See art by Mayra Alpízar | Carlota Berard | Jennifer Boe | Roz Bonnet | Luiza Brown | Nikoline Calcaterra | Judy Chicago | Selin Cileli | Maldoror Capvt Corvi | Maribel Cruz | Thomasin Durgin | Natalie Aniela Dybisz | Elvira | Anne Encephalon | Hélène Epaud | Quiara Z. Escobar | Fanni Fazekas | Pat Fish | Julie Gaw | Gina | Kat Grandy | Martina Hoffmann (1 & 2) | Jelena | Judy Jones | Margaret Kalms | Brina Katz | Lorraine Lamothe | Ria Lee | Sharon Lee | Lana Leitch | Carol Nathan Levin | Katy Luxion | Sarah McCutcheon | Isa Menzies | Megan Morris | M. Parfitt | Petra Paul | Ana Elena Pena | Melina Piroso | Elentye Paulauskas-Poelker | Leigh Radtke | Jacquelyn Rixon | Isa Sanz | Vladislav Shabalin | Nelson Soucasaux | Paula Speakman | Alexandra Steiner | Melina Szapiro | Von Taylor | Jean Tracy | Joseph Tonna | Jessica Wagner | Jennifer Weigel | Terry Wunderlich | Tamara Wyndham | New Guinea menstrual hut carving
Art of Menopause by Coni Minneci
Ancient Peruvian menstrual art
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.
HOMEPAGE
CONTRIBUTE to Humor, Words and expressions about menstruation and Would you stop menstruating if you could?
Some MUM site links:
HOMEPAGE |
MUM address & What does MUM mean? |
Email the museum |
Privacy on this site |
Who runs this museum?? |
Amazing women! |
Art of menstruation (and awesome ancient art of menstruation) |
Artists (non-menstrual) |
Asbestos |
Belts |
Bidets |
Birth control and religion |
Birth control drugs, old |
Birth control douche & sponges |
Founder bio |
Bly, Nellie |
MUM board |
Books: menstruation & menopause (& reviews) |
Cats |
Company booklets for girls (mostly) directory |
Contraception and religion |
Contraceptive drugs, old |
Contraceptive douche & sponges |
Costumes |
Menstrual cups |
Cup usage |
Dispensers |
Douches, pain, sprays |
Essay directory |
Examination, gynecological (pelvic) (short history) |
Extraction |
Facts-of-life booklets for girls |
Famous women in menstrual hygiene ads |
FAQ |
Feminine napkin, towel, pad directory |
Founder/director biography |
Gynecological topics by Dr. Soucasaux |
Humor |
Huts |
Links |
Masturbation |
Media coverage of MUM |
Menarche booklets for girls and parents |
Miscellaneous |
Museum future |
Norwegian menstruation exhibit |
Odor |
Olor |
Pad, towel, napkin directory |
Patent medicine |
Poetry directory |
Products, some current |
Puberty booklets for girls and parents|
Religion |
Religión y menstruación |
Your remedies for menstrual discomfort |
Menstrual products safety |
Sanitary napkin, towel, pad directory |
Seguridad de productos para la menstruación |
Science |
Shame |
Slapping, menstrual |
Sponges |
Synchrony |
Tampon directory |
Early tampons |
Teen ads directory |
Tour of the former museum (video) |
Towel, pad, sanitary napkin directory |
Underpants & panties directory |
Videos, films directory |
Words and expressions about menstruation |
Would you stop menstruating if you could? |
What did women do about menstruation in the past? |
Washable pads |
Read 10 years (1996-2006) of articles and Letters to Your MUM on this site.
Leer la versión en español de los siguientes temas: Anticoncepción y religión, Breve reseña - Olor - Religión y menstruación - Seguridad de productos para la menstruación.


The Art of Menstruation at the Museum of Menstruation and Women's Health




 
Day 1
 
 Day 2
 Day 3

The artist Jennifer Weigel writes,

I am a visual artist in St. Louis, Missouri, and have been making art about (and sometimes using) menstruation in order to raise cultural awareness and lessen the social stigma associated with it, although I create other types of work as well. I've included some information on the Menstruation series that I have compiled. My Menstruation series has been shown in upstate New York, although I have (as expected) run into several roadblocks in regards to getting this work shown.  There are also other pieces about menstruation involving acrylic stained clothing and the like, but they haven't been shown as of yet.

Anyway, I love your website and thought that this series of my work seems relevant, so I've since decided to share it with you.  You're welcome to check out some of my other work anyway, if you're curious.  Also, you should look up Vanessa Tiegs' blood moon paintings - they're just great.

Anyway, thanks so much for MUM - great idea and an inspiration to us all.

Jennifer Weigel

visual artist

http://home.earthlink.net/~cwilbur202/

Description of Work (from the Menstruation series):

This is a series of bodily function monoprints made in Jan. 2005. First thing each morning during the week of my monthly period, I pressed my menstrual vagina to the watercolor paper to make these prints. Due to the somewhat unpredictable nature of this exercise, each piece is its own unique experience, although the method and materials remain the same throughout. However, they still form a cohesive whole.

Artist's Statement on Menstruation (from her experiences):

Menstruation is still a fairly taboo topic. It is often an avoided aspect of a woman's existence even though PMS is blamed for all sorts of angry outbreaks and mood swings, many of which have nothing to do with it. Since it is a culturally taboo topic, menstruation doesn't often appear in conversation except in certain types of gross-out humor and among groups of women, who sometimes have chat sessions comparing their experiences.

A girl's first period is often a dreaded part of parenthood, since her body is asserting that she is, in fact, growing up. She is no longer a little girl and could now even have a baby of her own. As a result, this major life change is not readily celebrated as a step towards womanhood, and, like many other bodily changes, it can bring shame or guilt instead.

Most women try to conceal any evidence that they are on "that time of the month." Some wear padded mattresses in their panties to collect any evidence, shameful of any seepage that might occur. Others discreetly dash into the store to buy a box of tampons, often burying it among other items or using the self-checkout. A few even limit their attire and their activities so that they are unlikely to encounter any embarrassing incidents.

Some women have sought ways to better understand their bodies and their menstrual cycles as a decisive step towards celebrating womanhood. Several women have made "blood moon paintings" by collecting and using their menstrual blood, most notably including Vanessa Tiegs, who keeps an ongoing journal of paintings.

While continuing to redefine the idea of art and artmaking, I am also seeking to help demystify this process of the female body. By making art about menstruation and even using the by-products of this natural occurrence, I also hope that I might encourage more women to find ways to celebrate their own cycles through art.

She later wrote,

In regards to my limitations showing this work, I have submitted it to a local art party celebrating women in the arts multiple times now, but it hasn't been accepted as part of the exhibited work. They have shown some fairly provocative work, often centered on cultural perceptions of beauty and body image, so I was surprised that they didn't jump on the opportunity to show these pieces. I'll probably try again, for the third time, this year, though. They get different jurors each time, so it's just a matter of time.  And I don't hold it against the show, since there are so many great pieces of art out there, and I know that a lot of really relevant pieces are rejected from shows simply because there isn't enough space to show them all. I have also tried to find venues to show some of my other pieces about menstruation to little avail, but I'll keep on trying. It always depends on what has been submitted and on how open-minded the gallery is. The more subtle pieces tend to do better. I have managed to show some of these works in upstate New York, however. And I've shown some menstruation jewelry wherein I used beads to symbolize different days of the month, with unakite representing ovulation (since it is often associated with fertility and rebirth) and various light brown and red beads of different sizes and shapes to depict the menstrual cycle itself. These pieces were so popular once the symbology behind them was explained that they were purchased before the show even opened! (They required an explanation simply due to their subtlety.)

It seems to me that, in regards to the topic of menstruation, a lot of people would rather simply look the other way and not have to think about it or be confronted by it. I think that's part of why I'm finding it difficult to show some of these works, because they're controversial even though they really shouldn't be. But I feel that until women learn to accept every aspect of their bodies and embrace their coming of age into womanhood, they can't ever really appreciate what it means to be a woman. We need to learn to celebrate ourselves and our bodies, not hide from them.

I create other sorts of artwork as well, but I prefer to make artwork that causes people to think and not just more pretty pictures. If you want, you can look at some of my other work on my website at http://home.earthlink.net/~cwilbur202/  I've been planning to create a subsection in mixed media for my art about menstruation, but it's simply been too long since I updated the site and I haven't gotten around to it yet. I'm hoping to get some of these pieces photographed and uploaded in the not-too-distant future, once I find the time between shows.

Anyway, I have attached the first three pieces (Days 1 - 3) from the Menstruation series, as noted in my earlier email. As anticipated, they have darkened a bit with age, so if I were to scan the other 3 now, they wouldn't match. Day 3 is probably my personal favorite because it looks like a rather eloquent abstract painting. If you are interested in seeing some images of some of my other work about menstruation, I can shoot some digital photos and email them. One piece is a physical manifestation of a woman's Coming of Age. The next main piece in this series is still in its formative stages, though, but it will be a design for a site-specific installation. If the piece is accepted and actually installed for the show, I'll let you know and will email photos. Also, once you acquire a physical space in which to house the museum, let me know as I would love to donate a piece of work.

If you get the opportunity, you should really look into Vanessa Tiegs' work and see if she wouldn't mind for you to link to her site somewhere or to interview her for the museum (if you can still find her website - it keeps moving around). Her paintings are stunningly beautiful.

Thanks so much for putting together such a wonderful museum and record of how we perceive of menstruation in different cultures. It is an invaluable resource.  I am looking forward to perusing the rest of the site when I get the opportunity - there is a huge font of information there!  I have already emailed it to several friends of mine whom I thought would greatly appreciate it as well.  Anyway, take care and thanks again.

- Jennifer

NEXT page of Jennifer Weigel's work.

NEXT artist: Terry Wunderlich
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 these pages (it's free!), contact MUM


© 2006 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