An Art Movement Started in 2000 Reframing Humanity's Oldest Taboo through the Body's Magnetic Medium
by Vanessa Tiegs (Venus Geist)
Former Ballerina, Magnetic Astrologer,
Originator of Menstrala, Monthmatics & La Menstra
Galaxy Crossing, the iconic painting of the Menstrala Art Movement representing the phoenix rising from menstrual blood painted on October 18, 2002.
What is Menstrala
Menstrala is a living archive of menstrual‑blood paintings created between 2000 and 2003 — eighty‑eight original works that transformed a private biological cycle into a public aesthetic force. It reframed menstrual blood not as waste, shame, or secrecy, but as a magnetic medium, capable of imprinting the cyclical intelligence of the body onto paper.
Each work is a field trace — a toroidal imprint of movement, breath, rhythm, and intention — created through the body’s own electromagnetic signature. Menstrala became the first art movement in history to treat menstrual blood as a legitimate artistic medium, a cosmological language, and a site of cultural reclamation.
Menstrala: October Flight, requested & served to the Vatican's website domain less than a month after being published in October 2002.
Origins of the Movement (2000-2003)
Menstrala emerged at the turn of the millennium, during a cultural moment when the menstrual cycle was still largely hidden, medicalized, or stigmatized. Through disciplined artistic practice, Vanessa Tiegs generated a body of work that broke the taboo not through provocation, but through beauty, geometry, and field coherence.
The movement quickly gained international attention, inspiring dialogue across art, feminism, anthropology, and embodied cosmology. Today, Menstrala stands as a foundational archive in the global history of menstrual art.
Why Menstrala Matters
Menstrala restores the menstrual cycle to its rightful place as a source of intelligence, not a site of shame.
It offers:
A new aesthetic vocabulary
A new cosmological framework
A new cultural relationship to the body’s magnetic field
A new lineage of menstrual literacy
It is both an art movement and a cultural correction.
Explore Menstrala
Navigate the full Menstrala constellation through the pages below:
The Menstrala Story — its origin, history, and cultural emergence
The Menstrala Gallery — the 13 of the 88 original works in the series
The Menstrala Method — medium, process, field dynamics, and toroidal imprint
Artist Statement — the philosophical and aesthetic foundation
Press & Publications — articles, interviews, and catalog essays
Permissions & Licensing — usage, reproduction, and exhibition rights
Contact for Exhibitions — inquiries for galleries and institutions
A Note on Authorship
Menstrala is an original, singular body of work created solely by Vanessa Tiegs. All Menstrala artworks — including original paintings, drawings, photographs, scans, and digital reproductions — are protected under U.S. and international copyright law. No image may be copied, reproduced, printed, exhibited, published, stored, transmitted without a formal licensing agreement. Commercial use, editorial use, academic use, and AI‑training or derivative‑generation strictly require licensing and royalty fees. Unauthorized use of Menstrala artworks is strictly prohibited.
Menstrala Licensing Request Form
(For reproduction, publication, exhibition, or AI‑derivative permissions)