Kokopelli – Art Prize – Paddle Board

2024 Art Prize Submission

Turn your flashlight on, reach it around me and shine it back at yourself, I’m completely hollow and translucent. 

As a master board builder, an art easily overlooked, I wanted to create something for the show that the world has never EVER seen. I’m a truly unique board artist, instead of shaping earth harmful foam down to create a shape of board. I engineer a 2 dimensional idea into a 3 dimensional form using only Eco-Friendly materials. Woods sustainably forested or salvaged from our earth and an environmentally friendly VOC compliant acrylic based resin, I create Art that you can actually USE!! . Rideable art :). This 10’ 2” paddle board is 30” wide and 5” thick. It weighs in at only an astonishing 32 pounds. 

You’ll find Cedar, Elm, Aspen, Walnut, Cherry, Maple and Mahogany woods, All grown within our 48 connected states. Engineered on a hollow frame you’ll notice while shining light through it , that there’s no obstructions of structure within the image.  

Though astonishingly beautiful and impressively hollow , this stand up paddle board is capable of floating a 250 pound rider on any type water that our world provides. 

To sum it up. 

Kokopelli was first introduced to me as a teen, in the form of a necklace. A cool little “rocking out” dude was my thought. Later in life I found deeper meaning in the actual lore. 

Kokopelli was a wanderer of tribes, always playing flute to alert people that he was coming and not dangerous. He’d bring “sharable’s ” music and stories from neighboring tribes and collect ones from a current visit to share on to the next ones. 

Bringing unity and togetherness, I truly wish Kokopelli still existed today. In an era of constant “differences” a community spokesperson able to share joy and stories that could possibly bring our separated “tribes” together is needed more today than ever.