Director of Hallucinations

Director of Hallucinations is a materialization of the Pulp and Circumstance series. This painting began in 2018 as a digital collage from pulp illustration sources. The digital collage was printed onto a canvas before boing painted over, embellehsed, and refined in style.

The painting was exhibited in Los Angeles at an undisclosable location as part of a Phaneros Gallery Pop-Up Exhibit associated with the Dead & Co. Concert that took place over Halloween weekend, 2021.

Phaneros (Mathey Lessard) is a psychedelic art gallerist that often hosts exhibitions at events such as psychedelic research conferences.

This painting was created in Oakland, CA where psilocybin mushrooms have been decriminalized. This painting was created during the begining of the Covid-19 'shelter in place orders'. On a night of working on this piece, I decided to ear 1 gram of Psilosybe Cubensis. Before long I was overcome with immense feelings of gloom and could not continue painting. I laid down and went deep into my feelings of sadness and fear for this dreadful pandemic that was taking place.

As I lay there I took calm breaths and quited my mind - meditating while tripping. As thoughts arose, I let them go. I breathed deeply and allowed myself to feel the underlying emotions before surrendering them to my breath. Through this process, a new feeling arose like a phoenix from the flames. From the sorrow came joy. I was able to return to the easel and proceeded to paint until dawn.

The following day I felt happy, inspired, and fearless. This process of turning inward, accepting the pain, and releasing it through breath and focus - meditation - is of great value. Facing such a frightening crisis as the Covid-19 Pandemic, and retaining one's health - both mental and physical - requires bringing your state of being to a higher frequency of vibration, to a place of joy and courage. These mushrooms were not required to get there as these meditations are not reliant on drugs, but I find them a useful tool that can enhance the benefits of meditation.