FEMESSENCE

The Why

It is safe for me to be seen.

When I was eighteen, my seventeen-year-old friend came to stay with me in the city.

I didn’t know until later that she had undergone labiaplasty. Her boyfriend had made a shaming comment about her vulva. She was so embarrassed she lied about why she’d had surgery — said she’d been to the dentist.

That moment stayed with me. It planted a seed.

Twenty years later, I’m still working out what to do with it.

Femessence is what it grew into — a body of work that began as a quiet act of defiance and became something I couldn’t have predicted. Thirty-three women. Thirty-three portraits. Thirty-three invitations to look at yourself without flinching.

I was a child of the 1980s, raised in a world that felt disconnected, sterile, and technocratic. This work is my response to that world. A return to the rooted, the reverent, and the embodied. It allows me to become the person I longed for in my own youth — someone to offer guidance and hold space for what’s been shamed into silence.

These portraits are not simply representations. They are living embodiments of the feminine in all her tenderness, complexity, and power.

How it started

During lockdown in 2020, a friend came to me saying she wanted her vulva photographed — not for anyone else, but to display at home and slowly start a relationship with a part of herself she’d always avoided. She couldn’t get a photographer. I offered to draw her instead.

She printed the portrait and hung it on her wall. When a man came over and asked what it was, she told him without a flicker of shame:

that’s me.

He said:

oh yeah.

That lightness. That pride. That’s what started everything.

I was so moved by her vulnerability that I knew this was something other women needed too. Her bravery inspired me to deepen my own relationship with my body — and to open the offering to others.

Being feminine in nature, the experience multiplied. It became a sacred mirror for women who have crossed thresholds and now guide others. It became a legacy for the young women I support through rites of passage programs. It became a celebration for women who are just beginning to build a relationship with their bodies, or who are ready to honour themselves more fully.

This was a project born from women, and shaped by every woman who has been part of it since.

Read more about her experience HERE 

Why this work exists

1 in 4 women have negative feelings toward their vulva.

1 in 5 people aged 16–24 have considered cutting or bleaching their own.

Many women have never looked at their own vulva — or seen anyone else’s.

Unless you work in healthcare or have sexual experiences with other women, you’re unlikely to encounter any vulva but your own. Female rites of passage, menstruation, and self-pleasure are framed with shame in most societies. So it’s no surprise that many women carry a quiet hatred toward a part of themselves they’ve never truly seen.

The main reference points are pornography and outdated medical textbooks. Neither is an accurate or loving mirror.

It takes work like this — and women willing to look and talk — to understand that vulvas come in infinite forms. That all of them are powerful, extraordinary, and unique.

Making art of your vulva may seem strange and intimate. It can also be immensely liberating. It is an opportunity to address your body, accept it, and learn that it is beautiful, normal, and yours to celebrate.

“Your perception of yourself affects your experiences in life.”

Clients have noticed an array of changes after committing to this work — some expected, some surprising. Not because the portrait magically fixed anything, but because being seen — truly seen — shifts something that had been held in the dark for a long time.

What Women Experience

Women who have been through this process describe it in different ways — a return to themselves they didn’t know they’d been waiting for. Deeper connection to their body and its sensations. Permission to love being a woman. A relationship with their creative centre they didn’t know was possible. Closer alignment with who they actually are. And sometimes, simply — more confidence, more aliveness, more of themselves showing up in their own life.

Also: do what the f**k you want.

Femessence Vulva Portrait Oracle

Coming 2028

This series is becoming something.

Thirty-three vulva portraits. Thirty-three real women. Each one carrying a single word — a word that holds an invitation, a direction, and a reflection. Together they form a journey from arrival to self-trust.

The Femessence oracle deck is luxury, limited, and unlike anything else on the market. Gold foil edges. Velvet matte finish. A vulva-as-rose on the back of every card. Each arc of the deck carries its own palette — the colours shifting from soft sand and gilded warmth through deep periwinkle and gold as you move toward the threshold.

It was made for women’s circles, rites of passage ceremonies, healing spaces, and the woman sitting alone at midnight who needs to hear something true.

Pre-orders open mid-2027. Register below to be first.

Caris Pepper
Visual Artist + Arts Therapist

Creative Revolution

#evulvalution #femessence

Curious about a vulva portrait commission?

Book a complimentary discovery call – a safe and supportive space to ask questions, explore the process, and see if it feels right. No pressure. No obligation. Just a conversation.

“My portraits are more than representations. They are embodiments of the feminine in all its complexity, power, and tenderness.

Through this work, I want women to feel truly seen and to recognise themselves as whole, as enough, and to be quietly reminded that they are not alone.”

I’m Caris Pepper – visual artist and registered arts therapist based in Western Australia.

I’ve held a Masters in Creative Arts Therapy since 2019 and am PACFA-accredited. I’m also a Reiki Master, clairvoyant practitioner, and Rites of Passage facilitator for girls aged 12–16. My practice combines psychology, self-inquiry, energy healing, and creative process – because in my experience, they were never separate to begin with.

The Femessence series has been part of my practice since 2019. It is the most personal body of work I make, and the one I am most proud of.

I have been selected for the Bundanon Art Residency and my work has been exhibited across Australia and internationally.

If you have questions about the project, the process, or the deck – I’d love to hear from you.