Value of Blood is a pretty damn good painting. I feel it actually makes an thoughtful political statement. Kim Jong-Il is one of the few universally condemned leaders of a nation on this fair earth. Even China has an axe to grind against North Korea. I mean, here is a leader who has willfully starved his country to such an extent, its citizenry are eating bark.
The portrait itself is an interesing topic. This thing is huge — it measures 44" x 104". Kim Jong Il's ugly mug therefore occupies an ungodly amount of space. But of course, you probably want to know about the blood.
According to painter Phil Hansen, "500ml of my blood was used to make this picture of Kim Jong Il on a canvas of 6,000 bandages." For those keeping track of these things, that's about the size of a bottle of Coke. If you would like to know what the blood strokes look like, here is a detail. What a neat painting, eh?
Source: Phil Hansen
