My Story

My Story

Who am I...

My name is Terry Wells.  I am a member of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa of northern Minnesota.  The Red Lake Tribe is comprised of seven clans.  My family is part of the bear clan.  

As a boy I first saw the beauty of the land and animals at my Grandparents farm on the Red Lake reservation.  Each time I go back I am reminded of type of serenity you can only find there.  Come with me on a journey while I show you the beauty that lies within the shadows displayed in my art.   

How did I get to where I am:
Everyone has those moments that change their path. We are faced with choices all the time that challenge the path we are on. Unfortunately, we typically choose the easy choice that keeps us on the same broken path week after week, month after month, and year after year. Is it our fear of change, fear of the unknown, or is it the fear of failure? We all have these fears if you have the courage to admit them. 

Before we can step forward, we have to make a choice. I have made some very bad choices. Those bad choices, driven by fear, is what kept me on a destructive path for many years. Most of the time I was able to keep from tipping the edge and getting cut, but not always. Once cut it was fear that kept me making that same choice to drink. Fear of feeling. Fear of being with myself. Fear of others seeing me for who I was. Fear of seeing myself and what I had become.

Almost ten years ago I decided I needed to start making better life choices.  I married a wonderful woman who has helped me grow, and to see the good in me that years of the same broken path was destroying. This self-discovery was not immediate and is still going on today. Sometimes you can break the barriers around you, and sometimes all you can do is chip away. This process cannot be rushed, or you risk damaging yourself. You need to learn to appreciate yourself, and love yourself, as you break and chip away those rough edges.

Then almost eight years ago I woke up one morning after a night of drinking and saw that a drummer in a metal band that I looked up to was celebrating his eighth year of sobriety. I thought to myself, if a rock musician could get sober so could I. Sometimes when life is crumbling around you and you feel worthless, it is trying to show you that the light can shine through the shadows that clog your mind. It is a higher power showing you it is possible to change, to learn to be more than what you know.

The Creation

Where Ideas are born.

I have a passion for transforming the ordinary into something extraordinary, using the interplay of light and shadow to breathe new life into everyday objects. Often, my most powerful ideas emerge during moments of solitude—while hiking through the quiet woods or running across an open field. It’s in those fleeting instances, when a familiar object or landscape triggers long-forgotten memories, that inspiration strikes. Those ephemeral flashes, though brief, hold within them the seed of something vivid and profound, waiting to be reimagined.

The Construction

The design process.

My process is deliberate and unrushed, unfolding in layers as each piece slowly reveals itself. There are moments when an image forms vividly in my mind, and I allow those sensations—those fleeting, intangible feelings—to pour directly onto the paper. I don't lean on heavy planning or rigid structure; instead, I trust the organic flow of the work itself. Each drawing becomes its own spontaneous inspiration, evolving with each stroke, guided more by intuition than by premeditated design.

The Art

Life is shadows entangled in form.

Why is my art different? Well, I believe that all art is inherently different, for we all see the world through our own unique lens. Life itself is often chaotic, unpredictable, and untidy, and that's its beauty. Art should not be confined to flawless, linear perfection, rigid in black and white. It should embrace the raw, the imperfect. Every piece, to me, holds a depth of character, woven through the shadows that give it life and meaning. It is the nuance, the contrast, the imperfection that breathes authenticity into the work.

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