Bryan Lewis Saunders - 50 Self Portraits

[changeling67]

Bryan Lewis Saunders - Morphine

I appreciate that this story has been Facebooked many times, but the artist Bryan Lewis Saunders has been highlighted in the news recently, for his potentially deadly experiment - creating artwork under the influence of drugs.  It began over twelve years ago and was conducted in quick succession, sometimes a different drug on concurring days. It is said that he suffered mild brain damage as a result, but is still experimenting over a decade later - using longer time lapses.  Some would argue that who in their right mind would do such a dangerous thing (in my experience, artists aren't the norm, hence their ability to be able to create their art); some would say that it is an interesting experiment and shows how drugs alters perceptions in differing degrees.  Some think it is contrived, a cop-out - with a fair amount of justification.  Since when has the humble cough medicine made anyone trippy?

I am curious, because my only brush with drugs has been when a wisdom tooth operation went badly wrong (will spare you the description).  After a concoction of codeine and diclofenac would not stop the agony, I had to be nuked with morphine - a weird drug.  Things went very mushy, very spacey and I wasn't allowed out in the traffic, or indeed out of anyone's site for a week.  When the severe bruising and soft tissue damage had receded, I had to be weened off of it and let me tell you, it was seriously horrible stuff.  I was then put on Tegretol - a drug commonly used for the treatment of epilepsy, but also was effective in the treatment of nerve pain associated with trigeminal neuralgia. One of the side effects were that it also dampened down any sensations such as joy and generally made life absolutely cheerless - eventually, I decided that until I had a corrective operation, I would stick to the codeine, thanks.

Below, there are a few more of Lewis-Saunders' artwork.  I seriously worry about the absinthe one - obviously didn't make the heart grow fonder (I know, bad joke).  The PCP one is very troubling, because it gives a sense of the total absence of the artist at all - a barely-functioning shell.  Disclaimer - do not try this at home as it is very, very dangerous - I would like to say now that I am not advocating drug use, but I am interested in the result.

Bryan Lewis Saunders - Crystal Meth

Bryan Lewis Saunders - Valium




Bryan Lewis Saunders - Absinthe




Bryan Lewis Saunders - PCP

Full story with more pix ----------------------------->  http://elitedaily.com/envision/artist-creates-self-portraits-on-different-drugs-and-the-results-are-insane-photos/

Comments

[bethnoir.livejournal.com]

really interesting experiment. I wonder how many decisions he made about materials he would use and style of portrait he intended to do, before he took the drugs though, you'd have to plan ahead and would naturally have prejudices about what drugs do beforehand.

I think drugs don't bring anything new, creatively, they let people access different parts of themselves possibly, but you'd have to have those talents without drugs anyway. I've just finished reading a book called "All the Madmen" by Clinton Heylin about the ideas around creativity and LSD in the late 60s/early70s. The usual suspects, Bowie, Syd Barrett and so on were featured but also the thoughts of RD Laing, interesting....

[calico-pye.livejournal.com]

I found the paintings interesting - of course, the idea of using drugs to obtain altered states is as old as time itself and I read a lot of Carlos Castaneda when I was younger. The thing is, he took the different drugs daily - there would be an overlap of chemicals in his bloodstream. It would have been difficult to determine if he was truly experiencing an altered state on one specific drug, not to mention how it must've taken a toll on his health - his tox screen must've read like the Periodic Table.