Life & Work with Heather Inez Benoit

Today we’d like to introduce you to Heather Inez Benoit.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
My entire creative journey has been one full of magic and a patchwork of experiences often hard to believe. I began dancing with the Kansas City ballet as a child and have always found freedom in movement as well as inspiration in all types of music. Jewelry making, more found its way into my life approximately 17 years ago.

While in a garage, catching up with an old friend from high school, we found a box and decided to explore its contents. It belonged to his grandfather who had passed years before. He spent most of his life making and selling jewelry authentic to his Native American heritage.

I was gifted the box by my friend and from there developed a passionate love affair with turquoise, silver, and gemstones of all kinds. In 2017, I began the new year with a single resolution: “give yourself permission to be an artist”. Unfortunately, I had never even taken an art class of any kind outside of photography and journalism in college. But I bought a small canvas and a starter pack of acrylics and I painted something. I posted that painting on Facebook and a friend saw it and asked me to be an artist at her wellness space for a feature.

I laughed because I only had one painting. But she jokingly said she would give me until April to see what I can come up with. I took it as a personal challenge and painted furiously for the next few months, producing 32 paintings for the April feature. Shockingly, I sold 13 of them that night, including the first one to my friend which is still hanging at the wellness wheel today. Around the time that I began painting, I had also been developing a neurological condition known as synesthesia in which I would sometimes see intense colors with sounds. My strong desire to interpret this experience is what leads to the abstract work that I do now.

Fast forward to 2019 when in August, I sat down to the pottery wheel for the very first time. I had no idea what I was doing, but it felt more like remembering than anything and so I dove in headfirst and became obsessed with wheel throwing pottery and remain obsessed to this day. So I just do all the things. I have no formal training. My creative journey is probably more about seeing what I can get away with than anything.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I am not of the impression that anything artistic of value is born of a delicate journey. As artists, we bend but don’t break and it’s the hard curve of the bend that gives us the perspective to create, sort of like a kaleidoscope of experience that shapes our perspective on the world. My life has been such an odd balance of extreme struggle and incredible blessing and abundance.

I receive all of my challenges, struggles, and obstacles as a gift. Every struggle brings a lesson and with it, strength and personal empowerment. I believe that when you look at hard times through this lens, you can transmute that energy into something really powerful and abundant.

So that’s what I try to do. I have been diagnosed with ADHD, PTSD, fibromyalgia, and a degenerative neurological condition.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
As an artist, I think once I gave myself permission to create, it opened a floodgate of this energy that I now have to move through me. So I do that. I make all the things. I dabble in  jewelry, pottery, paintings, textiles, furniture, welding and whatever else I can get away with. I joke that I’m a graduate of the University of YouTube,  so it’s a lot of trial and error. I just do what I am inspired to do and sometimes it works out.

Who else deserves credit in your story?
Yes! Karen Carmack for encouraging me to paint more than one painting!

Jeniffer Hudson and Shannon Sleeper at Unity Arts for being supportive and encouraging from the very beginning. ArtsTech Paula and Dave and Taylor who have always been supportive over the past 15 years and have given me an opportunity to take my skills and make a difference in the community! My ex-husband for constantly asking me when am I going to get a real job. This fueled my passion to make something of my creative journey more than a hobby.

Margarita Friedman for being the most loving, supportive, and inspiring woman I have ever met and for believing in me when I didn’t even believe in myself. Margarita and I are currently working on opening an art school in the Historic Northeast neighborhood of Pendleton Heights so that I can share my passion with kids in the “hood” as I have always dreamed of doing.

Most of all, my three daughters have been the inspiration behind everything I do, always. They have supported me by coming to my shows and setting up my booth with me in the blistering heat and freezing cold. They learned how to sell and handle money and interact with customers. They tolerate my madness and just step over the mess when it looks like an art supply store threw up on my living room. They love me unconditionally and show me that no matter what I do that doesn’t work out, at least I got something right.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: @Turquoise_moon_handmade
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/artistinezbenoit