Rina swentzell biography

  • Roxanne Swentzell loved art from an early age.
  • Rina Naranjo Swentzell (1939 – 2015) was a Tewa Santa Clara Puebloan author, potter, historian and architect.
  • After growing up on Santa Clara Pueblo—the place she was born 72 years ago—going off to college at Baylor, returning to New Mexico to earn advanced degrees in.

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    In 1997 I met a woman from Santa Clara Pueblo who changed my world view, the late Rina Swentzell, a Santa Clara potter, a teacher, an author, an architectural historian and a lecturer.

    https://www.geraldstiebel.com/2016/04/rinas-gone-1939-2015.html

    The other night we heard a talk by her daughter Roxanne Swentzell (b.1962-) an eminent pottery artist. She had asked what subject she should address as she might well have lectured on Permaculture as she is an active proponent of, “the conscious design and maintenance of agriculturally productive ecosystems which have the diversity, stability, and resilience of natural ecosystems.” For this audience however the organizer asked her to address her art.

    Roxanne creates figural sculptures and her primary medium is clay. I wrote about the importance of clay in the Pueblo culture some months ago.

    https://www.geraldstiebel.com/2022/08/grounded-in-clay-tradition.html

    One of Roxanne’s most monumental pieces was commissioned
  • rina swentzell biography

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    Rina Swentzell

    Pueblo architect, activist and artist (1939–2015)

    Rina Naranjo Swentzell

    Born1939

    Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico

    DiedOctober 30, 2015
    Alma materUniversity of New Mexico, PhD American Studies
    Occupation(s)Architect, artist, activist and writer
    SpouseRalph Swentzell
    Children4, including Roxanne Swentzell
    Parent(s)Michael Edward and Rose Naranjo
    RelativesMichael Naranjo, brother
    Nora Naranjo Morse, sister
    Jody Folwell, sister
    Jody Naranjo, niece
    Susan Folwell, niece
    Rose Bean Simpson, granddaughter

    Rina Naranjo Swentzell (1939 – 2015) was a Tewa Santa Clara Puebloan author, potter, historian and architect. She was known for her expertise in Pueblo art and architecture, and for her work as an activist for the Santa Clara Pueblo people.

    Biography

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    Rina Swentzell was born Rina Naranjo to Rose "Gia" and Michael Naranjo, a Baptist minister and a traditional potter in Santa Clara Pueblo.[1]

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    “Rina Swentzell of Santa Clara Pueblo was known as an architect, a potter, a teacher, an author, a historian and a lecturer. She also was an activist for justice who wasn’t afraid to stand up to her own tribal council to argue for the rights of all people.” (Santa Fe New Mexican 10-31-2015)

    Rina touched my life so profoundly as she did others and we recently attended a memorial for her at the school of architecture at the University of New Mexico. Filling the auditorium were members of her extended Native family as well as Anglos, academics and friends, who had all been touched by her.

     

    Rina was born into the Naranjo family, an unbelievably talented family of artists many of them potters.  Rina started out similarly but she became inspired in a modeling class where she started to think about doing models of buildings and thus began a journey into the world of architecture.  She went to New Mexico Highlands University where she earned her bachelor