NOËL BENNETT

Painting. Weaving. Writing. Building in Nature. Metalworking.

MAGAZINE 43
NOËL BENNETT
BERLIN, MANILA, HONG KONG

First Known Unknown   Acrylic on Canvas   48"x54"   

NOËL Bennett’s abstract art shimmers with colour and texture. It speaks from a shift in consciousness she had while living with the Diné (Navajo) for eight years.

First Sanctuary    Rusted Metal and Oil Stick    36.5" x23" 

NOËL came to Dinétah in 1967 with advanced degrees in art from Stanford University. She had graduated with distinction and studied with Richard Diebenkorn. Once on Navajo land, she took up weaving. As she sheared sheep and dyed wool, she saw that what the Western world and Stanford valued had no relevance here. For instance, there was no word in the Navajo language for “Art.” Or “Religion.” The words were absent because there was no distinction between how one leads one’s daily life and how one functions as a spiritual being. Indeed, Being becomes “Art.” Following directives such as speaking from the heart or remaining silent, disempowering time, seeing beyond people and entities into the spaces and dynamics between them, all require relinquishing foundational strictures. This is especially true of experiencing ourselves as indistinguishable from the beauty-balance-blessing of our cosmos.

I Am the Mountain: Liquid Silver    Acrylic on Canvas   54"x48"

Writing. Building in Nature. Weaving. Metalworking. Painting. Heartfelt immersions unify NOËL's lifework. In her studio, layers of textured iridescence build on each other until a non-erosive mesa, a mountain, Mother Earth emerges from the canvas and monumentally rises to meet (and mate) Father Sky. NOËL‘s four-decades-long series, The Infinite Moment, honors the sacredness of this union. At its core is clarity that for humans and all of life to flourish, female and male energies must be in balance. Underscoring this truth, akin to a visual mantra each work manifests the archetypal T. Taw: Interstice of Horizontal & Vertical. Unity out of duality. “Not two but One.” Beauty. Balance. Blessing.

I Am the Mountain: Lingering Presence    Acrylic on Canvas   54"x48"

NOËL's recent paintings sum up life experience and clarify her intention.” They are subtitled, simply. I am the Mountain.

NOËL has given over 200 multimedia presentations to conferences, museums and universities nationwide

NOËL has published ten books and given over 200 multimedia presentations to conferences, museums and universities across the United States. A traveling museum exhibition, We are the Mountain, is slated for 2025.

First Unspoken   Acrylic on Canvas   54"x48"

In 1985 NOËL chanced on and set out to protect an amphitheater of spires in the high-mountains of New Mexico. International volcanologists call Cathedrals Canyon the best window into the Valles Caldera eruptions that exist. In collaboration with the Ansel Adams family, NOËL procured a National Endowment for the Arts grant for A Place in the Wild – Gentle Architecture for Fragile, Natural Places. The study led to hand-building two demonstration structures that open humans to nature and protect nature from humans. One, an observation platform inlaid with a mere 4” damage margin. The other, an environmental straw-bale home and studio nearby. The goal is to procure funding for an interpretive center on canyon rim to offer an integrative view of Human/Nature.

Cathedrals Canyon, Jemez Mountains, New Mexico

Under Deck of Viewing Platform: Cathedrals Canyon, Jemez Mountains, New Mexico

NOËL creates from her home-studio-gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico

THE INFINITE MOMENT
NOËL Bennett In collaboration with Grant Taylor, Videography
Special thanks to Chris Webster, Webster Enterprises

WWW.NOËLBENNETT.COM