Daisy with Peacock Flower - Limited Edition of 10 Artwork

My work explores female identity in a male-centric society. I create digital collages incorporating 19th-century imagery with an infusion of fantasy based on historical and symbolic references. I give names to the women in my series so that each has a personal identity, something women did not have during their lifetime when they were considered to be the property of their husbands. This series focuses on the diminishing options of a woman's right to choose. Abortion was legalized in 1973 but it was not always illegal. Abortion had been an accepted form of birth control since ancient Mesopotamia. It was not until the late nineteenth century that abortion became illegal. There are many reasons for this and some include the Catholic Church, physicians (male) who did not approve of competition from female midwives and healers, the fear that the women’s suffrage movement would take women away from their traditional roles as wives and mothers. Currently, a woman’s right to choose is under attack. A record number of measures restricting abortions have made it increasingly difficult for women to have access to get abortions. In these images, I incorporate traditional herbs and flowers that have been used as forms of birth control since ancient times.