While others her age were anticipating the arrival of St. Nick, 7-year-old Casey McKinley was hard at work on Christmas Eve.
That’s when demand for her artwork had her drawing and painting to fulfill customer orders.
Little Casey might be the area’s youngest professional artist, having had a gallery showing right before Christmas, where every piece was sold within minutes.
‘It just makes me happy’
About 70 people were at her Dec. 20 show at a newly remodeled Near Eastside house.
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“I’ve been doing this from Pre-K all the way to first grade,” she said of her work. “It just makes me happy.”
And it makes her money. She took in about $630 during the event.
The show was to introduce Casey’s enterprise to the world. But it was a family affair. Sister Chloe oversaw refreshments. Another sister, Kylie, was her manager for the day.
Her parents, Ta’Sean and Stepphina McKinley, own the house where the event took place.
Family encourages kids to be entrepreneurs
Casey is the second oldest of five children whom the McKinleys encourage to be entrepreneurs. The couple owns several businesses, including real estate, healthcare and angel investment operations.
“We try to teach our kids things that are more entrepreneurial. Instead of asking ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ we ask them, ‘What type of business do you want to own when you grow up?” dad Ta’Sean McKinley said.
When he posed the question to Casey, she didn’t have an idea about starting a business. She just knew that she wanted a future in art.
Her father told her about the business side of being an artist and the potential to own an art gallery.
Casey was locked in, he said.
They’d taken a trip to Newfields when she was in kindergarten and he was aghast when she identified a Georgia O’Keeffe painting.
“I didn’t even know that was the artist,” he said. “It just showed me how serious she was about art to be in a museum, look at another artist’s work and identify who drew that flower. That just showed me how intentional she was about her art.”
Now he’s schooling her on the commerce side of her passion.
“There’s a lot of business lessons going behind it,” he said. “I teach her about profit margins; material costs. She’d go with me to Hobby Lobby. Right now, she’s understanding the concept of reinvesting.”
Casey is the first of her siblings to dive into entrepreneurship.
She excelled at art at The Oaks Academy, where her work has been displayed. She’s a first grader there.
“She had an idea of where things could go from already doing that at school,” her father said.
For her, the only downside to the recent art show is that she came up short on the number of pieces she wanted to have available.
“I wanted to make some more paintings,” she said.
Casey had nine pieces on display.
A couple more would have been ideal, she said; but she was working on a deadline.
Gallery set up during holiday season
Her dad got the idea for the gallery on Thanksgiving Day, and the showing was set for three weeks later. Casey typically produces about two paintings a day when she’s not in school.
All nine paintings and drawings were snapped up within 14 minutes.
Those who couldn’t get the items they wanted that day commissioned pieces on the spot.
Some attendees donated to her.
Although her dad fronted her the money for supplies, Casey gets no assistance in creating. She works from his office at their Far Eastside home, coming up with the concepts and colors. The misspelling of the word Christmas in a painting is a nod to the work being authentically Casey, he said.
At the gallery, Casey engaged attendees, walking around and talking about her inspiration for the pieces.
For example, on a rainy night she was inspired to draw half a rainbow, she told them. The result was titled “God’s Promise.”
The artist prefers to work with pencils and favors dogs and trees as subjects.
Her family plans to have a gallery annually.
“I’m telling her, ‘People are behind you, and you’ve got to keep getting better and better,’” Ta’Sean McKinley said, adding they got the word out to supporters via social media.
“Just to have somebody who’s seven years old and to know that you have people behind you; that people believe in you. I think that the confidence is something that you can’t pay for. Just imagine when she turns 13, still young, but she’s been having this type of drive and push since seven and people got behind her.”
Contact IndyStar reporter Cheryl V. Jackson at cheryl.jackson@indystar.com or 317-444-6264. Follow her on X.com:@cherylvjackson or Bluesky: @cherylvjackson.bsky.social.
