BLOOD - The ONLY Self Generating Paint

BLOOD!

Blood as paint, is the one and only self generating endless paint of all. It is the only media that is unique to it's owner. It is a very hard media to control consistency. You have to work fast to keep color and to keep the blood from coagulating before you finish your project.

Is the girl's self portrait beautiful or ugly?

Did she do this for shock value or artistic value?

Why would someone do this? I guess it's an answer to figure out yourself, or read on.

It never fails me to think I am the first to do something or think of something no one else has thought of, only to find out, there's been preceding artists or thinkers who have beat me to the punch ... so to speak!

This is a small 7x8 self portrait I did in my own blood. I've watched a few video's on it, after I was done, only to find that they keep cutting themselves to achieve their paint.. the endless paint.

I didn't do that, it actually happened quite by accident. I really don't like undergoing a blood test or getting a shot of any sorts when I have doctor visits. The sight of blood makes me ill or faint feeling. I don't like it. But with the history of heart disease and diabetes running in my family I grew a bit desensitized to blood as my father grew older, and had dementia, he understood that having his finger poked and blood taken was for his own health issues, and I being his only daughter to help him with his declining health, for him, I had to MAKE myself do it. I did. I became where it was actually making me feel worse about having to poke him and draw his blood, just a drop from his tiny needle to get it onto the meter to read his sugar level.

Wow, the ups and downs. I seen it as low as 40, and as high as 400. That was near the end of his life when his brain was shutting down, his medications weren't working as they should, because his brain was over ruling the inevitable, that would take his life. When I seen it below 40, I quickly got juice into him, even with a spoonful of pure sugar, for that quick boost. He'd no longer able to swallow food to get natural sugars in him from fruits. Either way, it worked, as I tested and retested his blood, I found that it still raised it up to where he was no longer lethargic and could speak, although his sentences didn't make any sense. Well, anyway, due to that I grew desensitized to checking my own blood against his blood levels.
I also felt my heart sink as he'd asked for his other daughter... "If she would come and help you it'd be easier, and it wouldn't hurt your shoulders helping me" I could only reply the truth. She's not coming so we can do this on our own, we don't need them." Although they had quite the money to fly to different places of the world, but not to come and see the father that spent his life being a good dad, and taking care of his family. He deserved good care, and he cared for me, and I promised him before his dementia that I would be there to help him and he'd not ever have to go to an old folks home to live. Nobody came to visit him, nobody sent him cards or letters. But I drove from NC to MI twice a year to take some pressures off my son who was caring for him, because he was my dad, and I loved him, and I thought of him before myself just as he'd done for me years before, when he thought of taking care of his family before he spent money on things he worked hard for and deserved. Stages of dementia have moments of lucidity, and he knew it was taxing on me, and when the person who they are used to taking care of them leaves, they usually give up, my dad gave up, I believe, so that I could come back home and begin taking care of my life, because no one was going to help me on my journey though life, just as no one else was there to help him with the end of his life.

Anyway, this is about me and my blood art, rather than the why's of my fathers decline. I checked mine a few times, and found mine also went up or down, was no longer the 120 that he'd taught me years prior that were pretty normal. I checked mine one day and an unusual amount of blood came out from the poke of the tester kit. I started to put it in my mouth as I usually did to stop it's bleed. But then I stopped and glanced over at my small drawing book. I opened it to the last page and wiped the blood on it. I thought, well, it'll surely go through the paper, or turn brown as blood tends to do when on clothing or just being in the air.

Since most of my art works begin with a simple dot or circle and evolve into more, that's how this one started out as well. A single drop, so I sort of milked or squashed my finger to push more blood out of that tiny hole puncture, after all, it didn't hurt anymore, and the needles in them nowadays are so thin it's hard to get blood at all sometimes, but I hadn't used the kit, I knew the needle was sharp and I could use it sideways to get that drop for the meter. (Which I found my blood level to be a 170 which was quite high for me.) In any event, as I squeezed my finger, more blood emerged, and I thought, how could I capture it and do a drawing or painting with it, when I realized.. wait.. it's coming out with a squeeze, so I let it keep coming. I'm right handed, so this is done with my left finger.

1. I'm not used to using my left hand to draw, although I have done it with other drawing utensils like chalk or pencils (I really love a B3 pencil for it's soft and easy to keep sharp when you use the side, so the less sharpening to get a point when you need one) But this was coming in a more uncontrollable way. Sometimes thicker, and sometimes thinner. Plus I was having to work fast, as it would coagulate on the end of my finger, and I didn't want to poke again for the sake of making an artwork, but my determination was getting on it's way to finishing this piece. And one quite as bad as this, as it is left handed. I'm not ambidextrous although I've tried many times to write with even both hands at the same time. I found I can write my name both backwards and forwards with both hands at the same time, legibly.
2. I'm not suggesting anyone else cut themselves to produce blood for art, for several reasons. I'm not sure it's a mentally healthy way to generate paint and the fact if others came into contact with it, and you have any kind of disease that is communicable then it could be transferred to them, or vice versa. So do not touch someone else's blood drawn painting, as I'm not a doctor or in the medical field so I cannot tell you if it can be transferred to you after it's dried or not.
3. If you do try this, do not sell the original work, it will contain your DNA, and could transfer an illness to another. If you'd like to buy someone else's art that is done in blood, then have them photo copy it, and get a print. Then you are safe. Mine are thumb printed, and just as our DNA, it cannot be altered or changed, and in the future there will be no question to "who drew this" as a simple DNA test will give an accurate result.

The world, and the Internet is flooded with art, so when buying an original, please note that the whole thing might not be paint bought from the store. It could be real. Just be careful when choosing an artwork to buy unless of course you know it's done with pencil or pens as below. Above all, always question originals, signature or not, those can be copied and some people can copy a signature so close it's hard for even an expert cannot tell if it's an original, but when it contains your blood, there can be, without a doubt who the painting really was drawn by. Love it or hate my self portrait, more than just blood went into it. A sore finger for one thing :) owie, and for another thing, it's truly ME. I did not attempt to draw a fictitious character or someone else, it was meant after that first drop to be ME, and no other. As an artist, and writer, I would not attempt to do someone else's portrait of them in my blood without their permission, and it would have to come in my time, not "on time" as one would when they are waiting on an artist to finish with oils or chalks or any sort of artistic media!

Thanks for reading, and if you're not too freaked out, please feel free to read my other writings!