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 neighborhood 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 first 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 find his choice of
medium creepy or gimmicky.
"My
response would be to really take a look at the content of the work,
which overshadows 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. He then
pulls out his brushes to paint surrealistic, red ochre-hued images
typically featuring human bodies in some stage of decay paired with
abstract backgrounds.
One of his
larger, more detailed paintings can take more than three months to
complete. His paintings range in price from $950 to $26,000. Rock and
blues musician Gregg Allman, who recently acquired a 2006 painting by
Castiglia called "Gravity."
His
"Resurrection" exhibit is themed around Castiglia's interest in life's
transience and harmony he sees between life and death.
As
an example, he cited "Feeding," which depicts a mother with decaying
legs in a wheelchair gazing at an infant she is breastfeeding. Castiglia
said he sees it as an expression of the fragility of life and the hope
and drive that can still accompany it.
REUTERS