At the age of 14, I went to an art gallery, in Montreal. I was magnetically drawn to this painting, Detritus of Devotion, by Heidi Taillefer. I had a big rush of emotion, and spent 2 hours crying.

I guess I'm extremely fortunate to have a passion. Art is like a drug to me, I couldn't live without it. It's a cure, a way to free my mind, to liberate what I hold inside.

As a kid, I was always drawing, everywhere. At school, I was accused by my teachers of drawing on my table. I always denied it. But they knew it was me: "You are the only one that draws that well!".

I used to cook in a sushi restaurant. Five years ago, after my son was born, I decided to make the leap and become a full time artist. With a full time job and a kid at home, I just wouldn't have had enough time to draw. It was time for me to transform my hobby and passion into a job.

A few months ago, on a rainy day, I was doing craft with my son. I started painting with loose and heavy textures on some of my old drawings of women, which were very realistic, with very fine lines. I loved the contrast. It created like a cage trapping those women in society's preconceptions.

Then one day, I added superheroes to those cages. I had bought comics to cover an IKEA dresser. But in the process, the dresser broke. So I tried to include those superheroes in my paintings. The result was esthetically appealing, and made a lot of sense: society is asking us women to be superheroes, and traps us in that idea, like an invisible cage.

Sandra Chevrier

Painter and illustrator from Montréal.