Blood

My work is about the beginnings and more so the endings of life, the process of decay and the lack of any culture of death in the western world - so it would stand to reason that at some point I would choose to work with some of the fluids associated with the endings in particular - blood - maybe all artists are fascinated by blood at some point, it is used in the earliest cave paintings - but fades and flakes, but it is a natural medium to experiment with. Would you believe it - you cannot buy blood on the internet - it is only available from an abbattoir - and the only groups who can work with it are schools. Luckily I happened to live in an old school at the time, so cautiously I approached the local butcher and the secret journey began.  Abbattoir staff regularly receive unpleasant threats  from extreme animals rights' groups so like to keep their work and location secret. Once I could identify myself as someone who wasn't picking a fight I was given a location and was told to be there at 6am - with a large canister of formaldehyde (which you can by on the internet)  - the butcher told me the blood would clot very quickly without it and to brace myself for the smell that might linger in the car. Its not pleasant to work with - it certainly smells strongly - and it behaves in strange ways depending on how much formaldehyde one adds - they gave me absolutely gallons of the stuff - as I had pretended I was teaching a large class - it settled eventually like a pate crossed with a jelly - once Id explored its qualities on some very large canvasses I had to dispose of the remains - I ended up digging some trenches in my garden and trying to bury it - I hope in time it will decay - or I might be recalled to face trial on the mysterious discovery of the many gallons of  buried blood & formaldehyde .........