When explaining my work I often have to remind people that blood is not tantamount to the gruesome and morbid. Blood is your life force. It's what pumps through your veins keeping you alive even as you read this. Like a thumbprint it’s biological evidence of your specific identity and that’s what I do. I paint people with people, turning a typical portrait into a human relic.
I collect blood in vacutainer tubes through safety- lok needles the same way your doctor would. The blood is kept refrigerated whilst the work is in progress and the paintings are protectively sealed with a matte varnish upon their completion.
This has become such a great passion of mine and the notion of painting life WITH life has, well, breathed new life into art for me. ‘Why blood?’ is a question I’m often asked. Now after many months of capturing everything from babies to old men and the entire spectrum of human emotion I can say confidently ‘What else is worth painting with?’ These are moments, people, caught in time and I wouldn't want them depicted in anything other than their own genetic makeup, material as distinctively unique as they are.
