29 Oct Artist Spotlights: The Elegance of Form: Carrying It Forward: Kim Seyesnem Obrzut and Krystal Seyesnem

For more than 40 years, Kim Seyesnem Obrzut has been giving bronze form to the women of her Hopi heritage. Now her daughter, Krystal Seyesnem, is picking up the tools beside her and, in the process, learning to see the line that turns clay into meaning.

“Krystal has become my eyes, my ears, my back,” Kim says. “She is my firstborn, she has my blood, and now that she has begun sculpting, I can see her looking toward the future with fresh eyes and new energy. I trust her implicitly with what I have built over 40 years. There is rarely a day that goes by without us talking.”

A World Built on Symbolism

Kim’s work draws on Hopi life without ever crossing into what isn’t hers to share. “It really isn’t an issue for us,” she says of balancing sacred tradition with public art. “Subject matter and spirituality comes naturally with inspiration and the lovely privilege of showing the world the dignified, sacred, and so very special place the Hopi play in the Universe. We never have to cross boundaries where we were not taught.”

Moon | Bronze | 35 x 12 x 12 inches

Everything in her sculpture carries weight. “The tiniest thing can become so very special and impactful,” she says. “A butterfly landing on my shoulder can prompt a series of sculptures.” She points often to the gourd — used as a vessel for thousands of years, as she notes — and to nature itself: “Earth, Sky, Moon, and Star are all gifts of Nature.”

Lines of Time | Bronze | 10 x 13 x 12 inches

That symbolism extends to how she portrays women. “We are a matriarchal society,” Kim explains. “We get our clan, where we come from, from our mothers. Women own the home and the food.” It’s why she doesn’t detail out faces or name her figures. “We are a modest and humble people — the community, the oneness, is the real hero in our society. This is why my work portrays ‘a people,’ not an individual.”

New Life | Bronze | 13 x 7 x 6.5 inches

As for her distinctive patinas, Kim credits Erik Petersen, her patina artist since the 1980s. “He’s a genius in jeans,” she says. “We have our own language. It’s never, ‘Oh, make this blue and this green.’ It’s more like, ‘I’d like a feeling of being in a desert breeze for this.’” Of the piece Moon, she recalls, “he knew he wanted to develop a look of the night sky for her body.”

New Life (back) | Bronze | 13 x 7 x 6.5 inches

Krystal grew up in the business, not the studio. She helped at shows from age 15, then earned a marketing degree at Northern Arizona University before running the company’s sales side. “I learned everything I know about business and sales from my mother,” she says.

Collectors, though, kept asking when she’d start sculpting herself. “That actually put a little pressure on me,” Krystal says, admitting that the idea of trying to sculpt alongside her mother was incredibly intimidating. But about five years ago, something shifted. “I wanted to sit beside her and learn,” Krystal says, adding that she was driven partly by the thought of her mother’s singular style — the Hopi Maidens — someday having no one to carry it forward.

Place Where the Butterflies Land | Bronze | 21 x 11 x 10 inches

Now, she studies her mother’s every move. “I pay attention to which tool she reaches for, how she looks at a figure, and how she knows when a line is right,” Krystal says. She traces the thread further back, to her grandfather, a Hopi katsina carver: “Spiritually, I think there is something very powerful about knowledge and creativity being passed from one generation to the next.”

Born of Clay | Bronze | 22 x 10 x 8.5 inches

Festival season is grueling, Krystal says: “We pack and load all of these heavy bronzes, drive to the show, unload, set up the entire booth, stand for two or three days.” But the connections make it worthwhile. “My favorite part is getting to know our collectors,” Krystal says. “They’ll tell us it reminds them of their mother, their daughter, or something they’ve gone through in their own life.”

Becoming | Bronze | 13.25 x 6 x 6 inches

And though Krystal’s third piece is already being cast, she says she feels like she’s just getting started as an artist. Her hope is a shared future: “I love seeing our sculptures being shown together. Two generations, two different artists, but still connected through our culture and the stories we tell. Hopefully someday there will be a whole collection of my work alongside hers. That would really be a dream for me.”

Kim Seyesnem Obrzut and Krystal Seyesnem create together as Seyesnem Bronze. Learn more about Kim and Krystal’s creations at seyesnembronze.com.