Synopsis

A Blood Artist is a short documentary about Axel Stocks (1946-2016), who was born to a Jewish woman in a displaced persons camp immediately after the Second World War. Her husband, a Jew, and her whole family, had already been exterminated. She was forced to have sex with the Nazis to survive. After the war, Axel and his mother moved to the US. In the 1960s, was psychedelicized by hippie guru “Wavy Gravy” (Hugh Nanton Romney Jr), whereupon Axel took up making psychedelic jewelry of a Gothic sort. Soon thereafter, he was introduced to Salvador Dali, who was then living at the St. Regis Hotel in Manhattan. Dali took an interest in Axel and asked about his life. When Axel related his life story, Dali pronounced that, from then on, Axel was to paint in his own blood. Axel did so until he died, though not from blood loss.