JD Challenger is a painter and sculptor of Native Americans. He was born in Oklahoma with a desire to paint that appeared at a young age. He learned color, shading, light and shadow from closely observing nature and drawing what he saw. Always fascinated by the culture and customs of the Native Americans, near to whom he lived and soon considered his closest friends, the young Challenger absorbed their stories and traditions. He sketched his observations of their lives.

At the beginning of his career, he lived in Taos, New Mexico where he did landscape painting and learned much about Native Americans by observing first hand Indians of the Taos Pueblo. At first, he was reluctant to show his oil and...