UNDER THE BRIM

Artist Statement

The hat is what the world sees.
Under the brim is what we carry.

Long before I knew this collection existed, it was already being written.

As a little girl, hats were woven into my world. I wore them. My mother and sister wore them. The women in church wore them with elegance, reverence, and pride. Years later, my first professional acting role after college was in Crowns, a play that celebrates the tradition and symbolism of Black women and their hats. Looking back, I realize those experiences were quietly preparing me for this body of work long before I ever picked up a brush.

Representation shaped me just as deeply. My mother recorded Black films and television, filling our home with the presence of women like Diahann Carroll, Phylicia Rashad, Lena Horne, and Diana Ross. They carried themselves with beauty, strength, complexity, and grace. Those women became part of my visual memory, and as I painted this collection, I found echoes of them alongside the women in my own family.

Under the Brim began to reveal itself while I was creating a portrait as a birthday gift for my best friend. Around the same time, I was presented with the opportunity to create my first solo exhibition. As I continued painting, an unfinished portrait I had started nearly a year earlier, Becoming, found its place within the collection. What I thought would be a series of portraits became something much deeper.

This work asks a simple question:

What do people see?

And another that often takes a lifetime to answer:

What do we carry beneath the brim?

These portraits explore the quiet spaces between appearance and reality—the stories we protect, the roles we perform, the traditions we inherit, and the identities we continue to discover. They are reflections of legacy, resilience, joy, grief, healing, and becoming.

As I painted, I found myself thinking about my grandmothers, my mother, my sister, and the invisible threads connecting us across generations. Some lessons were intentionally passed down through love and wisdom. Others arrived quietly through survival, expectation, and silence. Together, they became part of my own story.

Although these paintings are deeply personal, they were never meant to end with me.

My hope is that every person who encounters this collection pauses long enough to consider their own story. Through the portraits, the poems, the mirror, and the hatbox, I invite you to reflect on what the world sees, what you carry, and the parts of yourself that may still be becoming.

Perhaps you'll recognize someone you love.

Perhaps you'll recognize yourself.

— Denise 'NiSi' Lee