Kim Seyesnem Obrzut and Seyesnem Bronze: Mother and Daughter

Kim Seyesnem Obrzut and her daughter, Krystal, make bronze sculpture together as Seyesnem Bronze. Their work tells Hopi stories, and much of it is about Hopi women. Both are enrolled members of the Hopi Tribe. Kim is a Native American artist whose bronze career spans more than four decades, and she is one of the first Hopi women to work in the medium.

A fresh living flower

Kim was born Kim Seyesnem, a Hopi name meaning "fresh living flower." Her art began in childhood, when she found rocks in the Arizona washes and painted figures on them. Her family still keeps those rocks.

She started as a potter, working with the coil method passed down through generations and the scrape-and-smooth technique Hopi potters have used for thousands of years. Then came a bronze-casting class at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. Five minutes in, she knew she would dedicate her career to sculpture. "I fell in love with it, all of it, and in every way," she told Southwest Art. "It was fate." She went on to earn her Fine Arts and Sculpture degree there, summa cum laude.

Her grandfather's carving

Kim's first great inspiration was her grandfather. As a girl she watched him carve dolls from cottonwood root while he sang and prayed. "My grandfather was a Kachina carver, but traditionally women don't carve, so he didn't teach me," she said in 2009. "When I went to college I started to do my own thing." Looking back, she has said, "I now think back to my childhood and being with my grandfather, and how he was persistent in quality and traditional accuracy in how he carved dolls, and these beliefs still influence me today."

Her bronze Hopi maidens grew from that experience. Sorrel Sky Gallery describes them as "a powerful feminine counterpart that honors the women's equally vital role in Hopi culture and spirituality." "I do mostly women because that is what I know," Kim said at the Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market, "and they all have a story or a path and they all represent something of the Hopi culture." Matriarch, her bronze Hopi grandmother, carries the wisdom and guidance a grandmother gives her family.

A legacy in bronze

Kim has been casting bronze for more than 43 years. She is one of the first American Indian women to work in bronze, a field long dominated by men, and her work is held in museum, corporate and private collections around the world. Her artist statement puts the heart of it in her own words: "I speak with my hands. The clay becomes my voice. My work seeks to capture and symbolize the spirit of my Hopi culture: the oneness of us all, the beauty in harmony, and the importance of nature and its gifts."

She has said her sculptures reflect the history of her people and "transcend the traditions of an ancient people into an ancient art form of bronze. I am trying to capture a moment in time of my people and have it remembered for many generations to come."

Kim gives her time to other Native artists too. She served two terms on the Board of Directors of SWAIA, the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts, which produces the Santa Fe Indian Market. Sorrel Sky notes that she would rather serve on boards and support emerging artists than compete for ribbons. By 2009 she had shown at the Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market in Phoenix for more than ten years. "It is very much an honor to show with all these great artists," she said then.

How a Seyesnem bronze is made

Each sculpture begins with hand-coiled clay, which Kim forms with a hard tool in the scrape-and-smooth method. Many of her figures are built on a gourd shape. "We use gourds as seed storages, rattles and as dippers to water our corn," she has explained. "That is the reason I use that form. It gives you the feeling of being of nature, which we all are."

From the finished clay, the studio makes a mold and casts the piece by the lost wax process. Kim keeps close control of each step, from mold-making and wax work to the final patina, with a team she has trained since her university days. Her patina specialist has been with the studio for more than 30 years, and together they create the custom colors and finishes that suit each sculpture's story.

Figures without faces

Kim's figures have no faces. "She has no face, which symbolizes the egalitarian society of the Hopi people," Kim said of her sculpture Look to the Mesa. "She represents a people, not an individual." Krystal puts it this way: "We walk together as one people: one mind, one body, one spirit."

Butterflies appear again and again in Kim's work. Poliesva, "The Place Where the Butterflies Land," is her family's Hopi name. Butterflies are honored as pollinators of corn and as signs of spring and renewal, and young unmarried Hopi women are called butterflies and wear the butterfly whorl hairstyle. Polimana, whose name means Butterfly Girl, wears her hair that way, and so does Peaches, a young maiden with a basket of peaches.

Where to see the work

Look to the Mesa, a bronze woman carrying corn, welcomes visitors at the University of Arizona Poetry Center in Tucson. It was given in memory of Helen Schaefer, for whom the Poetry Center's building is named. "She is looking toward the mesa to find answers to life's problems," Kim says. "We often look toward where we came from for our prayers."

In July 2026 a nearly four-foot Hopi maiden by Kim was unveiled at the entrance of the Taawaki Inn in Clarkdale, Arizona. Krystal has said a six-foot Hopi maiden is on display at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in Santa Fe.

Sorrel Sky Gallery in Santa Fe began representing Kim in October 2025. Her work has been featured in Southwest Art, Cowboys & Indians, First American Art Magazine and American Art Collector. You can browse her pieces on Kim Seyesnem Obrzut's Brakebee artist profile or in the Seyesnem Bronze shop.

The next generation

Krystal Obrzut has helped run the business since she was 15 and earned a marketing degree from Northern Arizona University. She spent three years on her first major sculpture, "Becoming," and unveiled it in 2024. We tell more of her story in a separate feature.

Working side by side

The family's own site describes how the partnership works. Kim brings years of traditional Hopi artistry and a deep understanding of the symbols in Hopi culture. Krystal brings a fresh perspective, along with new techniques and ideas.

Kim has said she has a lifetime of work ahead. "The Hopi Tribe of Northern Arizona is thousands of years old," she says. "I have a lifetime to fully explain my people and their history. I know many of my collectors now understand more about the women and their powerful place in Hopi history." With Krystal working beside her, that work now spans two generations.

Source: About Us, Seyesnem Bronze, https://seyesnembronze.com/about_us.html

Source: Sorrel Sky Gallery Announces Representation of Pioneering Hopi Bronze Sculptor Kim Seyesnem Obrzut, Sorrel Sky Gallery, https://sorrelsky.com/pages/kim-seyesnem-obrzut-pr

Source: Portfolio | Bronze & Beyond, Southwest Art, https://www.southwestart.com/featured/portfolio-bronze-beyond

Source: Celebrating a rich, creative tradition, ICT, https://ictnews.org/archive/celebrating-a-rich-creative-tradition/

Source: Meet Kim Obrzut, kimobrzut.com via the Wayback Machine, https://web.archive.org/web/2023/http://www.kimobrzut.com/meet_kim.html

Source: Matriarch Bronze Sculpture by Kim Seyesnem Obrzut, Brakebee, https://brakebee.com/products/4648

Source: Prescott Fine Art & Wine Festival, PR Newswire, https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/prescott-fine-art--wine-festival-301344808.html

Source: Hopi maiden takes her place outside Taawaki Inn, Navajo-Hopi Observer, https://www.nhonews.com/news/hopi-maiden-takes-her-place-outside-taawaki-inn/article_54dfda81-7c3c-593d-b52f-74f5cc9a705f.html

Source: A Sculpture for Remembrance, Arizona Alumni Magazine, https://alumni.arizona.edu/arizona-magazine/spring-2023/sculpture-remembrance

Source: Polimana Bronze Sculpture by Kim Seyesnem Obrzut, Brakebee, https://brakebee.com/products/4660

Source: Peaches Bronze Sculpture by Kim Seyesnem Obrzut, Brakebee, https://brakebee.com/products/4659

Source: Artist Focus: Kim Seyesnem Obrzut, American Art Collector, https://www.americanartcollector.com/issues/249/kim-obrzut

Source: Publications, Seyesnem Bronze, https://seyesnembronze.com/publications.html

Source: Kim & Krystal Obrzut Headlining as Featured Artists at the Mother's Day Fine Art Festival, PR Newswire, https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/kim--krystal-obrzut-headlining-as-featured-artists-at-the-mothers-day-fine-art-festival-held-at-the-yavapai-county-courthouse-plaza-in-downtown-prescott-302137265.html