PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Don’t cry over spilled milk — make art with it.

That’s what Philadelphia artist Aimee Gilmore did to create her latest “Milkscapes” project, a series that used dried breast milk as the main medium.

Partnered with Mural Arts Philadelphia, her abstract banner display hangs along the exterior of the ​​Maternity Care Coalition’s Early Head Start building in South Philadelphia. The public art installation features eight cloth flags printed with up-close photographs of dried breast milk.

Gilmore started the project in 2016.

“My daughter was 3 months old and I was pumping in my studio,” she recalled. “I was rushing to get home and I spilled milk all over my desk. I didn’t have time to clean it up, so I left it. The next day, I came back and the milk had dried all over a sheet of mylar, which is a plastic transparent paper. And I held the paper up to the window because I was going to throw it away. And these are the images you see today.”

Gabriella Nelson, associate director of policy of the Maternity Care Coalition, said it’s a conversation starter.

“You are walking by and you see this and you are like, breast milk? Why would someone put breast milk on a flag?” she asked. “But then you want to talk about the landscape of caregiving and what it means to be a lactating person and the policies and support that you have when you are breastfeeding.

“When you choose to breastfeed, when you don’t choose to breastfeed — all of the things that encompass giving care to the smallest members of our society,” she continued. “So for some people it is jarring, but that is also an opportunity to talk about what we are dealing with as caregivers.”

Those behind the art project are raising awareness about motherhood and caregiving, hoping to share the importance of the care economy, paid family leave and parent-student rights.

“On one hand, it’s about beauty and I think that is wonderful, because we are all looking for hope in today’s world,” said Jane Golden, founder and executive director of Mural Arts. “But it’s also educational, it’s inspiring, and I also feel very much that art can be a form of advocacy and learning.”