Gigi Lin

Gigi Lin

17

Female

12th

Manhattan

Jian Lin

(917)517-5083 ljian9636@gmail.com

Millennium High School

As I was constructing this piece,The Gardener, my mind felt this internal need, responsibility, and drive to convey something beyond the idea of realism. I wanted to explore beyond the borders of what a traditional portrait should look like. Growing up in what I thought was a "diverse" community at school, I never was concerned about what people thought of me, never worried about who I was, and what type of people surrounded me in the future. Starting in high school, these differences became more clear to me and I notice that I have become a person I didn’t recognize anymore. I was quiet. I was timid. I felt like I had been swallowed. Everyday I came home, sickened to my stomach with frustration, disappointment, and asked myself questions like “ Who am I?” and “What happened to the outgoing person that I was?”. In high school, I felt a sense of displacement with the people that I was around, indifferent to each other, and there was no one that shared creative expression that I could relate to. Coming to my last semester in high school, I realized that the things that I was afraid of were only small things that I have overcome and have yet to appreciate, learn, and grow from. The Gardener is a reflection of myself that I want young people, people that are going through changes, or people who are going through struggles to see, understand, and connect to. In relation to my first piece Roses for You and second piece The Shadow, The Gardener is a piece that further explores the depth of an individual’s physical and internal experience. Through varied brushstrokes, colors are fused together which creates an overwhelming heightened moment where many forms of desolation are being revealed. The overarching concept is the emphasis on the importance for individuals to control flow, whether it is external or within them. This piece uses key symbols from the concept of Roses For You: “slipping away from society”, such as the rose and the “stained body” to unfold into a new stage where the individual came to a realization where they need to accept and face circumstances where many things may seem uncontrollable(“overflowing of dark colors”) often due to fear (“red stains” from the red roses). If we were asked about names and contributions of women in popular genres such as women as actors, women in science fiction, and women in literature, it would not be the same as if we were to list men. Women are often not seen as the protagonist in the stories, films, and books that we read and talk about. I made this piece in dedication to remembering the women writers, activists, and leaders that came before us because their passion, spirit of defiance, and creating their own space to write under an open sky lives within us especially young girls today. Reading Virginia Woolf’s “A Room of One’s Own” has encouraged me to continue having a positive mindset that my thoughts are as valuable as a man’s. And it is incredibly special and important for every individual to value their own strengths, qualities, and originality in order to truly be conscious and in control of the world around them. In the real world, the protagonist is not the mind of a male or female, but one that is androgynous. One embodies both female and male characteristics. Have hope and support those who are able to understand struggle because one day you will be a part of the garden and see the different flowers that the Gardener have been growing all along.

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gigilin1209@gmail.com