After a few years of experimenting and creating art with melted plastic bags in the spring of 2018 I began making art with melted plastic from menstrual product wrappers. My first mixed media pieces portrayed ladies. I have fun naming them with titles that include words that I find on the packaging. Here is Ultraand here is Always Radiant and Carefree
The process lends itself to play as I move the shapes created after melting the plastic until the forms are visually pleasing to me and I begin to see the space where a face will go. The pieces are completed with acrylic paint and/or ink.
The action of using menstrual product wrappers brings up many themes related to menstruation as well as recycling such as metamorphosis, transformation, and growth. There is still so much stigma and shame related to menstruation when it is a natural, biological process that is all about the process of change, of growth, and of health. Taking common materials and creating beauty with them is like taking our common thoughts and creating positive affirmations that then make our daily lives into masterpieces of living. There is a magic in these transformations.