An Artist Uses Blood to Bring Life to His Works

By VINCENT M. MALLOZZI

Van Gogh's palette included chrome yellow, Prussian blue, emerald green and black.

Picasso's favorite color combination is often said to have been rose and blue.

Jordan Eagles creates images using copper, resin - and animal blood.

“The fundamental, underlying theme that runs through all of my work is regeneration,” Mr. Eagles said one recent afternoon at Krause Gallery, 149 Orchard Street in Manhattan. “It's taking something that is no longer living and bringing it back to life through art.” His exhibition “Hemofields: A New Series of Multidimensional Works in Blood & Resin” will open Wednesday at the gallery and run through Oct. 16.

“It is my belief that blood has a certain power and energy to it,” said Mr. Eagles, 35, who lives in Manhattan. “So what I try to do is create exhibitions where a viewer can have an experience with a material that they may not ordinarily have close contact with.”

Mr. Eagles, who gets his preserved animal blood from a New Jersey slaughterhouse, began tinkering with it as a medium while studying art at New York University in 1998. As he worked on a series of paintings depicting childbirth, he tried to use red paint to symbolize blood.

“I was dripping the red paint and it really wasn't doing anything. It was too flat and it was not bringing the images to life,” Mr. Eagles said. “So instead of trying to be symbolic with the material, I just went to a butcher down in Chinatown and bought a couple of containers of blood. I went back to my dorm room and began dripping the real blood on the images and it was immediately invigorating. There was something very alive about it.”

But over the course of a year, his childbirth pieces began to change color from red to brown, prompting him to experiment with ways to preserve the blood's vibrant color. Through “years of trial and error,” he began applying blood to layers of clear plexiglass and then preserving it with layers of resin, allowing the high-gloss surface to suspend the fluid.

“I'm not the first artist to use blood instead of paint,” Mr. Eagles said, “and my works are completely sealed and protected - there are no health hazards.”

In “Hemofields,” which Mr. Eagles says is a combination of hemoglobin and color fields, he explores various colors and textures of blood, from cattle and oxen, as it reacts during the resin's cure time.

“What's happening here is that light is going through the colors and textures of the blood and vibrating off a copper backing,” he said of an image called “HF4.” “Copper is a conductor of electricity so it infuses more energy into the work.”

Mr. Eagles then walked in front of “Roze 12” and began running an imaginary paint brush up and down the piece.

“This particular image, which is made of copper an d blood-soaked gauze, is preserved on plexiglass with an ultraviolet resin,” he said. “The Roze idea here has several meanings. There are all these rows happening on a grid, but at the same time, the blood creates an image of a rebirth, a sort of rising from the dead. Rose is also a person's name as well as a tribute flower, so the work personifies something that was once living.”

As Mr. Eagles spoke, the front door to the gallery opened and a man named Brandon Park walked in and asked if he could sneak a peek at some of the framed images.

“I heard about this show,” said Mr. Park, 36, a financial analyst from Manhattan. “I can't believe these were done using blood. It's very intense.”

Though Mr. Eagles insists that he has never worked with blood “just for shock value or for the sake of attention,” his unusual creations have brought him controversy.

Two years ago, animal rights activists gathered outside a Hartford gallery where some of his works were on display.

“I did not expect them to show up, but they came to my event, passing out fliers and making a big scene out front,” he said. “I invited them in to see the works before making a judgment, but they declined.

“My view on this is that blood is obviously a sacred material; it's a life force that has energy but is no longer living,” he said. “You say the word ‘blood' and people have so many preconceived notions and imagery that comes to mind, like the time you scraped your knee as a kid, or when you gave birth or some other image, and you are potentially going to come and view my work through the lens of those preconceived notions.”

Benjamin Krause, who owns the gallery where Mr. Eagles's works are now being shown, said that based on Mr. Eagles's past sales, some of the pieces will most likely sell for $12,000 to $13,000.

“Jordan is one of my top-selling artists,” said Mr. Krause, who has worked with Mr. E agles at shows around the country since 2006. “Once people get by the initial shock of learning that he works with blood, they soon realize that it's not about shock or something gross but about regeneration and life, and you can't deny its energy and beauty.”