Menopause Painting

The work was exhibited at Cambridge University for the conference ‘Reinventing, Rethinking, and Representing Menopause: Beyond the interdisciplinary Paradigm’. The aim was to extend existing understandings of the menopause through the collective convergence of experts from creative and scholarly disciplines. The painting creatively broadens and deepens perception by providing a visual representation of a therapy session with a patient going through the menopause. The painting is expressive and not intended to look finished, indicative of the experience and phase at which the patient was at. In places a framed effect and impasto was used to build up areas in order to create layers representing depth and different aspects in the patient. The white protruding boxes reveal the patients projected feelings with the enwrapped canvas portraying containment of emotions. The painting symbolically displays the menstruation cycle with eggs decreasing, testosterone decline and ovaries losing their reproductive function; leading to emptiness and loss ‘the black box’. The black box also represents concepts and theories such as reversal of puberty and castration anxiety. The contrasting colours and techniques show changes in the body. The bright colours with the idea of bombardment of excitation, confusion and an eruption of a sexual body; developing during puberty. The pale sponged colours fading into the background representing what one once had and then lost with the drying up of a sexual body; found during menopause. I was influenced by current discussions in society about men and woman’s menopause. These conversations are reflected in the painting. Female and male body parts are symbolic of the unconscious masculine side of a woman and the unconscious feminine side of a man.

Multi-paneled Painting:Gouache on Canvas

Original:One-of-a-kind Artwork

Size:39.4 W x 39.4 H x 2.5 D in

Number of Panels:2

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