The young girl burnt with humiliation even as she joined the derisive laughter that surrounded and threatened to choke her.

She sat at the centre of the class, wishing she could reverse time, if only to the past 15 minutes, so that she could take back the words she had uttered- the words that had caused her teacher to ridicule her and her friends to mock her. As she sat and joined the laughter, the young girl felt as though her dreams were dwindling before her eyes. They never died.

Today that young girl has succeeded in establishing at least part of her dream, as she is now a renowned artist who has done showings all over the world.

At 38, and secure in the career of her choice, Alison Wells can now genuinely laugh at those early years when others around her doubted her potential.

"I doubted it myself," Wells, who currently resides in the United States, conceded during an interview with Express Woman. "I had this teacher in high school who ridiculed me in front the class for saying I wanted to be an artist and to have an art gallery in Paris. She said I was going to starve and I believed her and laughed along with her and everyone else in the class. After that, I kept fighting the urge to follow my calling, but remarkable events would continuously occur to steer me back on my path as an artist, no matter how hard I tried to deny it and stray from my path."

Wells is today thankful that her parents and siblings always openly supported her dreams.

"That was all that mattered," she said simply. "I come from a very creative and artistic family and so I have always felt totally safe to express my talents and dreams among them."

Now that she has dismissed those early feelings of doubt, Wells spoke freely about her development as an artist, pointing to her early childhood as the first days when she identified her dream profession. She said though art was never encouraged as a real career at high school, she always knew her career path would have been a creative one.

After graduating from high school in 1992, Wells went on to study at the Caribbean School of Architecture in Jamaica and then to pursue an undergraduate degree in Fine Arts at the Edna Manley College for the Visual and Performing Arts, Jamaica.

"It was not until I was 25 and had recently finished my undergraduate degree as a painter that I really decided I was going to do this on a professional level," she said.

She began her formal career as a professional artist in 1998.

"It was soon after I returned from Jamaica after completing my undergraduate degree and I was pleasantly surprised to see that the art movement was more vibrant and lively than before I left in 1993," she said.

Full of heady dreams, the young artist went to work - developing her skill using acrylic and mixed media on canvas and paper as her medium for expression.

Admitting that a career as an artist is one that can be lucrative in spurts, Wells accepted a job to teach Art and design at St Joseph's Convent for 4 years before moving to pursue a Master's Degree in Fine Arts at the University of Massachusetts in the United States in 2002.

After completing her degree, Wells made the decision to develop her career in the United States and to take advantage of some of the opportunities available to artists in North America. She has been residing there for the past seven years.

Her career has grown by leaps and bounds.

Her paintings have been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States, the Caribbean and Europe. Her appearances include a live-work programme in London; D'art Contemporaine residency in Pont Aven, France; the Mutual Life Gallery in Kingston, Jamaica; the New Bedford Art Museum in New Bedford, Massachusetts and the National Museum of Trinidad and Tobago in Port of Spain.

In 2009, Wells was selected to exhibit her work at the Fifth Summit of the Americas held in Port of Spain and in 2010 she was one of five Trinidadian artists to have their work represent Trinidad and Tobago at the 2010 World Exposition in Shanghai, China.

Over the years, she has produced countless pieces, crediting the late Leo Glasgow, the late Pat Bishop, Leroy Clarke and Carlisle Harris, as major influences on her work, particularly her vibrant and energetic use of colour, movement and figurative abstractions.

"My homeland is reflected in my work through the use of sometimes vivid colour combinations, the fluid application of paint dripping and melting in and out of the picture plane," she said. "There is a lot of organic movement in my work that is reminiscent of my Caribbean background which is more organic than geometric in its landscape as well as the spirit and energy of the people."

Wells identified other artists from around the world as influences. They are German painter Anselm Kiefer for his enormous paintings heavy with tactile textures, and Gerhard Richter for his expressionistic flow of paint and colour; African American painter Kara Walker who is known for her striking black and white life-size silhouettes of slave narratives; Swoon, a female street artist whose brilliant wheat paste cutouts which are now featured in top US museums were once seen on abandoned buildings and walls in Brooklyn and Cuban painter Wifredo Lam for his deconstructed figures in ambiguous space.

As she develops and produces her own work, Wells acknowledges that life as an artist is not as easy as it may seem.

"It involves a lot of work that does not stop at the studio," she said. "You have to become your own PR person, advertising agency, writer, everything and that part alone is another full time job," she laughed. "For most of us in the arts it is a career that has chosen us and we can't imagine a life without making art, so therefore we do what we have to do — whether it is having a second or third job or roughing it through the hard times. One thing is for certain — the work must be made; the voice must be heard."

Wells' career has certainly grown past her early days when she struggled to make a living as an artist.

"Now I only teach part time at the college level while still pursuing a full time artist career," she said.

Perhaps one day she may return to Trinidad, but Wells believes that the industry for artistic expression should be further developed.

"We have not reached there as yet," she said. "However we do have many dedicated people in the arts plugging through and trying to educate the public about the importance of the arts in our schools and our society. In my view, the lack of art and creative expression is reflected in the events that take place daily in this country. Our society is craving it, though this awareness and appreciation needs to come from the top first."

In the meantime, as the country continues to make steps in that direction, Wells is encouraging fellow Trinidadian artists to continue to pursue their dreams.

"Do what you love and the money will follow," she said.

Work by Alison Wells can be purchased from her website at http://www.alisonwells.com