
Drugged artist paints 8600 self-portraits - nreece
http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/portrait-of-the-artist-as-a-walking-drug-experiment-20120828-24y6r.html
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egypturnash
Don't take these as being accurate portraits of What A Particular Drug Does To
You. My experience, as an artist who has dabbled in recreational chemistry, is
that you can get a multitude of stylistic effects from a single drug, let
alone many different ones.

For instance, THC will SOMETIMES give me a huge boost to my visualization
powers, and I can hold enough in my mind at once that I feel like I'm tracing
the image instead of drawing it. This doesn't happen all the time, or for the
duration of the entire trip. It doesn't even always happen with the same
strain.

YMMV, of course. But that's my experience of (far fewer than this guy has
done) drugs plus art

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CoffeeDregs
Lots more of his photos here:

<http://bryanlewissaunders.org/drugs/>

Also, it's worth noting that only a small # of his portraits were painted
while "under the influence" (though it sounds as if many were done while
medicated).

Though I have experience with but a small fraction of his ... influences? ...
his portraits definitely capture bits of the experiences I've shared. Clever.

Setting aside the artistically productive alcoholics and addicts, I assume
that this is not the first artist to have _intentionally_ dosed themselves for
artistic purposes. Does anyone know of others?

~~~
narag
It's difficult to evaluate the "intentionally" part (once you know its
effects, is it _intentional_?) but absynthe comes to mind for XIX century
painters, LSD and heroin for a lot of writers, painters and musicians in XX:
Dalí, Parker, Huxley...

~~~
bunderbunder
_absynthe comes to mind for XIX century painters_

If alcohol counts _, then that list includes just about every artist of the
past several centuries who isn't either Muslim or Henry Rollins.

_ Which it does, IMO.

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nathell
This is nothing new. Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, also known as Witkacy, was
painting portraits of himself and friends under influence of drugs in mid-War
Poland. He was actually making a living of it through his Portrayal Company
(while at the same time writing ingenious prosaic, poetical and drama works
that would make him famous), though most of the bespoke portraits were not
drug-influenced, the so-called Type C being reserved for friends and
acquaintances and created mostly during parties. Some of these portraits
contained cryptic inscriptions next to the author's signature, indicating the
influencing substances.

More on Wikipedia:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanis%C5%82aw_Ignacy_Witkiewic...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanis%C5%82aw_Ignacy_Witkiewicz)

A sample portrait (with an inscription hinting at alcohol and/or heroin):
[http://www.pinakoteka.zascianek.pl/Witkacy/Images/Nena_Stach...](http://www.pinakoteka.zascianek.pl/Witkacy/Images/Nena_Stachurska_2.jpg)

More assorted portraits:
[http://images.google.pl/search?tbm=isch&source=hp&bi...](http://images.google.pl/search?tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1280&bih=923&q=portrety+witkacego)

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josscrowcroft
Who cares if it's been done before? These are fantastic.

I especially like the DMT one - it's impossible to put an experience like that
into words, so he does a fantastic job with the diagram of the head and the
orbs and "10x more complex"

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panacea
I find it a shame he's associating various, really clever artistic stlyes,
techniques amd works with particular chemicals he's ingested/consumed.

It cheapens his art and is making false equivalences.

~~~
delinka
I don't understand your perspective. He had an experience and painted what he
experienced into a self-portrait. "Associating [...] styles" with drugs isn't
the same thing. He sees what he sees and he paints it.

I read you as accusing him of insinuating something like "Picasso is Xanax"
which isn't the case.

In short, he's neither implying nor creating this association, he's simply
putting what he sees on canvas.

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valceder
fascinating to see this, almost, diary of drug taking. It's incredible how
much his style changes from drug to drug.

