Interview: The Blood Drenched Art of Vincent Castiglia

Meet Phlebotomist and fine artist Vincent Castiglia.

“Of all that is written I love only what a man has written with his blood,” Nietzsche muses in THUS SPOKE ZARATHUSTRA. “Write with blood and you will experience that blood is spirit.”

This sentiment courtesy the man who showed the world how to philosophize with a hammer in the nineteenth century finds its modern day embodiment in the sanguinary canvas adventures of Vincent Castiglia, a celebrated tattooist/fine artist who summons forth a body of work as exquisite as it is beguiling from a single primary building block: Human blood.

The portion of Castiglia’s online artistic statement delving into his chosen, decidedly corporeal stain is worth quoting at some length:

Blood is technically considered to be a tissue. It is made up of approximately 55 percent plasma, a yellowish clear fluid, which is 90 percent water by volume. Castiglia’s figures, their musculature and skin, are painted with what could be thought of as “liquid flesh.” Its tendency to quicken the subjects is likely inapproachable by any other medium—as it is actual tissue with which it is being rendered. In this way the subject’s realism is not merely an optical illusion due to it’s level of detail, but rather is an actual transference of flesh and blood to each work.

In the privacy of his studio, Castiglia practices a kind of modern-day phlebotomy, siphoning the life force, which contains his own psychic energy, while giving it an outlet and form. In doing so, he dissolves the barrier between artist and art in a most literal and immediate sense.

The routing of this “psychic energy” obviously strikes a nerve. The ears of genre fans will no doubt perk up when they hear Castiglia was the first American artist to ever receive a solo exhibition invitation from Oscar Award-winning artist H.R. Giger to show at the H. R. Giger Museum Gallery or that he conceived and executed artwork for such horror flicks as SAVAGE COUNTY and CORPSING. Castiglia, however, has also brought stylized bloodletting to an impressive array of distant and prestigious institutions ranging from The Museum of Sex (New York, New York) to The Mall Gallery (London, England) to Museo De La Cuidad De Mexico.

SHOCK caught up with Castiglia shortly after the custom guitar he painted for Exodus/Slayer guitarist Gary Holt—using eighteen vials of Holt’s own blood drawn backstage at a Long Island Slayer gig, natch—was unveiled to much fanfare at the 2016 National Association of Music Merchants trade show.

“I’d worked in basically every other possible medium and just felt like I had not connected as fully and completely as I did when I started using blood,” Castiglia told SHOCK at the outset of the conversation. “There’s an innate sincerity to what comes out of me when using that substance. And I fell in love with that feeling, that truth.”

SHOCK: Talk to me about what originally prompted this foray into unorthodox blood work.

VC: I stumbled onto it somewhat by chance, to be honest. I was at this intense place in my life at the time—a real breaking point. And the work became very much a symbol of that, you know? I wanted, desperately, to make something beautiful out of this rupture I was enduring and the most natural way to do that seemed to be to take the blood from it and smear it around and create representative images that would help bring sense to what was for me this period of death in reverse—one era of my life coming to a close as another was born.

SHOCK: The first time I imagine you used your own blood.

VC: Yep.

SHOCK: As an artist that must slow things down a bit and focus you because it isn’t as if you can just skip down to the art supply store. It’s a needle in the vein drawing on a limited resource.

VC: That’s true, especially for the larger pieces. I collect intravenously, in batches—eighteen vials or so at a time—which gives me enough to work with for a decent period of time. But, yeah…the supply is definitely not unlimited on a day-to-day basis. Which is part of what I love about it—you can achieve this amazing range of values from something people generally believe to be so perishable.

SHOCK: Is that “range of values” difficult to achieve?

VC: It just takes time, man. It just takes passes—particularly for my paintings because they’re realistic. I would say not any more or any less passes than a painting like this would take in acrylic or something like that, though. You’re building up on the surface of the painting like you would any other type of realistic painting.

SHOCK: One outgrowth of working in such a nontraditional medium, of course, is journalists such as myself calling you up based primarily on the blood despite the fact that your creations obviously possess a lot of intrinsic artistic merit. Do you ever worry about the work getting maybe shortchanged a little in that mix?

VC: I hope it doesn’t sound egotistical if I say, “Not really.” To me, if someone really looks at the work, they’re going to understand that this is a serious effort. I’m not splashing blood around without a purpose or for shock value or trying to use it in a way that is…

SHOCK: You aren’t putting together a novelty show.

VC: Exactly. At the same time, I understand a certain level of curiosity is going to come with any type of unusual approach to art. That doesn’t bother me at all. Hopefully once viewers get a chance to stand in front of the originals, it will be an entirely different experience for them. I trust that there are people other than myself who believe there is something nice and worthwhile about the human figure portrayed realistically in whatever medium.

SHOCK: I imagine this process must connect to your work as a tattooist as well? Both involve intimate encounters with the human body, right?

VC: It does. It’s kind of a funny thing, though, because I’ve got a reputation as a very gentle tattooist. People don’t bleed a whole lot with me. They’ll say, “Why aren’t I bleeding?” and I’ll want to reply, “Well, I do it all for you.” [Laughs] I definitely would never have enough blood from a tattooing client to decorate even a small corner of one of my paintings. There are differences between my approach to the two as well: In tattooing I’m able to use my abilities to realize someone else’s desire or vision. On canvas I’m bringing out stuff for myself from my soul. So to speak.

SHOCK: You recently painted a custom guitar for Slayer/Exodus guitarist Gary Holt using his blood. How do you present that idea? Do you just come right out and say, “We’d like to paint a guitar for you in blood?”

VC: [Laughs] I actually don’t know how it was presented. I was working on a torso piece for Brian Werner, the vocalist of Vital Remains, and he suggested painting a guitar in blood. It was just a kind of crazy thought at the time, but the more we talked about it the more I thought, “You know what? That’s probably doable.” Brian ran it by Gary, who thought it was the coolest idea ever.

SHOCK: Did the project present any new challenges for you as an artist?

VC: It was definitely a different kind of experience. I spent about two months on it. There was a lot of trial and error—this is the first time I worked on wood. Usually I’m working on canvas. I got about a quarter of the way through it, struggling really, and realized the way the surface was treated, the initial primer that they had sent it with just wasn’t happening. I had to take it all off and treat it in my own particular way so that the blood would take. Once I got past that, it was fine.

SHOCK: Who did you get to draw Holt’s blood? Did you have a nurse come out to a Slayer show with you?

VC: I did, actually! I had a registered nurse there and we both collected it. It was a little bit of a joint effort. I was switching out the tubes.

SHOCK: So are you a fan of Exodus and Slayer stuff?

VC: For sure.

SHOCK: As a fan it must be a touch surreal sitting back stage at a Slayer show collecting Gary Holt’s blood so you can paint his guitar with it.

VC: 100 percent, man. Whenever I’m fortunate enough to have these experiences it’s always crazy. These are moments you never imagined would come to pass in life. And so, as it’s happening, it’s almost like a little ripple in reality. Then I go home with Gary Holt’s blood and I’m drenched in it for like two months.

SHOCK: Drenched?

VC: [Laughs] No, I’m being dramatic. I was gloved up, obviously. But, yeah, it definitely hits me at moments—this is so cool and strange and unreal. That’s why I was comfortable with the term surreal when you used it a minute ago. I think of the concept maybe a little differently than most people, though. To me, life is surreal, you know?

SHOCK: Surrealism as the rule not the exception?

VC: Right. Experience itself is surreal. Reality is completely elusive. It’s hard to look at anything in a truly subjective way. This has been my take on understanding and relating to life and my own humanity for a long time. And it is connected to my art—each painting is kind of a meditation on a particular event or person or life situation as I try to understand my own human experience just a little bit better. I objectify and process through image. Once the image is complete, it’s like almost an anchor point that I can move on from.

SHOCK: Was Holt into the final product?

VC: Oh, yeah. He was really fucking into it, man. He’s super excited to get his hands on the original. I can’t wait, either. I can’t wait for him to have it and to play these songs I love so much on stage with it.

SHOCK: You were the first American artist to have a solo exhibition at the Giger Museum Gallery.

VC: That was and still is one of the most pivotal and awe-inspiring moments of my life. To have been acknowledged by Giger in that way… It was just mind-blowing and, as an artist, it’s an experience I’ll take forward with me pretty much every day of the rest of my life.

SHOCK: It sounds like Giger was an influence?

VC: Oh, for sure, man. He was the God among men, you know? What Giger did for art? We’ll never see another like him. I mean he was a boundless one of a kind talent at mapping out the human psyche. Irreplaceable.

SHOCK: Tom G. Warrior of Celtic Frost and Triptykon was Giger’s personal assistant and you painted part of the album art for Triptykon’s EPARISTERA DAIMONES alongside a piece by Giger himself. Did you make the connection with Warrior at the Giger Museum Gallery show?

VC: Yeah, basically. We had met previously. Celtic Frost had come to my studio the year before when they were in New York, before they unfortunately broke up. But it was during my exhibit [at the Giger Museum Gallery] that Tom and I came to be friends and he asked if I would be interested in working on album art for his new band, which was Triptykon. Of course, I was like, “Absolutely. I’d be honored.” I’ll tell you this: Tom is one of the coolest, humblest, kindest human beings I know. I’m a huge fan of him and his art, so I treasure that experience.

SHOCK: One last thing: I read you’d done a portrait for comedian Margaret Cho, which was interesting to me because while blood painting seems like a natural accompaniment for heavy metal, it appears—on the surface, anyway—an odd fit for comedy.

VC: I don’t know, man. Margaret’s pretty far out there. She’s awesome. Initially, she wanted to do the piece in her menstrual blood, which was not possible because there’s just not enough of it. So we collected it intravenously, like with Holt. She was I guess you could say a fan of my work before we had met and then, to make a long story short, she interviewed me for a book and had me on her podcast. She asked me about a portrait and I was super into working with her right away and that’s how that went. It was a lot of fun, man. I believe that the painting really embodies her, you know? It’s kind of like it’s the scarier version of her, but it’s got the comedy side—the almost poking fun side—because it almost resembles a geisha.

SHOCK: What’s up with BLOODLINES, the documentary about your life?

VC: It’s by John Borowski, a filmmaker who has won a bunch of award. He’s got four films on Netflix right now. We’ve been working on this for a little over a year now and we’re going to be wrapping up in the next couple of months. We’re both really excited about it—John’s done all serial killer documentaries to date, so I am his first non-serial killer subject!

SHOCK: Is that a weird experience, to let somebody in in that way?

VC: It is, man. It’s wild. The film covers my life and my work and my process. We’ve got interviews with Greg Allman and Tom G. Warrior in there as well as stuff from the past—things that have never been in the public domain; things that really made me step back and say, “How do I feel about people knowing this?” Ultimately, I put those doubts behind me and kept moving forward.

SHOCK: Do you feel like you’ve got to just surrender to the process if you’re going to do it right?

VC: Yeah. I’m just like, “Whatever, man.” It’s the fucking reality of the situation, so fuck it. That’s my view.

For more information on Castiglia visit his personal website.