Art+Menstruation=Mandalas
During a few days of every month, there is this “zing” in my veins that says to make something, make it now, make it messy, just do it and ignore everything else. So I do. The result is always something I would never make any other time of the month.
I did a brief Google search on art and menstruation and came across several taboos. There were drawings made with menstrual blood, artists displaying stained underwear, and blood spots chronicling their cycle day by day. The creative work I’m picturing here doesn’t connect to menstruation quite so literally–I used only paint pigment–but it still comes from a wilder creative source.
I think a woman’s brain can do amazing things (well, all month long) but can achieve an even more unique consciousness during menstruation.
I live in a culture that numbs out our cycles or tries to eliminate them entirely. Let me be clear that this “dark” time of the month is full of inconvenience and discomfort, but I still cherish them wholeheartedly, er, and whole-uterinely. Before and during my period, my dreams are more vivid. Strange shapes swoop in and leave just as quickly. The veil between consciousness and dreaming is thinner at this time. I believe in being spacey and menstruation ensures that I set aside time to dream.
Here’s to finding a centering and wholeness in our different cycles (of all sorts) and to talking openly and positively about menstruation.
