aura about its particular section of the gallery.

Using barter to obtain the materials and labor that were needed to complete the job, he constructed a combination studio, gallery, and classroom.

[25][35][36] In 1939 the Schneider-Gabriel Galleries in New York gave Shokler a solo exhibition of twelve landscapes and harbor scenes from New Hampshire, Vermont, and Montauk.

The New York Sun printed a reproduction of his painting, "Duryea's Dock, Montauk," and one of the paper's art critics, Henry McBride, praised Shokler's ability to create "exactness in rendition".

In the early 1930s a few American artists began experimenting with silk screen printing, a process then mostly used for posters, advertising, and similar applications.

[38] In 1938 one of these artists, Anthony Velonis, convinced the Graphics Section of the WPA Art Project in New York City to set up a Silk Screen Unit.

"A stopping out varnish is painted freely over a silk screen mesh," he wrote, "so that only the areas intended to receive color remain exposed.

"[42] Harry Sternberg, one of the artists in the WPA group, later told an interviewer, "Posters and displays for store windows were screenprinted.

"[38]: 288  In an article published in 1964 Edward Landon, another member of the group, said the materials and equipment needed for serigraphy were affordable by virtually any artist.

He later told an interviewer that in 1940, when the WPA project came to an end, he and about a dozen others rented a loft in a low-rent area of Manhattan's Lower East Side, where they perfected the technique and taught it to others.

[46] Regarding a second Schneider-Gabriel solo exhibition in 1940, a critic for the New York Times said a serigraph portrait of Shokler's demonstrated that the medium could be used to produce high-quality works of art.

When Schneider-Gabriel gave Shokler a third solo the following year, a critic for the New York Sun said his landscape paintings were "capable" and added, "but on the whole one is inclined to think he scores his most signal successes in handling the silk screen print process.

[48] Regarding a small show at the Cincinnati Art Museum in 2005, a critic described a "whimsy and seeming innocence" in one of his screen prints and noted its "sophistication of technique, impeccable use of color, and keen sense of composition.