Colo. sculptor wins Prix de West Purchase Award
“Desert Timeline,” a life-size stone sculpture of a rattlesnake slithering through both time and rock, won the Prix de West Purchase Award on Saturday at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.
Sculpted by Colorado artist Steve Kestrel, the horizontal black slate and Colorado sandstone sculpture, which is mounted on a large wooden pedestal, measures more than 30 inches in length and is priced at $30,000.
Announcement of the award-winning artwork and its artist was made during Saturday’s luncheon at the museum’s 40th annual Prix de West Invitational Art Exhibition and Sale. Traditionally, the announcement is a surprise to art patrons and artists attending the show.
“I can’t believe it! What a surprise and the honor,” a stunned Kestrel said when his name and winning artwork were announced.
Kestrel’s one-of-a-kind piece will now become part of the museum’s permanent collection. In addition to the purchase, the Prix de West Award includes a medallion and $5,000 prize.
The eclectic and symbolic sculpture depicts the ravages and relentless effects of time on both stone and snake, showing eroded rock cushioning the undulating prairie rattler and then encasing portions of its fossilized vertebrae.
“‘Desert Timeline’ was a conceptual piece,” Kestrel said after his Prix de West win was announced. “I had the idea and had it pretty much carved out in my head. I knew what I wanted to do.”
Kestrel said the sculpture is a metaphor for time — past, present and future. “It’s hard to depict that idea,” the sculptor said.
To illustrate the future, Kestrel carved a crosssection of a “fossilized” cellphone into the backside of the stone sculpture. To get that image, the artist sawed an old Apple iPhone of his in half and then chiseled that shape into the slate. “Thousands of cellphones are going into landfills across the West,” the artist said. “They are going to become the fossils of the future.”
The sculptor said he very nearly did not enter “Desert Timeline” in the show. “It’s kind of edgy, and so many people have snake phobias.”
This year’s Prix de West show and sale features 296 artworks by 101 of the nation’s leading Western painters and sculptors. Prices range from a $900 sculpture to an $115,000 oil painting.
Museum President Chuck Schroeder said the value of these artworks ex- ceeds $5 million. Last year’s art sales totaled just under $3.5 million, a figure museum officials hope to exceed this year.
Like previous years, a live auction of eight artworks was held during the banquet, Schroeder said.
The live auction had generated $105,000 and opening-day art sales totaled $2.6 million.