Bloody Mary is part of a series of paintings titled Blood Thirst that employ the artist’s menstrual blood as a medium to address the myriad of socio-political issues surrounding menstruation, creation and power. We live in a world that fetishizes and normalizes violence and sees it as an expression of strength, yet gets squeamish around periods and glosses over the difficulty and danger of childbirth. This perpetuates shame around menstruating bodies, pushes them out of public spaces and leads to a lack of systemic support. By creating delicate, beautiful images using menstrual blood, Rubinstein defies patriarchal beliefs about the uncleanliness of menstruation and brings the viewer in direct contact with this polarizing fluid. The subject matter then challenges and reframes the gendered narratives found within western religion and mythology on which our society is founded, while confronting art as a medium that has perpetuated these biases.