STORIES IN RED

I created this painting to honour the sacred feminine, the power and beauty of being a woman.

The serpent, the rose, the yoni, they hold deep meaning for me:

The Serpent: Just as a snake sheds her skin, we as women also go through death and rebirth during our menstruation. With our bleed, we let go. We transform.

The Rose: A symbol of the divine feminine. Its petals and scent remind us of beauty, sensuality, love, and tenderness. Its thorns represent strength, protection, and boundaries, just as the feminine holds both softness and resilience.

The Yoni: The vulva is sacred, beautiful, and perfect in every form. Like a flower, it blooms in its own time. When we honour it, we reconnect with our womb’s magic, the gateway to our power.

by siyibloom

The portal between life, death & the in-between within the female body.

In the depths of the womb, the process of creation & of release coexist, a perpetual rebirth.

The cycle of change & transformation in constant motion.

This is my ode to the body that holds life & the blood that carries it.

By vagabondlove

I cannot stress enough on the importance of women connecting with their cycle, with their blood.

We are tought that it’s something we have to hide or stuff a cotton tampon into us which brings so many problems. Did you know that menstruation in some countires is thought of as a curse, as something demonic, as something to be ashamed of.

I remember the only place I learned what mensutruation is was in school where the teacher told us that with it comes the possibility to get pregnant and showed tampons and pads to use. That’s it.

No one ever shared how this time of the month is the most sacred period where the woman is connected to her body and psyche the deepest ways possible.

That this is nothing to be ashamed of.

I was like so many of us until I started actually asking questions about it and connecting to this time, to the whole cycle. How my moods change, how do I feel in the body, coming to know that painful period is a stress response.

Looking deeper into it lead me to stop using anything while bleeding already 2 years ago. Yes, my pants are bloody and I paint my body and face and paper with it. Yes I allow myself to actually connect with my blood, not hiding it. Yes I’m openly talking about it.

This is the most women I have ever felt in my life. Most sensual, sexual, liberated, free and connecting with my blood has been a huge step towards it.

Allowing myself to love me fully.

By jandalaart

I feel that painting with my blood is being part of a gigantic river that is slowly cracking open the man made walls that have been constructed to keep this mighty force in check, to prevent this river from flowing full force as it always has been one with mother earths veins.

Every painting is moving myself deeper to my essential unique path and perhaps opening up small streams for other woman to start gently looking at their own their own blood, questioning, exploring, inviting curiosity to look, touch, smell, taste who they are.

To invite all sisters to remember that you are

not seperate from your blood, not seperate from you womb, not seperate from your yoni, not seperate from your breasts, your body!

Your blood is not a dirty waste product.
Sisters you are not dirty when you bleed.

Girls you are not dirty when you bleed.

Womb sisters you are not dirty!

You are creaters, caretakers of this earth, of one another, vessels of life.

By rhythm_weaver

Painting with menstrual blood is activism for environmental awareness and body positivity,

honoring this natural process with reverence and respect, transforming stigma and shame and waking up to the fact that our bodies are suffering in the same ways as the body of the earth.

Our menstrual blood contains the nutrients to grow new life.

It is miraculous potential for creation and renewal.

Thinned down with water it is a fertilizer for plants. It is a way to give back to the earth instead of only taking.

May we cherish life in all its forms, working towards a world where we are in deep resonance with each other again. Where love triumphs over hatred and creation conquers destruction.

By path.weavers

At the age of 24, in the year 2019 I realised that I kept inviting the same old drama, the same old abuse, the same old patterns. Only after experiencing emotional and sexual abuse from a relationship I was never supposed to be in did I wake up from my catatonia.

I was battered and bruised. My body did not feel like mine. I spent more time in a frozen state, withholding my breath than breathing life into my body, mind, and spirit. The goal was always to escape the pain and run to the rubles of illusion I had built as a safe harbor since I was 10.

Finally, I had to confront my mother wound and proclaim to myself, “ I am growing roots now. I am tired of running in circles.” That was probably also when I realized my root chakra needed profound healing.

I withdrew from the outside world to slash and burn all the weeds that thrived in my mind, spirit, and soul. I carefully planted new seeds of growth and tended to them. I nurtured hope in my mind. I started to heal my body- physical, mental, and emotional. I took myself away from doctors who told me that the treatment for my medical ailments was a 404-not-found. I knew I would heal myself and blossom to my highest version.

I watched my garden without ever taking my eyes off it. I poured my blood, sweat, and tears to awaken and reawaken myself to the truth of who I am—every damn day.

Using my menstrual blood, I create a talisman affirming my rebirth and reawakening in 2019. The transformation from a muddied brown to a vibrant red from 2019 to 2024 symbolizes my journey in the last five years.

By varsha_pillai_vp

Painting with my menstrual blood has been an illuminating and liberating experience. Working with the waters of my body has allowed me to cleanse and be reborn as the artist I was always meant to be. The process gifts me strength, passion, curiosity, play and softness all at once. With each stroke and splatter I feel myself transmute past pain into present power. I free myself and all of the women that came before me and pray to invite an openness to the women here now and after me. An initiation into the Underworld, a decension into the roots. An altar of devotion. The path of the rose. The spiral.

I channel the divine feminine and am surrounded by the goddess, deities and ancestors that desire to carry a message of love through my blood. Our Earth, our body, is a creator and the closer we merge with her the more we can access our deepest wisdom. The womb, the cave. In this space I am aligned with purpose. Where there is death, there is life…my blood reminds me of this truth even in the darkest of Winters.

By sensualfairyalchemy

We contain within ourselves so many possibilities that they overflow, they pour out of us.

I am happy to have found a way to honor the creative energies that inhabit me through art, to celebrate them, to give them the opportunity to show me what they are made of.

Femininity is a misunderstood gift, but the more we accept to listen to it, the more we are blown away by the beauty and the truth of its messages.

Let’s not hide, but let our energies drown everything to create a world we actually want to live in. 

By asrel_art

Divine vessel, container of the depths

Of mystery and love.

The sacred feminine and her thirst for freedom,

To roar, to scream, to dance with every cell of our being.

It is the lava that overflows, that cooks deep inside, with the strength and breath of millions from behind.

It is the rose, it is the thorn, it is the petal and the flower.

It is the water that transpires in the morning with the sun, drop by drop moisturizing with love

Remembering that softness calms all the pain

For all the mothers,

For our wombs ,

For our blood,

Through the portal that we are

Portals of life

Portals of love

Honoring today and always, the power and incredible gift that being a woman gives us.

By wana_vibras 

This rich familiar color.. so intimate.. so alive.. the metallic aroma and defined earthy red pigment…drawing lines and curves to take me back home to my house of joy and wisdom.

By marwa_aboukhalil

This is my son, born after “19 years of gestation” thanks to the gift of menstrual blood from two of my precious sisters. The blood of these sisters channeled a powerful healing ritual of the female collective.

The birth of this child occurred gradually, thanks to a long and profound reworking after a miscarriage.

He was born through a painting in which my hands trembled with joy and disbelief, on a cold December afternoon, in him I found all the love I had experienced up to that moment, the final push that gave birth to him saw me hold on hand the man that my soul had always known existed. He is an Italian/Indian child.

By fedra_celeghin

I started painting with my menstrual blood in my freshman year of university. I remember it felt like a sacred experience, one I needed to keep quiet about, one that felt mischievous and thrilling at the same time.

Holding my full menstrual cup over a piece of A3 paper on the floor of my dorm room, I felt a moment of stillness, and proceeded to pour the whole cup onto my canvas.

I stared at it for a moment, deciding what to do with what just happened. I decided to use my fingers to move the red paint around. Without any idea or desire for it to look a certain way, a moment later, something appeared beneath my finger tips.

I saw an image, a figure, a silhouette of a woman kneeling down with her head and arm held up high. I froze as I saw her. My chest opened. I felt soft, raw, and receiving. A smile hugged my face. My eyes drifted inward. I was home with myself.

I saw an angel in front of me, created from me, by me. Wow. Now 10 years later, I still think of my first period drawing. I regret that I do not have a picture of it, and even threw it out two days later thinking it was going to smell or rot (which it doesn’t)…. And I’m sure there was a tinge of fear in me if someone else would to find it..

How would i explain myself? Time. Learning. Listening. Today. my moments with my period are ones I cherish each month. To create from my source. To see this powerful fluid that has nourished every human being that’s ever lived inside their mother’s womb. The Potential of Menstrual Blood.

Thank you, life, for making me a woman.

By sensitive.cycles