Sarita Kvam

“Darling, it’s her Red Period” is a series of abstract drip paintings produced using menstrual blood. These paintings were created during my stay in Mexico City, where I experienced a brilliant education in Mexican culture, including its art, music, dance and its specific brand of patriarchy – machismo. Though these paintings were initially a direct response to the aggressions of machismo, they have come to reflect a lifetime’s experience with sex-based discrimination. The feminist paintings demonstrate an ownership of body and a rejection of patriarchal doctrine that restricts female expression. By taking that which is often labeled as embarrassing and dirty and using it to create, “Darling, it’s her Red Period” is ultimately an expression of liberation.