Art On Acid

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The History of Blotter Art Blotter Art is a term that originally referred to the absorbent paper that liquid LSD was sometimes dropped onto. Artwork was printed onto "blotter" paper and then perforated into tiny squares or "hits," which could be torn apart into easy to manage quantities.
In the 1960s, when LSD was legal, it was distributed in large pills, sometimes called "barrels" because of their shape. It was also sold on anything from sugar cubes to animal crackers. Dealers began to want their "batch" of LSD to be recognizable from the others, so they began to invent ways to trademark their acid. The chemists would make the pills a certain shape or color as to set them apart from others, especially if they were packaging particularly potent dosages.
This also served as a form of a validation of authenticity, proving that the dealers were not selling fake LSD. As a bonus, the dealers would get a kick out of the buzz created by their "brand" of acid. Sometime after LSD became illegal, mandatory minimum sentencing was set into place. These laws placed mandatory sentences on drug offenders based on the weight of the substances with which they were caught. Therefore a drug dealer busted with one dose of acid on a sugar cube that weighed 1 gram would get the same sentence as a dealer caught with 1 gram of LSD crystal, which would represent about 10,000 doses of LSD! It didn't take a genius to figure out that a new, lightweight, medium for distributing LSD was needed.In comes Blotter Art: The foremost Blotter Art historian, Mark McCloud, suggests that after Owsley Stanley's pill press was busted, that Blotter Acid began to make its way on to the streets, replacing the pills as the standardized medium. Shortly after, iconic images began to make their way onto Blotter Paper, which allowed dealers to easily put their own logo on the acid they were selling. The logo could have been professionally printed or have been a rubber stamp of some image that further served as an underground trademark. Not only did this serve to identify a brand of acid, but by using Blotter Paper, which weighed far less than other mediums, it kept drug dealers who got busted from getting as much mandatory time.Today, the term "Blotter Art" takes on a whole new meaning. Now, Blotter Art refers to a highly collectible form of artwork. It steals its popularity from the visual similarities it shares with its' once prolific chemical-soaked cousin. Blotter Art has transcended the underground drug market and is available to art lovers worldwide. It is not illegal, it is ART! It celebrates the days gone by when we were young and our minds were blooming. Now we no longer have to use an illegal substance to take a "trip," even if it is down memory lane.F.A.Q.'s about Blotter Art
What is Blotter Art?
Blotter Art is one of Underground America's most important (and misunderstood) forms of folk art! Blotter Art started out as the artwork that drug dealers used to drop liquid LSD onto so that they may easily sell the drug. After some time, art lovers began to understand the value of this art form and collect and preserve the unsaturated artwork. Since then, Blotter Art has become the "eclectic" choice in art.Why do you sell Blotter Art?
We feel that Blotter Art is a very important art form. Blotter Art tells the story of a once active psychedelic underground movement. All of the Blotter Art we sell is manufactured strictly as art and is NOT manufactured as a vehicle for controlled substances. Our art's similarity to illegal Blotter Acid is purely aesthetic, and no attempt has been made to mimic it otherwise.Is Blotter Art illegal?No. Blotter Art is not illegal. Blotter Art is ART! However, LSD is illegal, therefore there is no LSD present on any of our artwork.Can I be arrested for Blotter Art?
Yup! Although the artwork itself is not illegal, you can still be arrested because it does look identical to the artwork that drug dealers sell on the streets. The arresting authorities will then have to test the artwork to see if it contains any traces of LSD, which it does not.Our recommendation is that you frame this art and keep it at home on display.Also, if you try to sell (or even give away) this artwork as if it were real LSD, you can be arrested and convicted for the attempted distribution of a Controlled Dangerous Substance, even though the artwork contains no illegal substance! Therefore, we recommend that only those who enjoy and appreciate these items for their artistic value bother to purchase them. We accept no responsibility for the misuse of purchased items.Where do you get these prints?We commission these prints from artists whose work we feel will be enhanced, and well represented on the blotter form. All of the art you see here will only be available from us (with the exception of "flippers" trying to get a few extra bucks for them on places like eBay). Each piece will be hand signed and numbered by the artist, so you will have a truly collectible work of art!