Nationally renowned artist Roxanne Swentzell shared her artwork and culture as the Heller Center’s 2024-2025 Indigenous Fellow on Feb. 20. Swentzell’s talk was a love letter to women, community and heritage.
Swentzell is a member of the Santa Clara Pueblo/Khapo-Owingeh nation of Northern New Mexico. Her artwork is exhibited Washington D.C., New Mexico and Denver, and she is the co-founder of the Flowering Tree Permaculture Institute, a nonprofit committed to advancing the use of sustainable indigenous farming techniques. According to Max Shulman, faculty director of the Heller Center, Swentzell “seems to live art in everything she does.” She credits her female ancestors with sparking her love for art.
“I am very blessed to have this lineage of incredible artists and women that have incredible strength,” she said.
As a child, Swentzell had a severe speech impediment that made it challenging to express herself. She discovered that she could use clay figurines to communicate. “Clay was my first language,” she said.
Swentzell’s artwork continues to act as a medium for emotional expression. Her pieces focus on human relationships, connectivity and ancestry.
Most of her work, including the clay-based sculpture “Mud Woman Rolls On,” deals with the importance of respecting lineage. “All of the events of our life are because of what happened yesterday. What we do today is going to affect tomorrow,” she said.
Alongside her clay and adobe artworks, Swentzell is an avid builder.
“I’ve been building all my life,” Swentzell said. She learned building techniques from her mother and carried them into her later work. “I’ve done everything from full houses to cabins to remodeling old historic buildings,” she said.
Swentzell uses the knowledge she gained from her mother to build community centers. “I want to keep that tradition in the tribe alive,” she said.
Swentzell carries on the practice of community building with the Flowering Tree Permaculture Institute, which was created in 1987 to “nurture healthy communities,” she said. The institute focuses on using regenerative farming practices to support groups of people and promote sustainability. It shares its farming methods with communities through newsletters, classes and workshops.
In her work at the institute, Swentzell experiments with gilt planting, greenhouse planting and hydroponics to cultivate and preserve ancestral crops. In New Mexico, planting conditions in high desert areas are faced with water scarcity. Swentzell drew from old growing techniques and natural river formations to develop a planting system capable of conserving water.
Through “The Pueblo Food Experience Cookbook,” Swentzell and the Flowering Tree Permaculture Institute have been able to improve the health of numerous indigenous communities. Swentzell explained that eating ancestral foods like stews, Buwah (cornbread) and grasshoppers have helped to combat health problems and depression.
On her mission to promote ancestral foods, Swentzell built a traditional women’s cooking house. Eventually, the cooking house attracted community members. “Next thing you know, it has become a full-fledged ceremonial house with sounds and children and movement,” she said.
Swentzell explained that all her work is connected. Her work at the Flowering Tree Permaculture Institute revived indigenous cooking methods. The kitchens that Swentzell built injected vitality back into the communities they served.
Swentzell’s latest project is the Flowering Tree Retreat Center, a community gathering place. According to Swentzell, the retreat center is the next step in her journey to bring people together.
Swentzell’s residency is part of the Heller Center’s partnership with the UCCS Vice Chancellor of Strategic Initiatives awarding an annual fellowship to indigenous artists and scholars. The Heller Center’s Indigenous Fellowship is meant to “draw attention to indigenous culture, history, art and knowledge,” Shulman said. It supports work in indigenous studies through an exchange of ideas between UCCS faculty and indigenous scholars.
Around 45 students and members of the public were in attendance. Swentzell’s residency lasted from Feb. 9 – Feb. 22.
Artist Roxanne Swentzell delivers a talk at the Heller Center. Photo by Logan Cole.