Darryl Becenti – Navajo Silversmith, Sand Painter & Artist Profile

About Darryl Becenti

Darryl Becenti was born in 1957 in Gallup, New Mexico, and raised in Mexican Springs, a small Navajo community not far from the Arizona border. He began his silversmithing career in 1980, taught by his brothers-in-law, David and Leroy Reeves — another example of the tightly interconnected Gallup-area silversmithing families whose members frequently teach across marriage lines rather than only within a single bloodline.

Darryl is a genuinely multidisciplinary artist. Beyond jewelry, he works as a pencil and ink artist and practices sand painting, a traditional art form using naturally colored sand or pigment to create intricate, often ceremonial imagery. This range across mediums has made Darryl one of the more prolific and versatile Native Indian jewelry artisans working out of the Gallup area, with his drawing and painting sensibilities frequently informing the compositional choices in his silverwork.

Identifying Darryl Becenti's Work

His sterling silver jewelry hallmark is a D with an arrow stamped on top. This distinctive arrow element helps distinguish his mark from the many other single-letter D hallmarks used by other Southwest silversmiths.

Style & Craftsmanship

Darryl's background as a visual artist across multiple mediums shows up in the confidence and detail of his stamp work, and his output reflects decades of steady, prolific practice since he first learned the craft in 1980.

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