Harry Benjamin has been named to receive the Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts for painting, according to New Mexico Arts, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs.
“I’ve painted thousands of juniper trees,' Benjamin said, as he was interrupted from his lunch at his Silver City residence and gallery. “This award is the state’s most prestigious and I’m the third from here to receive it. I don’t even want to think about it. Now I’ll have to go to Santa Fe.'
He said the other two area recipients, Cecil Howard and Dorothy McCray, were his teachers at Western New Mexico University.
His Web site, www.harrybenjamin.com, offers a look at his work and some of his accomplishments in his years of pottery-making and painting.
Benjamin will have his work exhibited at the Governor’s Gallery on the fourth floor of the state Capitol. A reception for the exhibition will be held from 3-4:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 12, and the awards ceremony will take place at St. Francis Auditorium in the Museum of New Mexico from 5:15-7 p.m.
Faye McCalmont, Mimbres Region Arts Council executive director, nominated Benjamin.
“Harry Benjamin is the one who laid the foundation for the arts district,' McCalmont said. “He had the first gallery, which served many artists. His What’s a Pot Shop is the anchor of the Yankie Street arts district. We feel the honor is definitely deserved.'
Benjamin said the name What’s A Pot Shop came to him in a dream.
“I decided that it would be perfectly appropriate to name it that as pots are my primary love, although painting is probably a larger part of my life,' Benjamin said for a retrospective of his work that was held in 2007 to celebrate the 40th anni­versary of the Silver City Museum.
His landscape paintings gave him the opportunity to get out of his studio as much as he could.
He travels and paints in the Gila National Forest and “that is pretty much what I am still doing to­day,' he said.
Born in Silver City, Benjamin has been a part of the art scene from his college days into his 20s, when he was picked to serve as the founding cura­tor of the Silver City Muse­um, where he also lived and was the night watchman.
Letters of support for Benjamin’s nomination were written by Howard, Susan Berry, Janey Katz, Beth Menczer and Mc­Calmont.
Menczer in her recom­mendation letter called Benjamin her “hero, men­tor and friend. He is my mentor because he has taught me there are no limitations to creativity. ... Harry touches lives every day with his enthusiasm for life and art; he’s a fountain of information and encour­agement. He is aesthetics; he lives it; he breathes it; he is it.'
Katz said Benjamin was the first person in Silver City to whom she was in­troduced.
“He immediately made me feel comfortable and welcome, and like I be­longed here,' Katz said. “He’s the father of the Sil­ver City art community.'
Having been directly and indirectly associated with Benjamin for the past 45 years, Howard said he felt “qualified to recom­mend him.'
“I first knew Harry when he began his art stud­ies at Western New Mexico University, where I was one of his instructors,' Howard said. “In the following 31 years of my tenure in the WNMU art depart­ment, I was privileged to work with many excellent students, but never with any that equaled Harry in creativity and imagination. I regarded him early on as the most exceptional and promising young artist of my experience. He proved his potential over and over through the years as he grew from pupil to peer.'
Benjamin’s humor can be found in his paintings, his pottery, and, especially, in his gallery, where ev­erything from a pot with a Dagwood saying to a shrine to Pee-wee Herman can be found.
“One of my favorite sayings is from a song by Laurie Anderson,' Benjamin said. “It sort of fits right into how I have enjoyed my life –– ‘his­tory is like an angel being blown backwards into the future.’' Mary Alice Murphy may be reached at mamurphy@ cybermesa.com.

Other award winners for this year.................include:

Tammy Garcia,  Taos
Noel Marquez, Aresia
Jack Loeffler,  New Mexico?
Eugene Newman,  Ribera
Ali MacGraw,  Santa Fe
Eileen Wells,  Santa Fe
KHFM Radio,  New Mexico