Michaela Mabinty DePrince’s story is one of loss and triumph.  She was an orphan who became a world-class ballerina and died in September 2024.  Truth be told, I hadn’t heard of her before her passing.  But when I read about her life and felt the weight of what the world has lost, I just couldn’t get her off my mind.  I really felt called to paint her image and capture the spirit I felt from her short life.  She was a war orphan from Sierra Leone who was mistreated, malnourished, and considered a “devil’s child” because she had vitiligo, a skin condition that robs skin of its pigmentation.  She was adopted, moved to Cherry Hill, NJ, and started taking ballet classes.  She was featured in a documentary about young dancers called “First Position”.  She made it into the Boston Ballet, the Dutch National Ballet and the Dance Theatre of Harlem.  She wrote a memoir about her life called “Taking Flight.”  She was tapped to be the Nederland’s Ambassador for a non-profit called War Child after she reached out to them to see how she could help their cause. She had “made it”.  And yet. Her cause of death has not been shared publicly as I write this.  But I wonder if she was haunted by the trauma she experienced in Sierra Leone.  I wonder if she struggled with the misogynoir that successful Black women encounter in the world today and in the US especially.  And I wonder if it was all too much for her.  To add to the poignancy of this story, her adoptive mother Elaine died unexpectedly the day after Michaela’s death, never knowing that Michaela had passed.  This story has so much pain yet so much beauty.  I found an image of Michaela that I used as my reference photo where she is looking straight ahead and looks fearless but also authentic, connected, and perhaps a bit vulnerable.  This painting just poured out of me and I felt so connected to her bright light during the entire process of creating this piece. I will be donating 90% of the profits from the sale of this original, print, and merchandise to the War Child organization.  https://www.warchild.net/news/in-memoriam-michaela-deprince/