Alice Beasley

Quilt artist Alice Beasley has been producing astounding textile work since 1988. Now more important than ever, her artwork often displays a rare look into the world of social justice and politics and their effects upon the Black community. The artist’s work adresses social issues that are reflective of her experiences: Born Tuskegee, Alabama in 1954, her family moved to Detroit, Michigan where, Alice grew up. She attended Marygrove College where she received a degree in Journalism. In 1970, she moved to California, and in 1975 she received a law degree from the University of California at Berkley — with an emphasis in Civil Rights and Consitutional Law. She then worked for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund specializing in Civil Rights legislation.   In the late 1980s Ms. Beasley became an attorney by day and a quilt artist by night. She remembers fondly that many of the women in her family created beautiful works of art with their hands, thus, she carried on the tradition. Fabric is her chosen medium of expression through which she creates realistic portraits of people and objects. She finds color, light, shadow, line and value in the pattern of ordinary household fabrics. Beasley never uses solid colored fabrics, prefering prints that are pieced together to present images that convey her feelings on specific topics from an African American woman’s point of view.