Avis Charley is a proud Dakota and Navajo woman from the Spirit Lake Nation in North Dakota and the Naakai Dine' clan in New Mexico. She has been an artist her whole life and comes from a family of artists. Her paternal grandmother was a Navajo rug weaver, and grandfather a silversmith, and uncle a realist painter.

Avis is an accomplished ledger artist. She is one of few women who create this type of art. Ledger art is best described as a transitional art form by Plains Indian as they adapted from using animal skin to discarded accounting ledger paper, where they told their daily stories of battle, hunting, and courting. This genre lasted approximately from 1860-1910.

In Avis' first year as an artist she's been accepted and participated in nationwide Native American art shows.  Such shows include Phoenix Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market, Santa Fe Indian Market, Los Angeles Autry Indian Arts Marketplace, and NMAI Winter Art Market in Washington DC.

Avis currently resides in Santa Fe, New Mexico where she plans to continue her education at IAIA in Studio Arts.