posted December 17, 2007 03:57 PM         

Well known examples are Alex Grey and Robert Venosa.

Features of psychedelic art:

Fantastic, metaphysical and surrealistic subject matter
Kaleidoscopic, fractal or paisley patterns
Bright and/or highly contrasting colors
Extreme depth of detail or stylization of detail.
Morphing of objects and/or themes and sometimes collage
Inclusion of phosphenes and other entoptic motifs
Repetition of motifs

Psychedelic Art in Prehistory

Using altered states of consciousness as a source for artistic expression is not a new concept and has been practised throughout human history. Where this art occurs in the past it is often called 'psychedelic art' to conceptually link it to the well-known modern movement. This linkage is contentious and the difficulty in proving the psychedelic origins of prehistoric artwork has led many people to refer to it as entoptic art or subjective visual art. 'Entoptic art' emphasises the fact that evidence for its hallucinatory origins comes mainly from identification of motifs related to entoptic phenomena. Prehistoric entoptic art lacks the range of colours of modern psychedelic art and is often characterised by repeating concentric circles and spirals.

[Modern] Origins

Psychedelic Art is informed by the notion that altered states of consciousness produced by psychedelic drugs are a source of artistic inspiration. The psychedelic art movement is similar to the surrealist movement in that it prescribes a mechanism for obtaining inspiration. Whereas the mechanism for surrealism is the observance of dreams, the psychedelic artist turns to his drug induced hallucinations. Both movements have strong ties to important developments in science. Whereas the surrealist was fascinated by Freud's theory of the unconscious, the psychedelic artist has been literally "turned on" by Albert Hofmann's discovery of LSD.

The early examples of "Psychedelic Art" are literary rather than visual. It should also be noted that these came from writers involved in the Surrealist movement. Antonin Artaud writes of his Peyote experience in "Journey to the Land of the Tarahumara" (1937). Henri Michaux wrote "Miserable Miracle" (1956), to describe his experiments with Mescaline and also hashish.

Aldous Huxley's "The Doors of Perception" (1954), and "Heaven and Hell" (1956), remain definitive statements on the psychedelic experience.

Albert Hofmann and his colleagues at Sandoz Laboratories were convinced immediately after its discovery in 1943 of the power and promise of LSD. For two decades following its discovery LSD was marketed by Sandoz as an important drug for psychological and neurological research. Hofmann saw the drug's potential for poets and artists as well, and took great interest in the German poet, Ernst Junger's psychedelic experiments.

Early artistic experimentation with LSD was conducted in a clinical context by Los Angeles based psychiatrist Oscar Janiger. Janiger asked a group of 50 different artists to each do a painting from life of a subject of the artist's choosing. They were subsequently asked to do the same painting while under the influence of LSD. The two paintings were compared by Janiger and also the artist. The artists almost unanimously reported LSD to be an enhancement to their creativity.

Ultimately it seems that psychedelics would be most warmly embraced by the American counterculture. Beatnik poets Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs became fascinated by psychedelic drugs as early as the 1950s as evidenced by "The Yage Letters" (1963). The Beatniks recognized the role of psychedelics as sacred inebriants in Native American religious ritual, and also had an understanding of the philosophy of the surrealist and symbolist poets who called for a "complete disorientation of the senses" (to paraphrase Arthur Rimbaud). They knew that altered states of consciousness played a role in Eastern Mysticism. They were hip to psychedelics as psychiatric medicine. LSD was the perfect catalyst to electrify the eclectic mix of ideas assembled by the Beats into a cathartic, mass-distributed panacea for the soul of the succeeding generation.

[edit] Psychedelic Art in 1960s Counterculture
Leading proponents of the 1960s Psychedelic Art movement were San Francisco poster artists such as: Rick Griffin, Victor Moscoso, Stanley Mouse & Alton Kelley, and Wes Wilson. Their Psychedelic Rock concert posters were inspired by Art Nouveau, Victoriana, Dada, and Pop Art. Richly saturated colors in glaring contrast, elaborately ornate lettering, strongly symmetrical composition, collage elements, and bizarre iconography are all hallmarks of the San Francisco psychedelic poster art style. The style flourished from about 1966 - 1972. Their work was immediately influential to album cover art, and indeed all of the aforementioned artists also created album covers.

Although San Francisco remained the hub of psychedelic art into the early 1970s, the style also developed internationally: Majorca based painter Mati Klarwein created psychedelic masterpieces for Miles Davis' Jazz-Rock fusion albums, and also for Carlos Santana Latin Rock. Pink Floyd worked extensively with London based designers, Hipgnosis to create graphics to support the concepts in their albums.

Psychedelic light-shows were a new art-form developed for rock concerts. Using oil and dye in an emulsion that was set between large convex lenses upon overhead projectors the lightshow artists created bubbling liquid visuals that pulsed in rhythm to the music. This was mixed with slideshows and film loops to create an improvisational motion picture art form to give visual representation to the improvisational jams of the rock bands and create a completely "trippy" atmosphere for the audience. The Brotherhood of Light were responsible for many of the light-shows in San Francisco psychedelic rock concerts.

Out of the psychedelic counterculture also arose a new genre of comic books: underground comix. "Zap Comix" was among the original underground comics, and featured the work of Robert Crumb, S. Clay Wilson, Victor Moscoso, Rick Griffin, and Robert Williams among others. Underground Comix were ribald, intensely satirical, and seemed to pursue weirdness for the sake of weirdness. Gilbert Shelton created perhaps the most enduring of underground cartoon characters, "The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers," whose drugged out exploits held a hilarious mirror up to the hippy lifestyle of the 1960s.

Psychedelic art was also applied to the LSD itself. LSD began to be put on blotter paper in the early 1970s and this gave rise to a specialized art form of decorating the blotter paper. Often the blotter paper was decorated with tiny insignia on each perforated square tab, but by the 1990s this had progressed to complete four color designs often involving an entire page of 900 or more tabs. Mark McCloud is a recognized authority on the history of LSD blotter art.

The fact that LSD blotter art kept evolving over decades shows that the Psychedelic Art movement did not end with the '60s, and if considered more deeply it did not begin in that decade either. The use of drugs by artists is nothing new - the Roman poet Ovid said, "There is no poetry among water drinkers." However, since drugs have always been taboo, the drug use of artists has not always entered the historical record. It was part of the youth rebellion of the 1960s to openly use drugs, but the psychedelic drugs were also seen in a different light from more traditional inebriants such as opiates, cocaine and alcohol. LSD was a new invention that had shown wondrous promise as a psychiatric medicine. It is beyond the scope of this article to describe LSD research and its various results, but importantly to the counterculture movement of the 1960s it had been strongly associated with creativity and had been promoted as a gateway to mystical experience. These aspects drew artists and intellectuals to experiment with LSD and other psychedelic drugs.

[edit] Psychedelic Art in Corporate Advertising
By the late 1960s, the commercial potential of psychedelic art had become hard to ignore. General Electric, for instance, promoted clocks with designs by New York artist Peter Max. A caption explains that each of Max’s clocks “transposes time into multi-fantasy colors.”[1] In this and many other corporate advertisements of the late 1960’s featuring psychedelic themes, the psychedelic product was often kept at arm’s length from the corporate image: while advertisements may have reflected the swirls and colors of an LSD trip, the black-and-white company logo maintained a healthy visual distance. Several companies, however, more explicitly associated themselves with psychedelica: CBS, Neiman Marcus, and NBC all featured thoroughly psychedelic advertisements between 1968 and 1969.[2] In 1968, Campbell’s soup ran a poster promotion that promised to “Turn your wall souper-delic!”[3]

The early years of the 1970s saw advertisers using psychedelic art to sell a limitless array of consumer goods. Hair products, cars, cigarettes, and even pantyhose became colorful acts of pseudo-rebellion.[4] The Chelsea National Bank commissioned a psychedelic landscape by Peter Max, and neon green, pink, and blue monkeys inhabited advertisements for a zoo.[5] A fantasy land of colorful, swirling, psychedelic bubbles provided the perfect backdrop for a Clearasil ad.[6] As Brian Wells explains, “The psychedelic movement has, through the work of artists, designers, and writers, achieved an astonishing degree of cultural diffusion… but, though a great deal of diffusion has taken place, so, too, has a great deal of dilution and distortion.”[7] Even the term “psychedelic” itself underwent a semantic shift, and soon came to mean “anything in youth culture which is colorful, or unusual, or fashionable.”[8] Puns using the concept of “tripping” abounded: as an advertisement for London Britches declared, their product was “great on trips!”[9] By the mid-1970’s, the psychedelic art movement had been largely co-opted by mainstream commercial forces, incorporated into the very system of capitalism that the hippies had struggled so hard to change.

[edit] Psychedelic Art and the Digital Age
Computer Arts have allowed for an even greater and more profuse expression of psychedelic vision. Fractal generating software gives an accurate depiction of psychedelic hallucinatory patterns, but even more importantly 2D and 3D graphics software allow for unparalleled freedom of image manipulation. Much of the graphics software seems to enable a direct translation of the psychedelic vision. The "digital revolution" was indeed heralded early on as the "New LSD" by none other than Timothy Leary.

The Rave movement of the 1990s was a psychedelic renaissance fueled by the advent of newly available digital technologies. The rave movement developed a new graphic art style partially influenced by 1960s psychedelic poster art, but also strongly influenced by graffiti art, and by 1970s advertising art, yet clearly defined by what computer graphics software and home computers had to offer at the time of creation.

Land of Psychedelic Illuminations (©Brian Exton): example of fractal influenceConcurrent to the rave movement, and in key respects integral to it, are the development of new mind altering drugs, most notably, MDMA (Ecstasy). Ecstasy, like LSD, has had a tangible influence on culture and aesthetics, particularly the aesthetics of Rave Culture. But MDMA is (arguably) not a real psychedelic, but is described by psychologists as an "empathogen". Development of new psychedelics such as "2CB" and related compounds (developed primarily by chemist Alexander Shulgin) are truly psychedelic, and these novel psychedelics are fertile ground for artistic exploration since many of the new psychedelics possess their own unique properties that will affect the artist's vision accordingly.

Perhaps the future of psychedelic art will be defined by those artists who have practiced it most purely. That is to say by those artists who have sought to record the visions derived from the psychedelic drug experience into works of art. Even as fashions have changed, and art and culture movements have come and gone certain artists have steadfastly devoted themselves to psychedelia. Well known examples are Alex Grey and Robert Venosa. These artists have developed unique and distinct styles that while containing elements that are obviously "psychedelic", are clearly artistic expression that transcend simple categorization. While it is not necessary to use psychedelics to arrive at such a stage of artistic development, serious psychedelic artists are demonstrating that there is tangible technique to obtaining visions, and that technique is the creative use of psychedelic drugs.

posted December 19, 2007 01:42 AM         

Here is an LSD blotter sheet from Toronto with amazing artwork:

And something trippy:

Not typical psychedelic but I feel like it fits, and it's awesome:

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Capricorn sun / Scorpio rising / Sagittarius moon

posted December 19, 2007 04:05 PM         

I dont know about you
but i think this is a little
LSD induced:

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Scorpio sun / Capricorn rising / Aquarius moon

posted December 19, 2007 04:17 PM         

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Capricorn sun / Scorpio rising / Sagittarius moon

posted December 20, 2007 09:10 AM         

Must be a coincidence.

BR and Fayte,

posted December 22, 2007 01:27 PM         

He also was the first artist [to my knowledge] to take the canvas off the eisel...where it had rested for hundreds of years, and place it on the floor. A brush stroke? No, a stick. And in the grand tradition died young [44] in a high speed car crash w/ $350 in his pocket.

posted December 23, 2007 01:33 PM         

The technique of painting on the floor is Eastern,
and has been around for centuries.

I think Pollock is vastly over-rated,
but he was in the right place at the right time,
and he did stumble upon something "trippy".

posted December 23, 2007 04:07 PM         

Yes, of course. Though we would have to know when the first floor decoration was first struck, and on what floor. My short statement inferred that Pollock was the first human to ever use the technique. My bad.

posted December 27, 2007 10:07 AM         

Metaphor is the mark of all sanskrit. To see metaphors is to read from the book of life. A metaphor is a bridge between peaks. Where there is distinction, metaphor illumines a common identity. Metaphor is meandering as truth is. Sure-footed is light-footed.

We are full. We are brimming. Life unfolds. Worlds overflow. Contemplate beginnings. Once more, with feeling. All of us spinning. Doctors of nothing. Come again, full circle. You are well remembered. All of us beginning.

Love. Begin with Love and you can never go wrong. Take aim at love, and you can never "sin" (which is "to miss the mark"). Love is lighter than the wind, lighter than the ether. Your arrows will cut fire and fly straight. A single arrow will point you the whole way (to the Kingdom), if its aim is true. Begin with love, or repeat history.

The most incredible experiences are not realized until after they are over. During such experiences, guiding spirits shield from our vision all but the moment. Only in time do great lessons come to light. They are given in an instant, to be pondered for an eternity. Philosophy is the high art of devoting oneself to wisdom, and honoring one's experience of the world, by the patient application of thought to the ephemeral moments which impress their significance upon us. Philosophy informed by intuition, and intuition checked by philosophy, may very well be the definition of the art of living. When you chew your food, every bite you take makes it easier on your stomach. Without reflection, indigestion.

So, in remembering God, let us remember "Him" frequently. In this way, it must be easier to digest His Word for us, our lesson in the world. Our Father desires only our freedom. He comes only when we beckon Him, and otherwise leaves us free reign. Like a servant, the Lord waits on our command. Such a servant is worthy of reverence, and what deserves reverence, deserves frequent rememberance. For, truly, a man is indebted to his servant, as the beneficiary of his graces. And how much more are we indebted to our Lord, whose graces themselves serve us, and bestow graces beyond themselves? For by means of gifts, more gifts are discovered. Always, the gifts of gifts.

Everything is holy. A line crossed out is a bible unseen. The scriptures are woven with jewels, and all of them rejected. Even to discover them is to reject them. Every discovered jewel is a rejected star. Every star is a rejected sun. Every sun the center of a cosmos. Sages abandon themselves in this orbittal dance and are senseless.

Who does not love to write does not write to love. The work one loves is the work of love. When you love what you do, what you do is love. You all have gifts to be discovered. The light that reveals your gifts shines out from within them, and is one with them.

You are not a chronicler, but a composer of songs. There is nothing to be. When it is said, "Be this," or "Be that," you are already "this", you are already "that". It is your voice that speaks. It is your song that would be sung. And it is not a command but a declaration; a declaration of love for "this" or "that". You ask, "But, how will I know when it is love that speaks?" Because love, my friend, always comes singing, gently singing.

I will beg the muses to linger, though the darkness is all but replaced by the light, and the Moon is barely a shadow. But if the muses be silent, I will read and reflect upon their gifts with the deepest gratitude, lest I stray by following my mortal lights. For truth is alive, and speaks only through the mouth of a muse, - and does not speak, but sings. And all that is not sung is dead; untrue and unmoved. Truly, the greatest sages have all been poets and singers of songs. Lesser sages, at their best, sang us a song. And if they had only one song in them, they learned it well, and sang it often. All truth is sung. All truth is poetic. All poetry cryptic. All love is rejoicing. All life is homecoming.

What is to be remembered? Only what is dead. Shall we remember the Lord in this way? Or do we perhaps mean something different, something unique, when we speak of "remembering" the Lord, who is all life? Truly, to "remember" the Lord means only to forget all that is dead and past, and, rather, to dwell in the life of His infinite presence. Shall we remember a person when he or she is with us? Would this not be to neglect our guest? So, a song is well remembered only when it is sung, for that is not to bury it, but to give it new life. Just so, the Lord is well remembered, even ressurrected, when we love.

Love. Begin with love and you can never go wrong. Ending in love, you know you've done right. Love is the beginning and end of all good labors, and all true questions. But love does not seek to uncover, only to leave things be. Love knows that all is well.

To open the Ark is not to heed its inscription: "This ark is Love. All you will find inside it is Love. But if you see no Love in this outer form, or in the modesty, the secrecy, of this form, how shall you see it inside?" Love is fond of mysteries, but does not press. Love is not greedy for more than what is revealed. Love will not undress the truth, but patiently seduce her to disrobe. Love love's foreplay. Love is always on the edge of her seat, but never hurries the truth. Love needs no reason or argument to love, and does not seek for something more to love, but is content at all times to find the universe in a grain of sand. The Ark is a Pandora's Box, and Love's inscription is the soft lock upon that box. It is locked for love of you, but the key is granted upon request, also for love.

Let them interpret these and other sayings. All they shall discover is love. All they shall ever learn is love. Let there be interpretations. For true words are many layered, and many secrets go undiscovered when any secret is disturbed. The noonday sun shuts out from our sight a thousand stars. Love keeps all secrets. For the only secret is love, and the only mystery is our ignorance and indifference to love.

About the mystery... The mystery does not trouble itself to confound us, or to be mysterious. Its nature is mystery, so it is infinitely mysterious. But if you ask a sage, he or she will tell you every time, "The answer is love." Love. So light, it floats away on the breath when we call it. So heavy, it comes pregnant with mysteries, desperate for a bed. So fine it can't be seen. So dense it cannot be fathomed. A blinding vision to behold.

Darling one, come again! My wonder. Like a grandmother, let me behold you, grandchild. And run free like a child at your choosing, unbound by love. All your choices are for love. And when you have gorged yourself on love, in one form or another, it is to love's bed that you retire. And both forms of love are divine. Both are prayers well received. All love is divine, and all prayers are holy. For God hears only love, and God hears all love. Even the faintest love is a chorus attended by God. And all that speaks of unholiness speaks to unholiness, and is itself unholy. Do not disturb the mystery. Let the mystery be holy. Leave the questions unhurried. Let the questions be holy.

Love is certain. For, to be certain is to rest, and there is no rest but in love. Only love is at rest. Only love is certain.

Breathe in, when you meet with resistance, and breathe out when you meet with acceptance. The greatest wisdom is simple, as a seed is simple. Every seed can sprout a thousand Vedas, and nurish many nations. True wisdom is self-perpetuating. To grasp it is to be inspired with it. Where the song of love is resonant, it is creative.

Can you sing a hurtful word? Who will permit it in her song? The song of love is melodious, and by its delicacy you shall know it. But harsh tones of accusation do not soothe, and bitter reproaches are clumsily sung. Even to make note of them here would be a disservice, were it not done in the service of love.

Let all lessons not be in vain. Leave them be, if they are learned. All lessons are but the restless spirits of lives already passed, crying only to be left in peace, unreconciled and unresolved; their legacies entrusted to living descendants. You are not your lessons or your karma, though the spirits of your ancestors move within you unperceived. Your heart is a ghostyard, restless and disturbed. Your questions and answers are the plaints and groans of the dead. Relax yourself, and give them peace. Abandon your lessons, child, and partake of the summer breeze! You have appointments to keep with the flowers and the trees! They have new, adventurous secrets to impart, to whosoever would meet them. Then let the present life inform you! You are not a historian, but a maker of history! In this knowing there is only love, and only love is this knowing. For love is all that is known, and all that can ever be known.

There is no end to God's love for you, and no end of love songs to sing. Only be still, and you shall hear the strains, and they shall move you to dance and sing by themselves. Singing along to this song, you will know you keep synch with the Lord. Dancing, you will know you keep step. Speak of the eternal and your words shall be eternal, immortal. Speak of troubles and your words shall be as dust, shook loose from the soles of His feet. The great work is only interrupted when you doubt yourself, for that is to doubt God's love for you. Speak, then, as the Son of our Lord shines; He does not cease to shine for eclipses. So is my love for you uneclipsed.

We only ever reject ourselves. We only ever reject love. If we had love for ourselves, we would rest safely in that love, and not desire to move from there, in order to heap scorn on another. All we ever want is love, and love is ours to give! Hear this and rejoice! Know your understanding is lifted. And with it, love is lifted from the depths of your spirit, and poured out freely over the parched earth of your soul. You love yourself; tired, beaten down by a thousand ungentle truths; not in glory, but in ruin; not perfected, but incomplete; not the bread, but the flower, ground exceedingly small. You are the child, fit to pass through the narrowest gate.

The Lord gives us all that we have, and is not done giving. Open the gifts of the Lord. Children, do not wonder: All is welcome. All is forgiven. As you ache, I ache for you with you. I'm there, inside you, like a child, welcome or unwelcome. Your contractions are only occassioned by my hastening to you. You, the Virgin Mother, and I, the Lord, your God. To some it is madness, to others a secret bliss. Mother, will you love me, small as I am? Will you carry this child to term? Embrace the formless spirit within this broken form? I, the Lord God, am this child.

God love us! God deliver us! Love is infinite. The only thing is love. The only thing you reject is love. Blessed are the rejected. Loved are they, even as all are loved. But this love is greater in a relative sense, for "The stone that the builder rejected shall be the head stone of the corner." There is nothing to embrace but the Christ, nothing to reject but the Christ. Discard nothing! That which you have in hand is the Christ, and the first stone which must be set. Asking ourselves, "What do I reject? What do I despise?", we locate the stone. Speaking unto the Lord, "This shall I love," we embrace the stone. Silent in our hearts, "Loving the stone," we carry it to the appointed and annointed place. Losing ourselves in love for the stone, we afix it there. Such labor is a joy incomparable. Who labors with the Lord, gives birth to love, and lives in love with love. That which is weakest is wanted. All who grow tired grow strong. To be low is to be flooded in God's love, for God's love must fill all the rivers and channels it runs down, and gather force along the way.

My beloved one, do not trouble yourself to understand this. These mysteries are boundless and not to be circumferenced. There is nothing to know, nothing to be won. All love is free and flows everwhere like the air. Will you only breathe deeply when you draw your last breath?

Alas,
That flesh is hunted,
and taken before its time,
while love grows on trees,
and dies on the vine!

Love is everywhere ripe, and everywhere engenders itself. As you reap it, so is it also sown, as the seeds fall from your lips. To love is not difficult. To love is only to be forgiven. Is it so difficult to be forgiven? Don't ask Saturn. Don't ask Neptune. Ask yourself, if you are given. You, who hide your beauty under a veil of shame. You are the virgin bride of the Lord, worthy to bear the true prince. Let your tears be for joy. Let His mercy enfold you. There was nothing before, and there is nothing now, but love. Always, it has been so. Only you have desired to hear. Hear me, then. Love me, if you would reject me. And, if not me, love another, for I am in all things, and am not an object to be loved, but the love itself! Only love, love, love, and all accounts shall be balanced, all laws perfectly fulfilled.

Why beat your head against a wall? The only way through it is love. Behold, I shall stand before you in the nakedness of my flesh, and not move from your path until I am fully embraced. My body shall be as an impenetrable wall around the garden of my spirit, and only those who can love the body shall be able to pass through it as spirit. This is the way, the truth, and the life. This is the eternal law of love.