ARTIST STATEMENT

I am a communications artist creating narratives that explore the human experience through culture and cause. Working across photography, video, digital drawing, print, and painting, I seek to illuminate the richness of diverse cultures through their histories, hues, and heritages. My works serve as visual dialogues that transcend language and challenge preconceived notions, reframing familiar stories from perspectives often overlooked in artistic traditions.

My eyes and hands are drawn to faces and spaces ignored or forgotten by history. Through vibrant color, I capture the depth and complexity of cultures, races, and ethnicities. A face, to me, is a living chronicle — a reflection of time, emotion, and the ongoing search for identity.

My intent is to move beyond the boundaries of bias by viewing humanity through a multicultural lens. Through reimagined portrayals of universal experiences, I invite viewers to see beyond cultural comfort zones and question inherited beliefs about race and representation. In acknowledging and reexamining these shared moments, the expansiveness of our collective human experience comes into focus.

BIO

Floydetta McAfee is an evolving artist. As a child growing up on military posts throughout the United States and Germany, her life was spent constantly moving, meeting new people, and discovering new cultures. Having lived in Germany as a youth with limited understanding of the language, her family’s form of entertainment was reading books and visiting museums. Those regular museum visits sparked her love of art, while books cultivated her interest in storytelling. Her formal art training began in grade school, extended through high school, and continued with private lessons. In college, she turned toward written communications where she developed a strong interest in using verbal and visual storytelling to connect diverse communities and cultures to social issues, brands, and each other. 

Art impacts Floydetta’s work as a communications specialist focusing on multicultural media relations. From words to images, she uses verbal and visual tools to produce creative content, messages, and campaigns for corporations, organizations, foundations, and social causes. Among her current clients are the Environmental Defense Fund, the NAACP Hollywood Bureau and NEWorks Productions. Past clients include UNAIDS, Climate Action Campaign, Nielsen, and the Dorothy Irene Height Foundation. She wrote and illustrated the inspirational book, Grown Up ABC’s Momma Taught Me.  Floydetta used her creative skills to co-produce and write the PBS World Channel special, Eyes on the Prize: Then and Now.

Floydetta works in all forms as an artist—filmmaking, printmaking, photography and digital drawing. From the Art Students League of New York to the Art League School in Alexandria, Virginia, she takes classes whenever possible forever honing her artistic skills. Many of her photographs have been part of several group exhibitions with Dark Light winning an honorable mention.  

Floydetta’s peripatetic journey continues as she explores the use of communications and creativity to connect diverse communities and cultures. Her nomadic upbringing has informed her art. The diversity of the human spirit is a major influence. The forgotten souls and abandoned spaces; the look on the face of a South African mother; a setting sun on a decaying city block; and the vibrant colorful hues of all human beings inspire her.   

Floydetta lives and works in Virginia.