Lake Oswego artist makes animal sculptures for Utah children’s hospital

A Lake Oswego artist who previously fashioned a talked-about whale sculpture at a Salt Lake City intersection has created a series of pieces for a children’s hospital.

Stephen Kesler is in the process of installing six colorfully painted life-sized animal figures for Primary Children’s Hospital in Lehi, Utah.

Kesler said the project to build sculptures of a black bear, deer, mountain lion, big-horned sheep and red-tailed fox was commissioned in part due to the whale sculpture — which attracted attention and polarizing reactions after it was built in 2022. The project took Kesler about one year with help from his brother Matthew Kesler, who helped design the animal skin and paint the pieces. Kesler made molds out of 3-D prints for some of the animals and = fashioned the final products with fiberglass. Kesler added butterflies to go along with each animal to give the art a whimsical vibe.

“I think it’s the collaboration with my brother (that makes him most proud.),” Kesler said. “Seeing his augmentation of my sculptures, he did things I would never think of; that was probably the most exciting part of it. I do really love the characterizations of them. They are simplified. There is no real hair on them but there is a lot of life in them, a lot of soul to them.”

Kesler said it’s easy to get lost in the practical minutiae of building the sculptures and lose sight of the ultimate objective, which is to spread joy to kids in need of it.

“It’s neat they can go into a setting like a children’s hospital where a kid might need that pick up for his day, something to make them smile or add a bit more joy that’s possible for that kind of intense setting,” Kesler said. “If that makes any kid smile that needed it, it’s worth the whole project right there.”