Card 1 · Femessence Series · 2019
Freedom
Age 24 · Caucasian background · Vaginal birth: No
She came to this portrait through a detour — a photoshoot that lockdown made impossible, a friend who offered something better instead. She was nervous. She said yes anyway. What she found on the other side of that yes was something she hadn’t expected: a newfound appreciation for a part of herself she had always avoided. Where there had been self-consciousness, something lighter arrived. She began to look. She began to see.
“I felt a newfound appreciation for my vulva and how beautiful it really is. I feel so much more confident in my skin now.”
I had been feeling self conscious about my vulva and had decided to get a photo shoot done to celebrate and appreciate being unique. Unfortunately due to lockdowns I wasn’t able to get the photos done — however my beautiful friend Caris offered to draw my vulva instead.
I was a little nervous about seeing the end result but when I got it I felt a newfound appreciation for my vulva and how beautiful it really is. I’m excited to be a part of this and have it on display. I hope that it will make other vulva owners appreciate their own beauty and step out of their comfort zone to celebrate it.
I feel so much more confident in my skin now and spend a lot more time looking at my vulva whereas in the past I would avoid looking at it.
This portrait opened the series. Freedom was always the right place to begin.
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.
