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



   
 "The Contaminated"
(see the text below for explication of the paintings)
 "To Bleed Without Wound"
 "Strange Fruit"

The artist, Megan Morris, writes,

These paintings are part of a series inspired by a year-long study of menstrual superstitions. I am a senior illustration student, about to graduate from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design [in 2008], and the topic of menstrual superstitions was my senior thesis. I was attracted to this subject almost by chance, stumbling upon a few web sites (including this one [MUM]) that described a seemingly endless flood of myths that were arguably the most shocking and insanely comical beliefs I had ever read. Oddly enough, I was told that I was the only person in the history of that class that chose menstrual superstitions. My study, although endlessly fascinating to me and many of the women in my class, was unfortunately met with long uncomfortable silences in the beginning, and I had a difficult time getting feedback from my colleagues. But, the more I talked about it, the less uncomfortable everyone became. [That was my experience when people visited the museum in my house.] It was interesting to see the progress and change of both my own work and the class's involvement in it. What began in silence, ended in constant encouragement to push the boundaries of what to show visually - to be more graphic, more disturbing, more unflinching in my statement.

The paintings themselves were inspired by specific superstitions, like the accounts of "displaced bleeding," and the Greek philosopher Pliny's remark that fruit will rot and fall from the trees upon encountering a menstruating woman.

Most of the superstitions I was most inspired by were ancient or indigenous, but they are also what I felt most contributed to current taboos about menstruation.

In this series of paintings, I sought to confront the viewer with both the repugnance of the superstitions while still maintaining a bit of beauty in the figure. They are each 24" by 32", acrylic on wood. The first, "The Contaminated," was meant to show the human reproductive organs of a dismembered and faceless women, as the pollution beliefs may literally have imagined them to be. The second: "To Bleed Without Wound," juxtaposes stigmata with menstruation, as both instances, whether real or not, can be broken down to the same thing (bleeding without a wound) but one is revered as godly, the other as ungodly. And the third,"Strange Fruit," references superstitions about how menstruation causes decay, while also juxtaposing it to the life-bearing torso of a pregnant woman.

Next artist: M. Parfitt
See all the artists in the links at the top of 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


© 2008 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