Harry Benally
Ya’at’eeh (Welcome)
Harry is famous for his Navajo Lady woodcarvings modeled after his mother. He sells woodcarvings and jewelry on a full-time basis in art shows all over the West. Harry also carves animal figures such as goats, horses, donkeys, lamas, and nativity scenes.
- Harry and Isabelle Benally
See us at:
P20th annual Southwest Indian Art Fair (SWIAF)
February 23 & 24, 2013
Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market 2013
Saturday and Sunday, March 2 & 3, 2013
9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Contact Information:
Harry Benally
P.O. Box 1034
Sheep Springs, NM 87364
We have no Internet to our home.
Call us on our cell phone at: 1 (505) 360-1543 or:
Text message us at the same number.
Note: You can also send a text message from your computer at:
http://www.onlinetextmessage.com/
Harry’s Art is shown at Museums and Native American Art Shows all over the West
He also carves animal figures and Navajo Lady in alabaster rocks. Harry is a silversmith too in the old traditional style. He cut his own turquoise rocks and polishes them. Harry loves his work and spends many a late night wood shed. Harry Benally is noted for his fine woodcarvings and silversmith work.
Harry’s Benally’s recent sculpture commission in Litchfield Park, Arizona March 2010. Carved from a 7 foot Ash tree stump.
Harry is a self-taught Navajo Artist born in Shiprock, New Mexico in 1951 on the Navajo reservation. He is a member of the Salt (Ashiihi) clan and born from the Towering House Clan. Harry now lives in Sheep Springs NM 45 miles north of Gallup, 6 miles down a dirt road off highway 666 where he grew up.
Harry Benally’s Current Carvings for Sale
Call me at (505) 360-1543 for current pricing and what I have in stock. – Harry
Featured in Native Peoples Magazine Nov/Dec 2007
Harry Benally’s Nativity set in Native Peoples Magazine Nov/Dec 2007
In Harry Benally’s Nativity sets, the infant Jesus lies snugly in a cradleboard and one of the Kings’ gifts is a sack of Bluebird flour-so Mary can make frybread. “Everything I do has to do with the Diné (Navajo) way of life after the Long Walk,” explains Benally, a Diné wood-carver from Sheep Springs, New Mexico. The 57-year-old artist remembers how people on the reservation dressed when he was growing up, with hair buns and velvet shirts. So that’s how his Nativity figures look.
Benally’s first Navajo-style carving, inspired by his mother, was called Diné Lady, which is also the name of his art business. Some of his six-inch- to five-foot-tall Nativity figures, with eyes reverently closed, are carved in cottonwood root and sanded and painted in fine detail by his wife, Isabelle. With other sets, Benally burns the designs into oiled, unpainted juniper wood. His work is on view at the Christmas Shop in Albuquerque and at dinelady.com.
Native Peoples Magazine
November/December 2007 page 39
Web link:
Native Nacimientos: Cross-Cultural Christmas
Hand-Carved Navajo Nativity Set 9 Pieces
Dine’ Lady
Mae Dentclaw Benally (Harry’s Mother)
Harrys mother was a renowned rug weaver, and it was from her that he learned a keen sense of design. He also learned patience and the importance of paying attention to detail, as all are requirements in creating high quality woodcarvings and jewelry.
He has been carving juniper and cottonwood roots, aspen trees for about 18 years. Harry being a self taught artist has his own unique of carving Navajo Lady’s and Men, all one of a kind which collectors have bought all over the west.
Harry, Mother, Aunt and Uncle
Harry and Isabelle Benally’s Home
in Sheep Springs, NM
Come visit us. See the creation of his works from start to finish. It is a complex process that requires skill, patience and many hours of work.
Family
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
My Grandma and Grandpa make magnifcent sculptures! It’s wonderful to know and understand where and why they came up with “DINE LADY”.
Traveling and Exploring seems way fun…Glad to know what talents they both learn with”SELF TAUGHT”. I know they deserve everything in life 
Love them both…”God Bless My Grandparents In Evryway.
Hello, I bought a beautiful carving of your mother in Pagosa Springs, CO on July 3rd. I love it and enjoyed meeting you and your beautiful wife and grandaughter.
Can you tell me more about the story of your Mother’s sculptures that you do? I am an artist too and I know that there is ALWAYS a story behind the art. Thank you for your beautiful sculpture. Nancy Galbreath,
Have just acquired an interest in the Navajo wood carvings. I came across your nativity and wondered if it is a sale item and its price. I have several Hopi and have researched the Sioux and it’s off spring, the Otoe-Missouria who did live on the Nebraska-Kansas state line, which included Marysville, Kansas where I live. But I have not learned much of the Navajo. Lois
would be interesting in purchasing a Navajo Nativity set.
Hello, i was so happy to buy your carving this weekend at the Chandler Fair. It was of the Dine Lady… Beautiful. Thanks for your contribution to the earth. I tried to send you the photo i took with you but couldn’t figure how to send to your web address. Best wishes.
Maria
Hi cousin Harry,
I saw your site and of course you are very talented with some beautiful pieces of wood carvings. It looks like you are doing great in your art career. I wish you the best in your work. I am writing because my dad in the picture said that the baby held by nali is Marianne Denetclaw (Yellow). She is the baby in the family and fits with the ages of my aunt and dad in the picture. Hope you and family are well and take care.
Wilfred Jr.