LSD Art Experiment, Acid Sketches (Photo Gallery)

LSD Art Experiment

What happens when you go down the rabbit hole with art supplies?

Here is an LSD art experiment that visually depicts the abstract states this artist experienced while tripping on acid.

These 9 drawings were done by an artist under the influence of LSD — part of a test conducted by the US government during it’s dalliance with psychotomimetic drugs in the late 1950’s.

The artist was given a dose of LSD 25 and free access to an activity box full of crayons and pencils. His subject is the medico that jabbed him.

LSD Art Experiment 2First drawing is done 20 minutes after the first dose (50ug)

An attending doctor observes – Patient chooses to start drawing with charcoal.

The subject of the experiment reports – ‘Condition normal… no effect from the drug yet’.

LSD Art Experiment 385 minutes after first dose and 20 minutes after a second dose has been administered (50ug + 50ug)

The patient seems euphoric.

‘I can see you clearly, so clearly. This… you… it’s all … I’m having a little trouble controlling this pencil. It seems to want to keep going.’

LSD Art Experiment 42 hours 30 minutes after first dose.

Patient appears very focused on the business of drawing.

‘Outlines seem normal, but very vivid – everything is changing color. My hand must follow the bold sweep of the lines. I feel as if my consciousness is situated in the part of my body that’s now active – my hand, my elbow… my tongue’.

LSD Art Experiment 52 hours 32 minutes after first dose.

Patient seems gripped by his pad of paper.

‘I’m trying another drawing. The outlines of the model are normal, but now those of my drawing are not. The outline of my hand is going weird too. It’s not a very good drawing is it? I give up – I’ll try again…’

LSD Art Experiment 62 hours 35 minutes after first dose.

Patient follows quickly with another drawing.

‘I’ll do a drawing in one flourish… without stopping… one line, no break!’

Upon completing the drawing the patient starts laughing, then becomes startled by something on the floor.

LSD Art Experiment 72 hours 45 minutes after first dose.

Patient tries to climb into activity box, and is generally agitated – responds slowly to the suggestion he might like to draw some more. He has become largely none verbal.

‘I am… everything is… changed… they’re calling… your face… interwoven… who is…’ Patient mumbles inaudibly to a tune (sounds like ‘Thanks for the memory). He changes medium to Tempera.

LSD Art Experiment 84 hours 25 minutes after first dose.

Patient retreated to the bunk, spending approximately 2 hours lying, waving his hands in the air. His return to the activity box is sudden and deliberate, changing media to pen and water color.

‘This will be the best drawing, Like the first one, only better. If I’m not careful I’ll lose control of my movements, but I won’t, because I know. I know’ – (this saying is then repeated many times).

Patient makes the last half-a-dozen strokes of the drawing while running back and forth across the room.

LSD Art Experiment 95 hours 45 minutes after first dose.

Patient continues to move about the room, intersecting the space in complex variations. It’s an hour and a half before he settles down to draw again – he appears over the effects of the drug.

‘I can feel my knees again, I think it’s starting to wear off. This is a pretty good drawing – this pencil is mighty hard to hold’ – (he is holding a crayon).

LSD Art Experiment 108 hours after first dose.

Patient sits on bunk bed. He reports the intoxication has worn off except for the occasional distorting of our faces. We ask for a final drawing which he performs with little enthusiasm.

‘I have nothing to say about this last drawing, it is bad and uninteresting, I want to go home now.’

One Reply to “LSD Art Experiment, Acid Sketches (Photo Gallery)”

  1. Remember once, some friends and I were tripping on acid. Somebody said,”I’m in my mouth now”. Then everybody started saying it. I started crying because I couldn’t get in my mouth. What seemed like the whole afternoon was actually a few minutes when I finally got in my mouth. But this was only to find that everybody else was getting out of their mouth and leaving. I started to freak out because I thought that if they left before I got out, I’d be stuck in my mouth.
    This is just one of many of my “interesting” trips. Some fun, some not. One so bad that I literally got on my knees and prayed to get off it. That was in 1982 at a Van Halen concert. Haven’t tripped since.

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