Strength
Digital Drawing · Femessence Series · Vulva Art for Radical Self Acceptance
A collective journey of radical self acceptance, worth and opportunity to receive adoration. My intention for this series of work is for increased embodiment and spiritual awareness. It’s an opportunity for women to see, appreciate, accept, and approve of themselves, and realise their power and ability to create — magic, life, relationships, art.
Whilst the subject matter has evoked reactions and conversations around culture, gender specific values, experiences and opinions, this is not intended to be political or gendered. More of a self appreciation and acknowledgement of the spiritual and creative power of the feminine essence. Hence — Femessence.
Acknowledging women’s sacred space and building a relationship with our bodies is a process which can bring you back into alignment and understanding. Simply, I believe we are created to create. By acknowledging our creative centres and power as females, this is a step towards creating the life we desire.
The artwork created is not mine — it’s the beauty of others represented on paper. It was a co-creation and I thank and appreciate every one of the participants in this series for their grace, beauty, vulnerability and bravery.
As an arts therapist it’s not about the end piece entirely — it’s about the process of making the art and the beauty of the journey behind the piece. From the photography, to the conversations, to the displaying of the final pieces and emotions that occur, and the gifts that are exchanged after the work is complete. It’s a forever evolving experience — the start of a new intersubjective relationship.
Thank you to all for joining the experience and being a part of the creative process.
Card 24 · Femessence Series · 2022
Strength
Age 38 · Caucasian background · Vaginal birth: No



She came to connect with feminine energy. She left more comfortable in her own skin — more at ease with her body, more willing to be seen without covering. Her testimony is spare and honest. She was not totally accepting before. She is becoming more comfortable now. That is the whole story, and it is enough.
“Everyone is so different and there is no one body type, shape or ideal of beauty.”
I chose this to connect with feminine energy. Before the artwork I was not totally accepting of my body. After the artwork I am becoming more comfortable being nude.
To her teenage self
Everyone is so different and there is no one body type, shape or ideal of beauty.
Strength is not force. It is the deep kind — found on the other side of resistance, when a woman stops fighting herself and starts inhabiting herself instead.
This portrait is part of the Femessence Women’s Celebration Series — a body of work by artist and arts therapist Caris Pepper honouring the sacred feminine through vulva portrait art. Each portrait in this series is becoming a card in the Femessence Vulva Portrait Oracle deck, coming 2027.
