Matriarch in the Making

Femininity is soft and delicate yet fiercely powerful, nurturing yet fiercely independent.

I’m interested in identity as a living, shifting thing—not something handed down or labeled, but something built, chosen, and constantly evolving. I aim to challenge the neat categories we’re asked to fit into, celebrating the liminal spaces and exploring the idea that something can be more than just one or the other; it can be both. Unraveling the threads of femininity, societally imposed identity, and the quiet force of matriarchy. I am asking not what these things are but who gets to define them. My work and practice are an invitation to rethink power and softness, tradition and rebellion, body and spirit. Each piece is both question and answer, grounded in the belief that identity is not assigned but chosen and constantly reshaped through experience and self-determination.

Bio

Lee Nadeau is an emerging woodworker and artist based in Winslow, Maine, with a BFA in Woodworking and Furniture Design from Maine College of Art & Design (2025). Her work explores femininity, domesticity, and family through a personal lens, challenging traditional ideas and dichotomies. Influenced by modern sculpture, Nadeau softens the sharp, rigid edges of conventional woodworking, favoring rounded, abstract forms. Her background in furniture informs her interest in the space between sculpture and function. Through her practice, she reimagines wood as a medium for storytelling, emotion, and quiet resistance to rigid expectations.