Editorial illustrations for SCENA9, for an article about how people in communist Romania related to menstruation before 1989, versus how they relate to it now.
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/8cc37dcc-2196-4023-837f-5471cb63e76f/2e0dc26a-6301-40ca-a229-612d642aad97_rw_3840.jpg?h=5c4236e7c3a3e47eb75e5eba322d03bb)
I thought about using red flowers to represent menstruation, as in its essence, blood is a symbol of life.
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/8cc37dcc-2196-4023-837f-5471cb63e76f/44921781-2b7e-41bb-bcff-bd616b9246cc_rw_3840.jpg?h=9a9a0ce9a46595d8c85a44c7aa430148)
Before the fall of the communism, menstruation was a tabboo subject and was seen as something dirty, shameful and inappropriate to be discussed openly.
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/8cc37dcc-2196-4023-837f-5471cb63e76f/7d31d78f-2d2b-46c9-8d94-dd45b0632719_rw_1920.jpg?h=af22ab0a639c23d9852aa1d081c46c19)
In time, after 1989, the perception has changed a lot, but people still learn how to adress it more freely.
In this one I've illustrated the flowers as a detailed crop of a bigger picture, as a metaphor for the way we are learning to look at it now: straight forward, willing to understand it and celebrate it for what it is- a normal physiological function that stands at the basis of life.