Homemade ornaments

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I used to live in NYC and read ARTnews magazine and other artsy publications to keep on top of the contemporary art gallery scene. Of course there was much competition to produce exciting new work that might get you noticed during the art boom back then.
I remember about 20 years ago I read a feature article on a woman artist in NYC who had a show in a respected gallery. Her show consisted of her own saved used feminine pads, each one titled and preciously framed in a plexiglass box and hung on the wall. The names were inspired by the various interesting patterns of menstrual blood, sort of like the old ink blot tests. There were pads named things like "leaping rabbit", "sacrifice", or "lost in red canyon" etc. They looked like museum artifacts.
At first I was so grossed out. But after thinking about her "painting" her cotton canvases with her own female body, and giving value to something from our bodies that was usually shunned, hidden, and discarded, it began to make sense and I could appreciate it on a different level.
I know, weird story....but certainly this thread made me remember it. I wonder what that artist is doing now? Wish I could remember her name.
Nowadays there are lots of women artists using menstrual blood as a painting medium, etc,...but as I recall this woman was one of the first long ago, and it was quite shocking to the public back then.

The online Museum of Menstruation (MUM) is always fascinating place to wander about:
http://www.mum.org/index.html