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- Jasmine Alicia Carter, 29, makes her artwork by ditching paint entirely for blood.
- And the mum reckons her unusual technique helps women worldwide love their bodies and menstrual cycles.
- "Blood is organic, and like all organic things, it gives this sense of aliveness that conventional paint can't give," she says.
"It is a transfer of a part of me, of my DNA, onto paper. Artistically it is certainly a very unique form of expression. The real benefits are more mental, physical, emotional, spiritual. It first started when I looked at my Blood from my pad and touched it, as I was looking at it for the first time with the innocent eyes of a child, I remember feeling so much love, so much intimate warmth and beauty like I never felt before," she says.
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"I wish for my art to inspire as many women as possible to come back closer to themselves and to feel exactly what I feel. Because in my helpless optimistic heart, I believe it can change the world."
Jasmine who's from Barcelona, Spain, has received significant support on social media since creating the works in 2014. Her mother has one of her paintings on her kitchen wall.
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Jasmine says, "I felt that to heal something of me, I had to begin accepting it and loving it first, so I couldn't find any better way to relate with my period than painting with it, and painting after painting, I fell more and more in love with this medium that I have never let go ever since. I barely paint with anything else right now. It's been one of the most therapeutic and life-changing experiences in my life."
She says when she stopped using industrial pads and tampons for menstrual cups her period odour completely neutral. "A broader type of audience such as Tiktok people go in a wide range of emotions: most of them are obviously disgusted, despised, intimidated. Many state that they have a good relationship with their periods but would never paint with it. Others are curious, impressed, shocked, drawn, and sometimes in-between, feeling disgusted, and interested at the same time," she shares.
"I'm used to this. My mother reacted really impulsively, but after a few days, she was mesmerised and has an original painting of mine hanging in the kitchen. That's when I felt I had something important to share with the world and this is way greater than what people think about me."
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Credit: Jasmine Alicia Carter / Caters News Agency/ MAGAZINEFEATURES.CO.ZA
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