A Worldwide Art Movement Started in 2000
Reframing Humanity's Oldest Taboo
by Vanessa Tiegs aka Venus Geist, Former Ballerina, Magnetic Astrologer,
Mother of Menstrala, Monthmatics & La Menstra Derivatives
Galaxy Crossing, the iconic painting of the Menstrala Art Movement representing the phoenix rising from menstrual blood painted on October 18, 2002.
Silverfish Spirits, the first of 88 Menstrala created at the turn of the millennium in September 2000.
Silverfish Spirits
In September 2000, nine months into the turn of the millennium and at the age of 33, Vanessa Tiegs published the 1st of her 88 Menstrala paintings while earning her master's degree in Women's Spirituality at New College of California in San Francisco with thesis advisor, Judy Grahn, PhD, author of Blood, Bread & Roses: How Menstruation Created the World (1993).
Vanessa had spent the 90's decade visiting Neolithic archaeological sites across Old Europe (as far south as Malta, Sardinia & Crete to as far east as Prague). She even entered The Hal Saflieni Hypogeum in Malta, during its 10-year long conservation project before it reopened to the public in 2000.
Her curiosity led her to study Hellenistic Astrology, lunar cycles, Jungian archetypal psychology and the menstrual cycle. This exploration inspired her monthly mandalas which eventually became her art collection of 88 Menstrala. She uploaded her artworks, which she called "pain things" at the time, to LiveJournal.com, one of the earliest blogs to exist on the worldwide web. She also answered her viewers' most FAQ.
A Journal of Pain Things
What began as A Journal of Pain Things, grew into a grassroots art movement. Someone reposted her paintings on Metafilter.com. Consequently, satirical memes sent Ruby Red, Timandra & Bulis and Before My Door to wider audiences. The exposure prompted social experiments, such as a two-time attempted print exhibit onboard the United States Navy Supercarrier, USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63) in 2003. In 2009, Dave Navarro, the guitarist in the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers reached out to do an art collab in San Francisco.
Checked Out by The Vatican
The biggest surprise for Menstrala came on November 9th, 2002. Less than a month after it was published online, the Vatican's website domain requested and served October Flight.
Menstrala: October Flight, requested & served to the Vatican's website domain less than a month after being published in October 2002.
Today, more than 200 academic publications mention the artist and 28 papers already exist with "Menstrala" in the full text according to Academia.edu the website used by thousands of universities around the world.
Artist's Statement:
Why I Painted with the Forbidden Medium
The medium is the message.
As a fertility signal, menstrual blood imparts deep psychological impact on human consciousness. It is rooted in humanity's memory; the first scent at birth is mother's blood.
All blood is mother's menstrual blood.
To most, the slightest mention leaves a stigma the likes of social suicide.
During her monthly renewal, her menstrual blood inevitably drips onto her fingertips and behind private doors she deals with washing and flushing it away. Women are not supposed to realize its nutrients can revive dead plants or fertilize soil. As many as 500 menstruations are conceivable over the course of her life if menarche starts at age 10, menopause sets in by 50, and she does not give childbirth or have a hysterectomy.
The hidden origins of the taboo could annihilate pubescent embarrassment in an instant, if it were taught.
As the mother of Menstrala, my artworks set the stage for teens and young women to continue this universal academic art movement.
Rendering art using menstrual blood is now a valid chosen medium. See my Menstrala painting, "Ruby Red," featured in Kotex's recent documentary, Art's Missing Period. April 2026.
Menstruators can un-silence their periods, as menstruation is one of woman's five blood mysteries. Daughters can reclaim menstrual honor, awe, esteem, value, pride and confidence.
May more Menstrala artists (Menstralists) deconstruct the taboo and replace it with the true "fem-centric" viewpoint, which puts life into lunar cyclical time. To enable this, I invented the Monthmatics Lunarscope, a scalable digital clock face that plots events into any cycle.
The earliest sacred rites utilized menstrual blood, evidenced in Aboriginal caves depicting a woman holding her hand over her womb implying that women's menstrual blood rites were the first human rights. Cosmetics (body war paint, nail polish, tattoos, piercings and make-up) originate from cosmetikos, the ordering of chaos in the cosmos through the use of menstrual blood as a means to communicate.
Menstruating between child births, often during the dark moon phase, necessitated counting and calendaring, thus producing mathematics, which etymologically contains "mama," the first word infants most commonly can speak.
The five blood mysteries of womanhood--menarche, menstruation, hymen defloration, child birthing and menopause--remain deeply traceable at the roots of cultures worldwide. We can find the words taboo (tapua meaning sacred in Polynesian) and ritual (r'tu meaning menstrual act in Sanskrit) referring to menstrual blood. Parallel blood rites for boys & men also developed from women's menstrual rites and other sexual rites of passage. See Dr. Judy Grahn’s book, “Blood Bread & Roses: How Menstruation Created the World” (1993).
Menstrala validate using electromagnetic nutrient rich naturally shed blood plasma as a medium.
Visit Kotex's New Online Gallery
Menstrala Visually Connect the Lunar Cycles & Earth's Four Seasons
Cycle Logical Disassociation Is A Disservice to Humanity
For countless years, women have been battling chronic menstrual issues in connection with lunar cycle disassociation and insufficient cycle logical advice. For a look into new approaches, follow the ground-breaking scientifically backed work of Dr. Stacy Sims: Next Gen. The unnecessary reality of menstrual poverty around the world reveals the lack of educational programs needed to introduce and teach "mindful menstruation practices" to adolescent girls.
Setting The Stage For Girls
The Menstrala Art Movement sets the stage for girls, teens & young women to have a valid means of expressing their womanhood experiences so that next generations can freely self-define their reproductive cycle on their own terms, creatively, artistically & spiritually.
Film Appearances
Menstrala have appeared in film productions:
Period: The End of Menstruation
Moon Inside You
A Flowering Tree
Art's Missing Period by Kotex
1st International Menstrala Competition, 2014
With Over 100 Entries
In 2014, the University of Mexico organized the 1st International Menstrala Competition and invited me to serve on the jury.
Value
Menstrala support educational health programs, such as CeMCOR's Endowment Fund. The Centre for Menstrual Cycle & Ovulation Research at the University of British Columbia promotes new medical standards in women's health.
