Join us for a one-of-a-kind conference on author Erik Davis's new book “Blotter: The Untold Story of an Acid Medium.”
“Blotter: The Untold Story of an Acid Medium” is a richly illustrated exploration of the history, art, and design of printed LSD blotter tabs. Blotter is the first comprehensive written account of the history, art, and design of LSD blotter paper, that will perhaps forever be linked to underground psychedelic culture and contemporary street art.
Erik, along with special guest speaker, Mark McCloud, will discuss the history of blotter art. Copies of the book will be available to purchase and to have signed.
Doors open at 6:00pm
Discussion and Q&A from 6:30-8:30pm
Erik Davis is a scholar, award-winning journalist, and speaker whose writing has ranged from rock criticism to media studies to creative explorations of esoteric mysticism. He is the author of the books “High Weirdness: Drugs, Esoterica and Visionary Experience in the Seventies” and “TechGnosis: Myth, Magic and Mysticism in the Age of Information” and writes the newsletter Burning Shore.
The visionary behind this “Institute of Illegal Images” is one Mark McCloud, a photographer, sculptor, painter, art teacher, amateur comedian, and the preeminent collector of LSD blotter paper art (he owns an estimated 33,000 sheets of paper bearing miniature artworks). The "Institute of Illegal Images" is the most comprehensive collection of decorated LSD blotter paper in the world. As such, the collection has been the target of two criminal trials where McCloud was forced to defend not only the collection, but also his own liberty.
Blotter is the first comprehensive written account of the history, art, and design of LSD blotter paper, the iconic drug
delivery device that will perhaps forever be linked to underground psychedelic culture and contemporary street art.
Created in collaboration with Mark McCloud's Institute of Illegal Images, the world's largest archive of blotter art,
Davis’ richly and boldly illustrated book treats his outsider subject with the serious, art-historical respect it deserves,
while also staying true to the sense of play, irreverence, and adventure inherent in psychedelic exploration.
Davis weaves together two main stories: first, the largely unknown history of blotter paper's development in the
1960s and its later flowering in the 1970s and 1980s; and second, the story of how San Francisco artist, professor,
and “freak” McCloud began collecting blotter and ultimately became embroiled with the LSD trade. The book closes
with a unique discussion of the market for “vanity blotter”—more recent perforated papers produced as collectible
art objects never meant to be dipped in LSD. While vanity blotters are intimately related to the underground blotters
of the LSD trade, they effectively open up their own visual world. As the ultimate document of this ephemeral
artform, Blotter represents an exceptional contribution to the scholarship of art and psychedelics that will entertain
older readers with lysergic nostalgia and younger readers with its image-driven journey through a colorful and
scandalous corner of psychedelic lore.
Don’t know a lot about blotter art and culture?
Visit The Blotter Barn and view iconic blotter art images, learn about the history and all things related!