Artist Statement: 

Phase Shift is a triptych depicting three women in menopause. These pieces celebrate life’s milestones and look at menopause through a positive lens rather than seeing it as a medical inconvenience. The women in this work are illustrated with a realness and comfort often denied to women portrayed in media, especially aging women. They are shown with signs of wrinkles, with fat on their bodies, and unapologetically taking up space as they navigate through their lives. These women reflect back to the female ancestors that came before them and look forward to the generations that come after them with the imagery of the nesting dolls. They embrace this stage of life as they are surrounded by herbal components that aid in menopause, a family tree, the moon, and a snake symbolizing the Feminine Divine. These elements show growing familiarity with nature, with time, with Deity, and with family. The familiarity that comes with embracing life’s elements as aging occurs. The women are at ease with who they have become and take cues from the moon as they experience the natural shifts that occur throughout life’s many phases. 

Guest artist Lauren Walke is an illustrator living amongst the folklore and trees of Appalachia. She creates art based on ritual, stories, and the aspects that call (loudly) to her.

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This post is part of the series Menopause and Me.