If some people immortalize their own semen in their paintings, others go deeper into the morbid side. Artist Robert Sherer, from Georgia, makes his painting using HIV positive and negative blood, to trigger a warning signal on the HIV epidemic. Last week, Sherer opened an exhibition featuring his masterworks made of blood, which will be available for the visitors in Cobb County, for two months. He attended the opening at Kennesaw State University.

"The number one reaction I get is they say 'Pretty flowers,' then they read 'HIV positive.' They're afraid the HIV is going to jump through the glass and get them or something," Sherer said.

He stated he never imagined he would turn into an AIDS activist or an educator. A few years ago, Sherer punctured one of his legs accidentally with a knife.

"The bleeding created a provocative art form. I don't think I would have been led to do these paintings had I not had that accident. Losing friends to AIDS became a muse of sorts. The artwork became a platform for educating others about AIDS awareness. I look at the flower (in a painting) as a person with AIDS and the thorns and barbed wires as the virus they have that's attacking them," said Sherer.

The HIV negative blood from Sherer's paintings is his own, while the HIV positive blood is donated by a HIV infected close friend. At the first attempts to use the unusual "paint", the blood clotted, but Sherer tested various blood thinners, reaching a scientific formula to confer the blood the required consistency for painting.

"I don't mind bleeding for a cause I believe in. If I can even touch one person with that, then I have done my job," said Sherer.

The artist intends to fund new scholarship at Kennesaw State with the money gotten from auctioning some of his works.