Blogpost 4: Bro, do you even do drugs?

45 days 45 drugs 45 self-portraits were basically how Bryan Saunders did his masterpiece. Every day he would in take a drug and do a self-portrait of him to see how a certain drug works. Most of his paintings looked outrageous and some looked really good. But I can’t seem to understand his reason why he did those, is it for fame? Is it part of his art style? Or he really needed something to boost his creativity?

Again I wanted to learn more about this so I researched. And fortunately I found an article “Can Psychedelic Drugs Enhance Creativity?” in patch.com written by David Jay Brown. He explained about a popular drug that was used by many artists “psychedelic drugs”. Psychedelic drug is a psychoactive drug that alters the perception and cognition of person who have intake those.

According to Brown  “The relationship between cannabis and creativity was the subject of one of my , and many highly-acclaimed artists, scientists, writers, musicians, and creative people of all sorts claim to have received creative inspiration from cannabis and more potent psychedelics--like LSD, mescaline, and psilocybin--for decades.”

I think it is no wonder for us to know that artists use drugs, not to be stereotypical or anything, but, they are the ones who confess that they use drugs. It may be for inspiration or production or for self –meditation. But most of the time this people who uses drugs abuse it, yes by using those they risk the having of an addiction.  

For more information about how the psychedelic drug boost the creativity an article “Creativity and Psychedelics” in maps.org written by Rick J. Strassman explained that, if the consciousness if modified in the creative process the creativity will be alter. He also mentions that psychiatry, especially psychoanalysis, has an eye for creativity. And psychoanalysis studies mania and schizophrenia that somehow showed us a connection in creativity and mental illness.

He said that “Under the influence of these drugs, all forms of perception are altered, especially the visual and auditory. New ideas, thoughts, and memories emerge. Emotions are intense and shift rapidly. The body changes shape, weight, and appearance, as does its relationship to the mind. Our sense of self, its nature and quality, is highly altered”

In my opinion, because of the rising of “psychedelic drugs enhance creativity” a lot of artists and people who wanted to be an artist will try to use the drug, to experience the effect firsthand. It imposes an idea that artists do not need to worry about inspiration for their work because psychedelic drugs will always give them.