Madeline LeBlanc

Once upon a time, three powerful women found themselves in a secret garden. The garden was made up of second-hand bedsheets, dyed with bright and bold colours, and painted with acrylics and oils. Though the garden was beautiful, the women couldn't help but feel the struggle of women throughout history. The bedsheets were symbolic of the traditional domestic sphere that women were often trapped in.

The women wore tie-dyed wedding dresses, a symbol of their resistance to the societal ideals of purity and submission. As they stood in the garden, they noticed a new woman approaching them, wearing a pristine white wedding dress. The three feminines brought her on a journey through the garden, transforming themselves into various creatures to guide her.

The first woman transformed into a praying mantis, a symbol of female strength and power in many cultures. The second took on the form of a butterfly- a creature that undergoes a transformation to become its most vibrant and beautiful self. The third became a bumblebee, symbol of feminine strength and the ability to fly despite societal limitations. The fourth morphed into a caterpillar, representing the transformative journey women must often undergo to overcome obstacles and grow into their most authentic selves.

The final feminine took on the embodiment of The Mother, a powerful being of feminine wisdom and guidance. Together, the five women explored the garden, discussing the struggles of women throughout history, their own struggles as women, and celebrating the strength and beauty of female empowerment.

The trio gifted the newcomer with a tie-dye wedding dress, urging her to embrace the complexities of being a woman. The young woman was overcome with fear of the unknown and then gratitude, realizing the profoundness of their gesture.

The secret garden represents the feminist struggle against limiting gender roles that threaten to confine and suffocate women. It showcases how women can support each other and empower one another as women can be the driving force of societal progress, especially when they band together in solidarity and support one another.

Secret Garden can be interpreted as a symbolic representation of the gendered roles assigned to women in western societies. By using second-hand bedsheets as a foundation material I reflect on the subjugated position that women have occupied throughout history.

European oil painting has traditionally been associated with the male gaze and the representation of women, often only as idealized objects of male desire. However, by choosing to paint on bedsheets, I use a medium that is intimately connected with the female domestic space.

By using a material that is not typically associated with fine art, I transgress the boundaries of accepted art-making materials and methods. My decision to use bed sheets as a canvas is a nod towards the intimacy and vulnerability associated with the bed. Bedsheets are objects that are closely associated with sleeping, dreaming, and mating.

By choosing to paint on them, I imbue the materiality of the work with a sense of memory and intimacy that informs the whimsical scenes depicted on its surface. Byappropriating this imagery and imbuing it with a subversive message, I reclaim these attributes from their traditional gendered connotations and turn them into symbols of empowerment and resistance.