HALLUCINOGENIC ARTWORK STRESSES CONNECTEDNESS, CREATORS SAY

Nothing guarantees a crowd like the promise of explicit drug use - or at
least the chance to hear about explicit drug use and vicariously experience
the high through the artwork it inspired.

"Psychedelic Art Extravaganza" did just that. The event, in Metcalf
Auditorium Thursday, featured a video presentation of psychedelic artists
discussing their mediums, motivations and motifs and included a slideshow
of their pieces.

Though the artists who appeared on the video all had unique interpretations
of their experimentation with different drugs, they all echoed the
sentiment that narcotics gave them a sense of interconnectedness with and
understanding of the world around them that they tried to translate into
visual representation.

The video's first speaker, Alex Grey, described his artwork, which he
explained as images of human figures releasing their energy when they have
freed themselves from the prison of their molecular bonds through the use
of narcotics.

Alex opened with slides inspired by his first LSD trip, which he
experienced with his wife and fellow speaker at the conference, Allyson
Grey. The pieces depicted the "interconnectedness" that stemmed from their
trip and the intimacy it spawned.

"Artwork came to be about normal, everyday things . like sex when you're
tripping," Alex said. "We were intersecting with everyone else and
everything else."

Allyson Grey similarly said all her art sprung from her profound
experiences with LSD.

Allyson's artwork is devoid of the human images that consume her husband's
art. Instead she uses oil colors to emphasize the idea that humans are made
of cells and systems that occur in three different states: chaos, order and
secret writing.

Allyson said these three states defined every aspect of life. "We're all
cut?out pieces of the chaos we live in," she said. Order, on the other
hand, is where people briefly find respite from the chaos through the use
of drugs. Secret writing is the "window between chaos and order" that
represents the secret writing of all the religions, Allyson said.

Allyson's pieces focused on color and the interaction of shapes and used
such thick layers of oil paint that the pieces seemed to oscillate on the
two?dimensional surface.

Mark Henson, another speaker in the video, used marijuana and LSD as his
artistic muses. His art is an attempt to crystallize his hallucinations
into some more tangible form.

Henson made the transition to psychedelic art when he read a Life magazine
article in high school about LSD?inspired art.

The article featured a painting that resembled how Henson had painted his
room while experimenting with lesser drugs. Henson said he realized he was
onto something and went to the local McDonald's the next week to score some
LSD.

Henson said he learned that by taking large doses of LSD and mushrooms he
became a "disciple of knowledge" and drugs became "a learning tool."

Despite the inspirational power of meditation, Henson said, it was easier
to duplicate his inspiration with the aid of LSD, so he gave up the drug as
a social activity and started using it for meditative purposes in order to
enhance his art.

Henson's pieces focused on human images and their natural existence with
nature.

This emphasis on nature is meant to inspire peace and happiness, he said.
"By distracting people with sex and loving, we'll have less fighting. . War
is the enemy of all of our art," Henson said.

Though the artists' explanations of their works gave insight into an
otherwise mysterious art form, an intermission of Nico Clark's "Summertime"
provided the direct mental stimulation most of the audience had probably
expected from the event.

"Summertime" is a computer?animated short film that depicts the dance of
nature and the interconnectedness of all living things.

When "Summertime" premiered at the Brooklyn International Film Festival, it
won the Audience Award for Animation. Since then, it has garnered four
other film awards.

In the seamless animation, "Summertime's" visuals flawlessly melt into one
another and bring the audience on a three?dimensional tour of a
drug?induced dream Clark had that took 10 years to translate into media.

The video provides constant mental stimulation, gliding over the top of an
albatross's wings into a dense forest where a caterpillar transforms into a
butterfly, which rests on an embracing couple, who are swept over by a wave
transporting a group of dolphins above an underground volcano that gives
birth to the sun.

While the speakers in the video try to capture their hallucinations in a
frozen image, Clark compiles the images of his dream into a hypnotic
hallucination the audience can experience with him.

"("Summertime") utilizes the technology to tell a story that could not have
been told any other way," the official "Summertime" Web site said.

Psychedelic Art Extravaganza was presented by Brown Students for a Sensible
Drug Policy as part of Psychedelic Week.