KENNESAW, Ga. -- A new art exhibit that opened Wednesday in Cobb County features paintings made from blood.

Artist Robert Sherer said he uses HIV positive and negative blood to bring attention to the AIDS epidemic.

Sherer 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.

Sherer said he never expected to be an AIDS activist or an educator. Several years ago, a knife he was using slipped, puncturing his leg. The bleeding created a provocative art form, he said.

“I don't think I would have been led to do these paintings had I not had that accident,” Sherer said.

Losing friends to AIDS became a muse of sorts, Sherer said. 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,” Sherer said.

Sherer paints with his own blood, and the donated blood of a close friend with HIV. At first, the blood clotted, so Sherer experimented with blood thinners, perfecting a scientific formula to make his red paint just the right consistency.

Sherer said he doesn’t mind bleeding for a cause he believes in.

“If I can even touch one person with that, then I have done my job,” he said.

Sherer will be auctioning off some of his paintings to fund a new scholarship at Kennesaw State.

The exhibit will be open for the next two months.