JD Challenger



Challenger artwork

JD Challenger was born in Oklahoma with a creative fire that first began to smolder when he was a very young child. Always fascinated by the culture and customs of the Native Americans he lived near and considered his closest friends, the young Challenger was a sponge, absorbing there stories and traditions and sketching his observations of there life, Upon witnessing a Ghost Dance ceremony being filmed for a movie, Challenger cane face-to-face with his mission in life. "As I stood there watching the chanting and the dancing, I knew what I wanted to paint… nothing had ever been clearer." His wife, Denise, encouraged him to show his work to his Native American friends, one of whom was a holy man. When he did so, he received their blessing and was told, "There has to be a messenger and he doesn’t have to be one of our People. The Creator chooses His own messengers. Your path is to tell our story and educate people about the past and about what is still happening today." JD Challenger paints the story of a people rich in heritage and tradition; stories sometimes poignant, often angry…but always powerful and demanding to be told. Each portrait speaks its own truth. Challenger is the vessel that paints that truth.