Krystal Obrzut: Hopi Sculptor Finding Her Voice in Bronze

Krystal Obrzut grew up with the rhythm of sculpting tools in the house. Her mother is Hopi bronze sculptor Kim Seyesnem Obrzut, and studio days and art shows were ordinary family life. Today Krystal is a sculptor in her own right. She is an enrolled member of the Hopi Tribe and works with her mother under the studio name Seyesnem Bronze.

Growing up in the studio

Art and Hopi culture were part of Krystal's life from the start. At 15 she began helping her mother run the art business, and those years at shows and in the studio gave her a real feel for the business side of being an artist. When the organizers of a 2024 festival introduced her, they wrote that she had been honing her craft alongside her mother since she was very young.

She studied at Northern Arizona University and graduated with a degree in marketing. The day after graduation she was already on her way to the next art show. After years spent at the busy shows, time in the studio gave her a fresh way of looking at her own career, and she took to it fully.

"Becoming," her first major piece

Krystal spent three years on her first major sculpture, Becoming. She unveiled it at the Mother's Day Fine Art Festival on the Yavapai County Courthouse Plaza in Prescott, Arizona, on May 11 and 12, 2024. The Mountain Artists Guild presented the festival, and that year it featured Kim and Krystal as its headlining mother-daughter sculptors. Organizer Candy Vermillion said the festival was excited to include "artists whose works narrate a story and pay tribute to Mothers" that weekend.

The piece follows a young Hopi girl tracing the footsteps of the generations before her. Guided by her mother, she learns the dances of tradition, the songs of the earth and the storytelling that holds their heritage together, and along the way she finds her own voice. A story about a daughter learning from her mother made a fitting debut for Mother's Day weekend.

Like the studio's other figures, Becoming has no face. In the studio's words, "She represents a people, not an individual."

Her own bronzes

Krystal keeps making work of her own. Sorrel Sky Gallery in Santa Fe, which represents her mother, lists the bronze Rhythms of Nature under the name Krystal Seyesnem. The piece is about the earth as a living thing, with people as its caretakers, keeping the balance between what people need and the health of the land. In its announcement about her mother, the gallery describes Krystal as a sculptor who "continues the family's artistic legacy with her own bronze works." On the family's own site, Krystal's story ends with what she does now: blending tradition with new ideas, and inviting others to share her love of sculpting and storytelling.

Telling the story behind the work

When reporters and galleries write about the studio, Krystal is often the one explaining what the pieces mean. In July 2026 a nearly four-foot Hopi maiden by her mother was unveiled at the entrance of the Taawaki Inn in Clarkdale, Arizona, and Krystal talked with the Verde Independent about it. She explained that Hopi society is matrilineal. Clans pass through the mother's line, households are typically managed and owned by women, and land and property pass from mother to daughter. "Women own the land," she said.

She has also explained how her mother came to sculpt maidens. Kim watched her grandfather carve when she was young, and by tradition only men carve kachinas. Krystal told Sorrel Sky: "This is her version of the Hopi maiden. She couldn't carve kachinas, so she created something entirely her own." You can see that in Peaches, a Hopi maiden bronze by her mother, who holds a basket of peaches and wears her hair in the traditional whorl.

On the faceless figures, Sorrel Sky quotes Krystal directly: "Hopi means 'the peaceful people.' The figures have no faces because they represent one people. Everyone is equal. We walk together as one people: one mind, one body, one spirit." She gave the Verde Independent a shorter version of the same idea: each figure represents "one kin."

More from Kim and Krystal

The studio they share has its own story in our feature on Seyesnem Bronze and Kim Seyesnem Obrzut. To see their show schedule and more of their work, read about Kim and Krystal Obrzut on their own site.

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

Source: Becoming, Seyesnem Bronze, https://seyesnembronze.com/becoming.html

Source: Rhythms of Nature, Sorrel Sky Gallery, https://sorrelsky.com/products/rhythms-of-nature

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