PORTRAITS OF MENOPAUSE
In July 2021, Dr Sharron Hinchliff reached out to me via my website, wanting to work together to create art for a submission to The Festival of Social Sciences. Dr Hinchliff works at The University of Sheffield and specialises in gender, ageing, and sexuality. She wanted to create an interactive project that celebrated menopause, in order to tackle the negative narrative surrounding women in midlife and the process of menopause. Having been brought up surrounded by powerful women, who openly shared their experiences of ageing with me, I was very interested in being part of this project and the idea of acknowledging the positives of getting older.
Dr Hinchliff and I worked together to create a brief, I put together sketches and colour scheme options and once we had agreed on the vision, I created five illustrations. One was based on an interview with a couple who very graciously agreed to be drawn for this project. I wanted to include real people in one of the illustrations, using what I learnt about them in the interviews and their own experiences of menopause to inform my sketches.
The project launched in November for 2021’s Festival of Social Sciences and can be found here.. You can also read the experiences of the women who contributed to the project and leave your own message for others to engage with.