DNA art company launches lip paintings

November 13, 2007

The company that makes art from DNA has turned a bit more Andy Warhol for an encore.

DNA 11, an online company that creates personalized oil paintings from the buyer’s DNA or fingerprint, introduced a new way for people to buy art–by puckering up. In partnership with cosmetics company MAC, DNA 11 now lets people buy a personalized painting by sending in a print of their lips, or what are called Kiss Portraits. (It’s very Marilyn Monroe.)

DNA 11 has been selling on-demand paintings of people’s genetic code for years. Its art work has even appeared on the crime show CSI as a fictional way to trace a killer, but technically that’s not possible. To create a work, DNA 11 collects a sample of the buyer’s DNA, which is immediately sent to a special lab. (The lab doesn’t keep records of people’s names.) And then only a partial picture of the code is used to create an individual’s painting–which typically looks like computer code on canvas. (CNET News.com)