lyndsaycainesurfacedesign: Bryan Lewis Saunders

" ...today we live in a narcissistic and obsessive culture, totally overflowing with drugs. And as an artist I am the filter... "

In continuing with my current project on the subject of 'freedom' I am still looking into the becoming free from drug & alcohol addiction side of it. I found the extraordinary artist Bryan Lewis Saunders when browsing on the internet for information on drug addicts & the affects of drugs. In 2000 he started on project in which he would take a different drug everyday & produce a self portrait everyday to document the experience. The drugs had a crazy effect on his creative mind causing him to trip out & create really wacky artwork, completely detaching his mind from his body. While I think this is an insane & very dangerous thing to do I also find it very intriguing to see the results of what drugs can do to your mind & creative side. There were some major side affects to this as after just a few weeks of the experiment Saunders became lethargic & suffered mild brain damage. In 2003 he also began to record himself by sleeping with a tape recorder to document his dreams & sleep talking, which ended up being released as books & audio tapes & although I have not heard or read any of them I can imagine them to be quite insightful of the state of mind you get to when your not in control of your thoughts & feelings when asleep.