My Body My Choice and other prayer candles

I've been struggling a bit lately with this label of "artist" that I adopted a few years ago. For a long time, I thought it sounded pretentious to refer to myself as such, but then that was a large part of what I was doing with my time. Now, when I mention being an artist, it's followed by feeling awkward answering questions about how I'm not showing anywhere right now and how I haven't even made anything in however long. It's hard, because it still feels like an inherent part of how I see the world. However, I need to let go of the expectation that I should be pumping out artwork constantly to feel comfortable calling myself an artist. When I let go of that expectation, I realize that I still make art regularly in different ways. One of these ways was designing a set of prayer candles for my sister's bachelorette party. She's getting married this summer and I wanted to honor her and her relationship.

As part of our time together, we would light the candles for them each morning on her bachelorette trip. I chose a few interests they are passionate about to highlight on the candles.

These candles have ignited a desire in me (pun intended) to open myself up to make more. Due to our current events and my personal political beliefs, I've designed a prayer candle in honor of protecting bodily autonomy, reproductive rights, and a person's right to choose to be pregnant in whatever capacity that is for them. This is my prototype for them:

I've used imagery of sage and chamomile for cleansing, purification, and protection; rosemary to ward off evil; bay leaves for protection and building success; lavender for being cool, calm, and collected. The uterus is handdrawn by me and I really like how much it looks like a hart or deer's skull. I chose "My Body. My Choice" for the prototype because it spoke the most to me personally and is currently on my altar. There are 5 phrases to choose from:

"My Body My Choice"

"Keep Your Laws Off My Body"

"Bodily Autonomy is Nonnegotiable"

"Fundamental Right to my Own Body"

"Respect & Protect Reproductive Rights"

Reproductive Rights candles are $25 (plus shipping or you can pick them up) and $5 from each one will go to the New Orleans Abortion Fund. If you'd like a custom candle for yourselr or a loved one, they are $30 (plus shipping). You can use the form on the left to get in touch with me.