michelle beasley

MB13 16" x 7"

“I loved doing my doll; it made me feel like a kid again! I was given the opportunity to meet Gloria through a fellow artist, and once I sat down and talked with her I realized what a wonderful experience this could be. The children that this project helps are impressive, and I am so excited about using my creative talents to support them.”

Michelle Beasley was born and raised in Kansas City and has studied here, as well. She is presently attending Webster University. Michelle is an accomplished, self-taught artist. She utilizes a variety of media, including charcoal, watercolor, acrylic, plaster and oil. She is partial to watercolor because of its ability to layer - which ultimately defines her emotional investment in a piece better than anything else. Michelle uses a canvas background to achieve a faux acrylic appearance. The work invokes a vibrant and highly personal tone. Her passion for quality and detail are obvious in every piece she creates.


Michelle gets her inspiration from people she knows and places she visits. Her strongest inspiration, however, comes from her loving and supportive husband and fellow artist, J. Leroy Beasley (read May 7th post). He provides her with a sense of strength, support and challenge. This gives her the freedom, confidence and joy she needs to reach further, wider and deeper as an artist.

I love that Michelle chose to put a jump rope in this girl-doll's hands. At every turn in Uganda, on the side streets in the cities, on the dusty roads of the villages and on the grounds of the orphanage itself, I always see groups of girls entertaining themselves by jumping rope together. Just like girls in other parts of the world, they call out rhyming songs, chants, games or stories, their feet hitting the ground and the rope swinging heavily above their heads with each up and downbeat. Of course, there is always a lot of laughing involved, and Michelle's doll looks like she's well on her way to doing just that.