Autonomy

These images are both based on photographs I took. The pad picture featuring a large clot/mass was two years prior, when in the middle of the night I began bleeding heavily following a 'routine' termination a couple of weeks previously. It was a medical emergency, I was alone with two sleeping children, and it was one of the scariest and most traumatic events in my life. The menstrual disc photograph was taken on the morning of the brief, as I removed my disc in the shower.

These images are part of a much larger, nuanced conversation and cannot be fully encompassed within this page.

When making this work I prepared significantly and made colour tests, marqettes and more which I found invaluable during the creation and made the large pieces much easier to create. In future I would consider the angle of my work and how I physically create it. My marquettes was done laid flat and this led to pooling in the ink that created a beautiful finished effect, however when I did my large pieces I did not consider this and worked on them hung vertically, which created dripping rather than pooling which did not create the finished look I desired. I did change the orientation part way through the process, but this still impacted the final result.

Artists I looked at whilst creating this piece included:

• Alexander Calder - for his use of ink and colour and the interaction between the two

• John Nolan - for his use of line and bold colour and shapes

• Tracey Emin - for her very honest and autobiographical art, even if it could evoke judgement