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Artist Turns Her Own Menstrual Blood Into Surprisingly Beautiful Art

Pinar 4 days ago
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This artist gives a whole new perspective of menstruation.

Instead of working with paint or charcoal, this thought-provoking artist uses her own menstrual blood to create abstract designs.

Lewis told Distractify: "One day when I had some blood on my fingers after emptying my cup, I started to wonder about why society framed up menstruation as something disgusting. Blood, gore and gratuitous violence are everywhere in pop culture – news, sports, movies/TV, video games, music, etc. – but menstrual blood had been completely scrubbed from the visual landscape, save a few iconic and negative images such as the movie Carrie."

Back in 2012, Lewis began creating her menstrual designs with her husband Rob in a makeshift bathroom studio.

"When we first started," she told us, "all of the art was made in 'real time' – meaning while I was actively menstruating. Those evenings after work, I would remove my cup, leave the bathroom and Rob would set up the lights and camera. I would pour the blood into an empty toilet bowl to emphasize the abstract elements I saw at play: the color contrast of bright red against stark white porcelain, the organic way the blood moved in the water, how different the blood was from day-to-day. Every pour looked different."

Over time, the artistic duo moved their project into a small aquarium filled with a mixture of fresh and salt water.

"This mixture creates two different densities, which makes for more interesting blood movement."

"I also work with more tools than just the cup now," Lewis explained.

"I like to experiment with different blood delivery systems, i.e. pipette (awesome), turkey baster (terrible), chopsticks (excellent), travel shampoo bottle (also excellent)."

"We approach every shoot as an experiment and go with the flow (pun intended). Liquids are very hard to control in my experience so it’s very important not to be attached to any outcomes or hold onto any preconceived notions when we come to shoot."

In addition to her artistic drive, Lewis told us that she was actually inspired by scientific images that surrounded her while she was working as an administrative assistant at the biomedical research campus at the University of Michigan.

"What is extraordinarily engaging about these images is how magnified parts of the body are. It’s like looking under a microscope or magnifying glass."

"I wanted to do that with menstrual blood. Get real close and look at something in a whole new way. I’ve always loved biological science and been interested in the body so Beauty in Blood seems like a natural marriage of my love of both fine art and biological science."

The art itself presents an intriguing swirl of crimson that takes on the form of anything from an alien landscape to flowing blots of ink in water (like the work of Alberto Seveso)—basically, it's open to interpretation. Unfortunately, the beauty of the art sometimes gets lost due to the knee-jerk reaction, after learning that it's made from menstrual blood. It's this precise reaction that Jen and Rob seek to address and reform. It's a culturally-instilled response to see menstruation as "gross" or "taboo" and the artists hope to change this.

You can see more about Beauty in Blood on the project's website and Facebook page. There are even more menstrual artworks by dozens of artists being shared through an initiative known as Widening the Cycle. You can find more info about that HERE.

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