C.J. Wells uses strong colors and bold compositions in her paintings to reveal her personal vision of the American Indian of a people torn between the past and the present. She states, "It's very difficult to paint without a model, but many of these people come right out of my head."

Working out of a studio that is fragrant with turpentine and linseed oil that she refers to as "my favorite smells," she vibrates with the music of Vivaldi, Beethoven, and Mozart, and produces dramatic oil paintings, lithographs, and monotypes that not only focus on Indian themes, but on landscapes and portraits as well.

A strong colorist, she uses her palette in an expressive and symbolic sense, rather than in a representation...