No Longer A Caterpillar by Brooklyn Doby

(4) 8 x 8 x 1 canvases, total size 16 x 16 x 1 Acrylic on canvas by Brooklyn Doby

Artist Statement:

Painting is my direct, personal, and unfiltered way to communicate beauty from my mind and eye to the minds and hearts of others. Throughout history, there have been little to no positive narratives or imagery of Black women. Thus giving the impression that Black isn’t worth being represented. My artwork ultimately strives to deliver imagery I wish I saw growing up. My art pieces challenge stereotypes and create dialogue for inclusion. Through my paintings, I replace negative rhetoric with positive, creative visuals that promote self-love, healing, and acceptance. I feel it is my personal calling to make paintings that uplift the world. 
        I am a self-taught artist. I primarily work with acrylic paint on canvas. Occasionally I incorporate three-dimensional objects to create vibrant, textural, abstract/mixed media portraits. My paintings include every shade of brown, bright and colorful backgrounds, and elements of nature. The images I paint offer a refreshing way to experience Black women.
       Art can be thought of as a mold that impresses itself upon the matter of our senses and leaves behind some part of itself that stays with us; I hope to leave behind something beautiful in the hearts and minds of others.

My recent projects adopt a hauntological framework to examine the liminal condition of diasporic life. Figures appear ghostlike, half-formed, caught between memory and presence, past and becoming. These images function as a metaphorical human geography, mapping the emotional terrain of displacement where one must constantly negotiate between preservation and adaptation.

Using strategies of transparency and material layering, I create visual environments that feel permeable and open. These spaces gesture toward refuge while acknowledging the instability produced by troubled power structures. The work ultimately addresses how communities shaped by displacement and alienation cultivate resilience. By tracing the tensions between erasure and persistence, I aim to render visible the fragile yet enduring connections that bind personal histories to collective experience.