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Red iguana machacha5/30/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() While eating a plate of Red Iguana enchiladas and leafing through a local publication, however, he saw an article about Kesler and changed his mind. “I came back and my first intention was to make it concrete I wanted it to be indestructible,” said Coker. The idea for the art piece was hatched in 2014, after Coker and Cardenas saw a concrete iguana in an outdoor gallery on the Mexican island of Isla Mujeres. It will be one of the few large-scale art installations that exist on Salt Lake City’s west side, Coker noted. Videos will show the restaurant’s history and the step-by-step process Kesler used to create the giant iguana. The iguana will serve as the centerpiece for a new covered waiting area with benches and a television. But it will be situated so customers can stand under the massive head for photographs. Once in place, the massive art installation will be protected with a fenced enclosure. This week, Kesler is adding the last touches of paint to the piece, which has been constructed in a former fleet warehouse for police and fire vehicles.Ĭoker said he leased the downtown warehouse from Salt Lake City because it was the only place he could find with doors tall enough to ensure the iguana could be rolled out fully assembled. It’s so big, it will require a crane and a flatbed trailer, and possibly a police escort. The prehistoric-looking reptile - which Coker and Kesler called “an old warrior” - is expected to be moved into place before Halloween. (Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Artist Stephen Kesler works recently on the giant Red Iguana, to be placed in front of the Salt Lake City restaurant's #2 location. Two years that included the use of high-tech digital technology and low-tech hand sculpting and painting.“Xochitónal” (Náhuatl language): a gigantic iguana in Aztec mythology that guarded the dark watery access to the Underworld.In all, Utah artist Stephen Kesler used 600 pounds of sculpting clay for the project. 80 epoxy hand-formed spines and more than 120,000 hand-formed scales.Its grayish-cream head is typical of an adult male. Rust, orange and cream, the color of “red” iguanas in nature.Legs and tail are solid, but the fiberglass body is hollow with steel bars for strength. 12 1/2 feet, including the 6-foot base the reptile sits on.The reptile’s size and realistic features are impressive: ![]() “I want them asking, ’Daddy, is that alive?’” “I wanted children to come up to it with their mouths open,” Bill Coker, co-owner with wife Lucy Cardenas, said of the sculpture. ![]()
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