That was an ordeal, it was in 2008, I was painting for my exhibition for the HR Giger
museum, and that was also a very tumultuous time, but the show, the exhibition being in
line, having met Giger, and having a relationship with him, being able to call him a friend,
this guy was like a God to me, it was something supernatural entirely going on there, and
having been acknowledged like that was really pivotal for me. So I was putting a lot into
that show, I was working around the clock, and I was not keeping track of how often and
how much blood I was collecting and I was under my own physical stress and my own
personal stuff and yeah my right lung collapsed, so I had the upper lobe of it removed
and the rest of it is chemically fused to my ribs.
The Margaret Cho piece, I didn’t know it was her, I came across it and through, “
this is kind of cool”, and then I realized it was her, I saw pictures of you working
on it. That took you a few months to finish?
Yeah, that piece took quiet a while, I wasn’t working on it continually, I had other projects
to work on, but that took me about 5 months, again not continuously, but quiet consistently.
Did she have to come back more than once to give blood?
No, all the blood we got that one shot was good, and she was like a champ about it, she
was totally not even phased at all, before or during, it was really cool.
At the time you started with blood did you know about Andre Serrano and Piss
Christ?
I did not, I actually did not, there have been other artists that have worked with blood, I’m
not the first and I certainly won’t be the last, But yeah, his work is really cool. There is another guy, a European artists working in animal blood, since like the 60’s, really intense
stuff, they are more performance pieces, he covers a whole room in it, really theatrical,
really cool. It’s very different from what I do, which is all about the art work.
Peter Beard was working in animal blood in Africa.
I’m not sure who that is.
Peter Beard was a photographer and then he started painting, started using animal blood, and he ended up getting so involved in Africa that he ended up spending most of his time there. Good looking guy, came from a well off family, married
Supermodel Cheryl Tiegs at the time, collaborated with a lot of well known artists
I have to check him out.
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You’re getting a whole lot of press for your seminar at the Westchester convention, can tell me a little more about that.
I’ll be doing a painting seminar for the first time, the organizers had asked me if I would
like to do it, and I considered it, and I decided on it. It’s unique because not everyone
would be moved to paint in this medium, some people will be afraid, some people would