Company Makes Artwork Personal With Client's DNA
MIAMI (CBS4) - Artwork isn't the only made by hand. Now it can be made from your saliva.
DNA portraits are gaining popularity. So much so, they have been featured on the CBS hit series "CSI". This kind of art is literally inside the eye of the beholder.
"The DNA portrait idea evolved into any kind of personalized art including fingerprints, and even art made from your lips, what we call Kiss Portraits," said Adrian Salamunovic, Co-founder of DNA11 and Canvas Pop. "The first step is our customers come to our website, DNA11.com and they choose the size and the color of the artwork.
The company then ship the customer a DNA collection kit which consists of a mouth swap and a DNA collection card. Their customers swab their mouth, transfer it over to this collection card, which they then ship back to the company.
"We then take that DNA collection card, isolate the DNA through doing a series of washes," said Nazim Ahmed , Co-founder of DNA11 and Canvas Pop.
They then use that DNA and zero in on eight specific sequences that are unique to all individuals.
"We then replicate those sequences and separate then through a process called gel electrical," said Ahmed.
The final result is a completely unique DNA image for every individual.
"The final stage is to take the DNA and strain it and then photograph it using a digital camera. That's the image that our designers use as a basis to create our customers artwork," said Ahmed.
Their designers then use these raw images and apply a series of different filters on it that turn them into worthy pieces of artwork.
"We then print the pieces on canvas, frame them and ship them to our customers," said Ahmed.
The artwork was even featured on an episode of CSI New York. Canvas Pop was started in 2009 in response to actual customers wanting to see if they could print other things than just photographs.
The artwork starts at $200.
