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If you create or own art
concerning menstruation or menopause
and are interested in showing it on
thesepages (it's free!), contact MUM
Marie Claire magazine
(Italian edition) featured several
of the above artists in an article about
this
museum and menstruation in 2003. The
newspaper Corriere della Sera (Io Donna
magazine) (Milan, Italy) and the magazine
Dishy (Turkey) showed some of
the artists in 2005 in articles about this
museum.
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The Art of Menstruation at the Museum of
Menstruation and Women's Health
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"The Goddess,"
while the blood is still
wet.
She painted these pictures after a
doctor diagnosed her with a double
uterus (her doctor's drawing is
below) which frequently means
infertility.
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"The Goddess,"
after the blood has dried.
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"The Goddess,"
sitting.
All images
copyrighted 2003 Elvira
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Austrian high school student
Elvira, who lives in Vienna, sent
these
pictures on paper painted with her
menstrual blood. [After she
graduated
and started studying medicine, she
sent a Libresse
ad. There she talks about how
taboo menstruation and other
subjects are
in Catholic Poland, where she was
born.]
Here's what she says about
herself, her pictures and this
museum (I
translate excerpts from the German
e-mails, which follow):
Dear Harry,
First I would like to mention
that I find your [Web] pages
very inventive and full of
information =). Especially great
is the idea of finding old ads
and showing how they've changed
through the years! I've really
enjoyed your virtual museum!
I'm an 18-year-old high school
student [the top high schools in
Germany and Austria, and
probably elsewhere in Europe,
last a year longer than in the
U.S.A., corresponding roughly to
the freshman college year in
America], live in Vienna, and
stumbled on your site last night
while looking for toxic shock
information on the 'Net. I'm
neither a professional artist
nor have much time to devote to
artistic activities, but I love
to paint and have already
painted two pictures with
menstrual blood and would like
to make my contribution to the
Internet exhibit.
Please send me a short e-mail
if you're interested in seeing
my work. [I love the German
language adoption of the English
word to use for sending e-mail:
mailen
{read her e-mail, below}.
German, just as English once did
from French and does from many
other languages, has taken in
many English words recently,
especially for pop culture and
technology. The English
parliament - "parliament" comes
from French - spoke French early
in its history, and French was
once widespread as the world's
diplomatic language, which still
retains many French expressions
(détente, for example).
Oops, I mean Freedom
expressions.]
Greetings,
Elvira
Lieber Harry,
Zu allererst möchte ich
erwähnen, dass ich Ihre
Seite sehr einfallsreich und
informationsreich finde =) Vor
allem die Idee, alte
Werbearitkel herauszusuchen und
zu präsentieren wie sie
sich im Laufe der Zeit
verändern ist wirklich
bewundernswert! Ich habe Ihr
"virtuelles" Museum sehr
genossen.
Ich bin eine 18jährige
Schülerin, wohne in Wien,
und bin gestern Abend auf ihre
Seite gestoßen
während ich im Netz nach
Formationen über Tss
gesucht habe. Ich bin weder eine
"professionele" Künstlerin,
noch habe ich besonders viel
Zeit meinen "künstlerischen
Tätigkeiten" nachzugehen,
doch ich male sehr gerne und
habe bereits 2 Bilder mit
Menstruationsblut gemalt, und
würde gerne zum Aufbau
dieser Internetausstellung
meinen Teil beitragen.
Ich bitte Sie, mir kurz zu mailen
falls Sie Interesse hätten
meine Werke zu sehen.
Liebe Grüße
Elvira
Dear Harry,
.... Two photos [the top two
on this page] show the same
picture in wet and dry
condition. I found it
interesting to see how blood
changed color as it dried.
I take it that you want to
know about my artistic
education, but I haven't any.
I can only say that I've liked
to paint to reduce stress and
relax.
Painting with menstrual
blood is new for me. I started
one and a half weeks ago
because I had negative feeling
about my pelvis (after the
diagnosis of a double uterus;
I've forgotten the medical
name for it) that I wanted to
get rid of. [Double uterus is
a condition in which, during
pregnancy, the non-pregnant
uterus might still menstruate,
which can be mistaken for a
miscarriage or abortion, which
often occurs anyway. But a
double uterus - see the
illustration, below - can by
itself mean infertility.
Sometimes the woman has a
double vagina, sometimes even
a double vulva. {This
information is from
Gynaecology Illustrated, by
Govan, Hodge and Callander,
New York, 1985.}] The pictures
represent for me very strong
and positive representations
of the Goddess. [Elvira wanted
to cut open her abdomen and
get rid of her abnormality,
but settled for painting
instead]
Because I got rid of at
least some of my negative
feelings in this way I hope to
have more opportunity in the
future to paint similar
pictures.
I hope you like them!
Greetings,
Elvira
The original German lies
beneath the next drawing.
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Elvira has a double
uterus, the red lines, which is
due to
a failure of development while she
herself was in the uterus. Her
doctor
told her that 15-20 percent of
women have a double uterus, but
one of these
wombs is small in half of the
women, unlike Elvira's. (I added
the red words;
the rest is part of the doctor's
note pad. "Eierstöcke" means
"ovaries" in German. Her doctor
drew this.
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Lieber Harry,
.... Zwei [Bilder] davon zeigen
ein und dasselbe Bild im
ungetrockneten und getrockneten
Zustand. Ich fand es interessant
zu sehen wie Blut die Farbe
ändert wenn es trocknet.
Ich nehme an Sie möchten
etwas über meinen
künstlerischen Werdegang
erfahren, doch da ich keine
Ausbildung oder ähnliches
in dieser Richtung besitze, kann
ich eigentlich nur sagen dass
ich schon immer gerne gemalt
habe um mich zu entspannen und
um Stress abzubauuen.
Allerdings ist mir das Malen
mit Menstruationsblut relativ
neu. Ich habe es erst vor
einenhalb Wochen versucht, weil
ich negative Gefühle, die
ich meinem Unterbauch
gegenüber aufgebaut habe (
nach der Diagnose von einer
Doppelten Gebärmutter , ich
weiß leider den
medizinischen Ausdruck nicht
mehr) abbauuen wollte. Die
Bilder stellen für mich
sehr stark und positiv wirkende
Göttinengestalten dar.
Da ich zumindest einen Teil von
meinen negativen Einstellungen
auf diesem Wege losgeworden bin,
hoffe ich auch in Zukunft noch
mehr Gelegenheiten zu haben
diese Art von Bildern zu malen.
Ich hoffe sie gefallen Ihnen!
Liebe Grüße
Elvira
See menstrual blood pictures
from another Viennese, Petra
Paul, and read an interview
with her
in the Neue Welt (New World)
newspaper. See the menstrual
blood pictures
of the vulva of the American
artist Tamara
Wyndham and her performance
art.
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NEXT
artist: Anne
Encephalon
See all the
artists in the links in
the left-hand
column.
If you create or own art
concerning menstruation or
menopause and
are interested in showing it on
thesepages (it's free!), contact
MUM
See
also
Bea Nettles' art The
Moonsisters
© 2003 Harry
Finley. It is illegal to reproduce
or distribute
work on this Web site in any
manner or medium without written
permission
of the author. Please report
suspected violations to hfinley@mum.org
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