Claim (Retreat)

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 2 · Femessence Series · 2020

CLAIM

Caucasian background · Vaginal birth: No · Created 2020

This is the first of two portraits of the same woman — two moments in the same unfolding journey. This is the earlier one. The immediate, unguarded response of a woman who has just seen herself made into art for the first time. A few weeks earlier she had called her vulva chub chubs. Now she is reaching for the language of flowers, of ripeness, of colour.

“She is so pretty and ripe and juicy and full of flavour and colour and is as beautiful and unique as a flower.”

Ooooh I love them. I now feel about my vagina that she is so pretty and ripe and juicy and full of flavour and colour and is as beautiful and unique as a flower.

So that’s pretty great — considering I first wanted to call her chub chubs only a few weeks ago.

Welcome is not the beginning of the journey — it is the moment the door opens. The sharp intake of breath when something you had been hiding from turns out to be beautiful. Her second portrait, Card 4 — Seek, holds the fuller story of where that first yes led.

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.

Freedom

Connect (Faith)