Hi Friends!
If you’ve been keeping up with The Irregular Monthly over the past year, it will come as no surprise that 2014 was an AMAZING year for Beauty in Blood. If you’ve missed any issues of the newsletters, check out this brief snapshot what I’ve been up to with the art project:
I officially took the reigns as Documentation Coordinator with FAC.
Together with the help of many friends, family and supporters, we raised $2,070 through crowd-funding to support our FAC documentation efforts. YAY! Go Team!
And I started a monthly Tumblr blog to give people a behind-the-scenes look at Beauty in Blood. How I make the art, how I ended up working as a menstrual artist and that sort of thing.
Thanks to everyone who made 2014 a success!
Here’s to another year of bloody great feminist art and activism!!
What's Next?
With regards to original Beauty in Blood artwork, photographs taken in 2014 will be posted in our online gallery in mid-late January. Despite all our equipment issues during this past year, Rob and I still managed to create a stunning new body of blood art. I can’t spill the beans (or the blood?) yet but I can say these new works will be BIG!
The first half of 2015 will be devoted to exhibition planning efforts for Widening the Cycle, which will be held in Boston during the Society for Menstrual Cycle Research Conference on June 4-6. I just finished making my final selections and participating artists will be publicly announced very soon. In all 150 original works of art were submitted by 50 artists from 12 countries! These submissions far exceeded my hopes for the show and I’m ecstatic to have so many talented artists addressing menstrual stigma and reproductive justice. One thing is clear: it’s time to break the silence around menstruation. There are many artists who are interested in challenging and confronting outdated menstrual taboos as well as changing how menstruation is viewed culturally and celebrating all menstruating bodies.
The second half of the year will be focused on our participation with FAC again but this time in September. We’re looking forward to another year of documenting this incredible feminist gathering in Toronto. Watch for the FAC 2015 promotional video in January.
Between these two efforts, 2015 will also be our maiden voyage into collecting and photographing menstrual fluid from other bodies that menstruate. Beauty in Blood isn’t about making MY menstrual blood visible; it’s about making the MENSTRUAL CYCLE visible. Join me in quashing menstrual taboos by commissioning original art using YOUR menstrual fluid or by simply donating your monthly collection(s) to our menstrual blood bank.
Wishing you a Happy New Year! And all the bloody best,
