Man uses his own blood to paint

Many artists claim to put their blood, sweat and tears into their work, but Vincent Castiglia means it: He paints with his own blood.

The New York painter has a new exhibit, “Resurrection,” in Manhattan’s Soho neighbourhood that opened on Thursday and is due to run through October.

It features a number of Castiglia’s paintings from the last 10 years, all of which were created with Castiglia’s blood.

Castiglia, 30, said in an interview this week that his ?rst experiments with this medium were prompted by a “need to connect with my work on the most intimate level.”

Human blood contains iron oxide, he explained, a pigment found in many traditional paints, and which occurs naturally in iron ore and common rust.

The public’s reaction in the past has been overwhelmingly positive, he said, but he does not discount that some people could ?nd his choice of medium creepy or gimmicky.

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“My response would be to really take a look at the content of the work, which over shadows what it’s made from, I think,” he said. “In order for something to be a gimmick, it really would have to lack substance.”

His process includes making a preliminary pen or graphite sketch and extracting just enough “paint” in the privacy of his studio.

—Reuters