BENAY MCNAMARA

(SUMMER of 2022)

Coming into Gather Benay wanted to focus on traditional pueblo pottery techniques - mining, processing gathered materials and spending time making art in a working studio.  We collected shu- neh* from the barrancas of Northern New Mexico and mixed it into a combination of Santa Clara and Micaceous clays. (Tewa for a white volcanic ash used as grout to make clay more malleable.)

Over the summer Benay spent almost everyday in the studio,  the days we didn’t work in the studio Benay met and worked along side other artists working on their own projects. We helped with the Giving Growth installation at the COE Foundation in Santa Fe. We visited the ground breaking School of Advanced Research and Vilcek Foundation’s pueblo pottery exhibit, Grounded in Clay at The Indian Cultural Center also located in Santa Fe. 

Benay returned to Minnesota to complete her senior year of college. Sometimes I picture her in the ceramic studio at the university hand building a new sculpture using clay that  reminds her of the summer she met her pueblo relatives.

Gather continues to expand the meaning of community. From Dafne Rodriguez who comes from Mexico with indigenous roots to Benay McNamara all the way from Ojibwe country. Gather reflects a new generation of young women, making art with elders and sharing our stories.

One last adventures out of the studio was to visit the Milicent Roger’s museum in Taos, N.M. where we spent time with their pottery collection. Outside the museum, under the magnificent Taos mountain was a field of brilliant sunflowers inviting us in as we celebrated the end of Benay’s summer in New Mexico. We celebrated that day with Margarita Paz Pedro, Gather’s last participant who will be featured in the next website post. All in all it was a memorable day.