One reason to abstain from painting with your own blood: it doesn't tend to sell well. (Although we can think of a few more reasons...)
Last year, troubled chanteuseAmy Winehouse and rocker Pete Doherty teamed up to create a collaborative self-portrait entitled "Ladylike." The piece was expected to fetch between $80,000 and $130,000 at auction, yet ended up selling for only £35,000 ($54,000) last night. According to the Independent, Amy was on the phone with her father during the splattering: "She said, 'Dad, I'm with Pete and he's making me draw with my blood!'"
Despite the celebrity hype around the artists and the fan craze surrounding Winehouse's tragically early death, the piece underwhelmed bidders last night at Cob Gallery in London. A percentage of the sale will be donated to the Amy Winehouse Foundation, which aims to help those suffering from ill health and addiction.
Winehouse, the dark, doo-wop songstress who passed away last July, was close friends with Doherty, the former lead singer of The Libertines. Doherty has recently been trying to make a name for himself as a fine artist; his unconventional works are composed of real blood, sweat and tears. This technique, which he calls "arterial splattering" was employed on Doherty's album cover for "Grace/Wasteland." To create the works, Doherty cuts his finger, fills a syringe with blood and then paints with it. Twenty of his recent paintings showed at Cob Gallery in February, titled, "On Blood: A Portrait of the Artist".
We hope Vincent Castiglia isn't too angry with Winehouse and Doherty for stealing his thunder...