People are still making, buying, and using acid. He’s collecting less methodically these days, but blotter art is still out there. The rest of his blotters live in many, many binders. He’s framed as many sheets from his collection as his walls can hold, and he says that exposure to ultraviolet rays of light and oxygen has neutralized the psychotropic chemicals that once permeated the papers. Leonard Pickard, who was convicted in the largest-ever LSD manufacturing case, is serving two consecutive life sentences for producing and distributing the drug. McCloud's hobby has a way of attracting law enforcement's attention. The band’s concerts were (and still are) big acid scenes. Others are less subtle, like the sheet emblazoned with the Grateful Dead’s skull-and-lightning bolt logo. Bill appeared on a blotter, McCloud says, it signified that the sheet came from a certain chemist named Bill. Bill, the clay figurine from Saturday Night Live-were actually subtle clues when Mr. Many designs-like the sheets imprinted with Mr. This was especially helpful at the time, when people would mail sheets of LSD around the world simply by slipping them into record sleeves.
McCloud surmises that most blotter art was created so manufacturers, dealers, and consumers could identify the origins of the acid. The drug-documenting site Erowid says it’s led to “an array of creative and stunning designs,” so much so that “it is likely that a few of the blotter designs shown have never been dipped and were created purely as art.” Erowid has its own digital gallery of LSD blotter art, and some of the visual tropes from the Institute of Illegal Images can be found there as well. Blotter art is a relatively new, and still underground, art form. It’s a new word, and the word hasn’t been with us very long.”Īnyway. And the first novel that had the word was. “ The Psychedelic Sounds of The 13th Floor Elevators, who I just saw play on Halloween. “The first record to have the word 'psychedelic' on the album was The 13th Floor Elevators, from Austin,” he says. Upon learning that I grew up in Austin, Texas, he quickly tells me it’s the birthplace of psychedelic rock. McCloud is a longtime San Franciscan who says he’s “always been an artist” but that his "main hobby has always been the collecting and cataloging of LSD on paper.” He is a veritable trove of trivia. When making an appointment, give your reasons for wanting to go so the owner can decide who to group you with. Contact Mark McCloud at or leave a message and phone number at 41. The LSD Blotter Museum is open to the public, but by by appointment only. McCloud sells some images on his website. These pieces of paper were vehicles for going on psychotropic trips, making them about as ephemeral as art can get, but blotter artists still took great care in crafting the images. There’s also some truly exquisite artwork in McCloud’s collection. Scan the Institute's collection-a fraction of which is published on its website, Blotter Barn-and you’ll find a wide-ranging spectrum of art that McCloud’s been collecting since the 1970s. McCloud calls his house the Institute of Illegal Images.
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