“My goal is to show others how I see the world,” says Kwani Povi Winder. “Being an artist has completely changed how I see it; it’s so incredibly colorful.”

While she’s always seen the world and its people as a wondrous place, since 2013 Winder has been sharing her visions—whether they be landscapes, people, spiritual images, or animals—through paintings filled with vibrant colors and brilliant light. “I am constantly analyzing everything before my eyes and trying to identify what made me stop and take a second look at something,” she says. “Was it the contrast, the saturation, or maybe the movement of the shape?”

Winder, who grew up on a farm in Idaho, was a free-spirited girl, which is in keeping with the meanings of her first and middle names. Her mother is Native American; her father “is an Idaho farm boy,” she says, and they named her Kwani after the main character in “She Who Remembers.” The book, written by Linda Lay Shuler, is about a young Pueblo girl who has mystic powers.

Read the full article in the September/October 2023 issue.

Fluffy

Oil
10″ by 10″

Always With Me

Oil
16 3/4″ by 18″