Oct 2025 – Jan 2026
39th Annual Spiritual & Religious Art of Utah
Springville Museum of Art · Springville, UT
“Hope is Found”
Utah Artist Fellow · 2024
Stone Sails
Carved from the Earth. Set adrift at sea.
Stone · Metal · Found material Studio in Utah Exhibiting since 2020
2024
Byron is a recipient of the Utah Division of Arts & Museums Utah Artist Fellowship for his work in Visual Design.
The studio
Sailing the world with stone sculpture
Stone Sails is a stone sculpture studio that specialises in carving unique stone sails out of natural and found materials. Often, these materials are found miles into the mountains and carried back into civilisation.
The stone selection includes alabaster, marble, limestone, honeycomb calcite, and soapstone. Found materials — slag, glass, foundry brick — give the sculptures a character and a story of their own.
The passion for stone carving started with the desire to create something that has never been seen before. The artist takes pride in the craft and the quality, and works to make sculptures that are truly one of a kind.
Where the stone comes from
Miles into the mountains, and carried back
Alabaster from a mine near Cedar City. Limestone from an Ohio creek little known even to the locals. Brick and slag from an abandoned foundry, an abandoned mine, an abandoned train depot. The material arrives with a history before the first cut.
Artist’s statement
Stone sails are about the bones in the ocean. The lost friends. About remembering to turn towards the dawn even though there is only darkness.
They’re about heading into the unknown, even if you are alone. It’s about the mentality of being calm no matter what. Never giving up.
Failure, when faced, can be made into something better than failure alone. Stone sails are the Art of Failure.
Where the work has stood
Exhibition record
Aug 2025
Sculpture in the Park · 41st Exhibition
Benson Sculpture Garden · Loveland, CO
Portfolio exhibition
Apr 2025 – 2026
Art Around the Corner
Historic Downtown · St. George, UT
“At the Crossroads” — marble, steel, wood
Sep 2024 – 2025
Plaza +ART
Centennial Plaza, City Hall · Taylorsville, UT
“Dream” — marble, steel, wood
About the artist
From the rifle to the chisel
Byron joined the Army as a first generation Mexican/Guatemalan American, and was recruited into Special Forces — into a new kind of unit designed to be dropped behind enemy lines and establish bases of operation that would not be resupplied.
He executed sea rescues, saved dozens of lives, stormed beaches, and dropped boats — and himself — out of airplanes and helicopters. Many cameras were sacrificed in the process.
He still photographs. But instead of the rifle, it is now the hammer and chisel he wields.
