A Nakusp sculptor has won an award at this year’s Castlegar Sculpturewalk.
Kate Tupper won third for the Artistic Merit Prize for All Strings Attached. The six prizes in the competition were chosen by a panel of professional artists.
A total of 30 sculptures were featured in this year’s Sculpturewalk.
This is Tupper’s second time winning some form of the merit prize.
“The first time I won first prize and won $3,000,” she said. “This time it was $500, which is still nice, because I put up the money to build the sculpture, I lend them the sculpture for a year, and to get anything out of it, other than the public enjoying it, is awesome.”
While she was excited to win, one thing she didn’t look forward to was walking up to accept the award.
“I think artists like to make art and then hide out, we don’t really like to get the actual recognition for it,” she said. “We just want to make the thing and then hide in the back while people enjoy it, so going up in front of everyone is a little weird.”
While Tupper is currently undecided about how she’s going to spend the prize money, some ideas include groceries, a new tattoo, or even some new tools.
“I want a planishing hammer, sheet metal,” she said. “Everything I do that is shaped, I use a hammer and a two-by-four. This is mechanical, which would do the work way faster.”