Della Wells grew up in a fractured family. Torn between a mother struggling with mental health issues and a violent father, she managed to find her way by committing herself to learning. She entered university, where she developed a political awareness that would lead her throughout her life to advocate for the rights of African Americans and to defend her heritage and culture. At the age of 42, she taught herself drawing, painting, and collage. In the early 2000s, she founded the advocacy group ABEA (African American Artists Beginning To Educate Americans About African Art). She teaches art to children, to ill women, and to adults with intellectual disabilities. Her work is nourished by references to her own history. Her collages recall the quilts of Gee’s Bend, created by groups of women living in the village of Gee’s Bend along the Alabama River. These quilts represent one of the most important African American visual and cultural contributions to the history of art in the United States. Wells is part of this activist life; her work has gained increasing recognition and is now included in many collections.