About

Building Salt Lake City’s 9th and 9th Whale, October 2021. All hail.

“I love the process as much or more than the finished pieces. After years of tanning in front of a monitor, moving clay is a liberating move from the ever-increasing, two-dimensional/digital world I’m so accustomed to. Sculpture brings me back into the physical world. Other than fatherhood, nothing brings me more joy than working life into clay. Wildlife is something I’ve always loved and studied so naturally these are the subject of most of my pieces, but mainly they are simply something I’d want in my own personal collection.”

 

Finding inspiration in Ron Mueck's hyper-realistic sculptures, Stephen (aka Tusk) wanted to try his hand at the medium, his first being a small african elephant in 2010... it was true love and purpose from then on.

For the previous eighteen years, Stephen successfully built a career as an accomplished art director and graphic designer for several leading consumer brands.  In parallel, he undertook an intensive study of sculpture with one of Utah’s leading artists while also learning large-scale fabrication under some of the nation's most experienced journeymen.  Augmenting those skills, Stephen quickly secured some of Utah’s largest public commissions and continues to push design and techniques as a sculptor and fabricator.  In 2015 Stephen was juried into an elite group of international wildlife artists, the Society of Animal Artists, one of two members residing in the state of Utah.

Now working under his brand, Tusk Studios, Stephen is focused on innovating cost-saving methods that ensure that these large-scale commissions are accessible to organizations that offer them to the public.