Psychedelic Art Vs Psychedelic Art

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Psychedelic can be defined as “of or noting a mental state characterized by a profound sense of intensified sensory perception, sometimes accompanied by severe perceptual distortion and hallucinations and by extreme feelings of either euphoria or despair.”(Rubin 15) Whereas psychedelic art is described as the visual displays inspired by these drugs. LSD is the main drug used for inducing psychedelic states. Psilocybin and mescaline are also experiences or states caused by drugs like LSD; however, drugs like LSD were not the only influence of the art. Issues and events that were happening in history at that time were factors that transformed art and music for generations to come. Artists create many of these mind-expanding pieces by hand, and …show more content…
Wes Wilson is a famous artist of the 1960s whose style aligned with the peace movement. He was well known for creating art with letters looking like they were melting or moving on the page (Tafoya). Wilson combined these “melting” words with vibrant colors, which promoted music during this time. Marijke Koger, or the “mother of psychedelic art,” created famous work for the Technicolor hippie look. This look depicted random things merged together with a variety of vibrant colors on one page, but they are difficult to describe. The most interesting type of psychedelic art are the optical illusions because they can make you see things that are not actually there or they can make the art move when they are actually not. The optical illusion art does not always have to be multiple lines or shapes on a page they can be illustrated with almost anything in the …show more content…
Although psychedelic drugs influenced almost all music and art, Rock was the most inspired of all of them. Rock bands, like The Beatles, started adding psychedelic elements into their music (O’Brien). Actually, the psychedelic artist, Heinz Edelmann, created one of The Beatles album covers in 1969. Some forms of psychedelic art were light and peaceful, but others like “the 13th Floor Elevators from Austin, Texas epitomized the darker, more psychotic frenzy of acid rock—characterized by overdriven guitars, amplified feedback, and droning guitar motifs influenced by Eastern music” (O’Brien). These rock musicians gave the audience a “psychedelic effect,” not only with the sound of their music, but also with the lights at the concert. During rock concerts, liquid light shows played. Liquid Light shows are kaleidoscopic displays of colored lights, slides, and film loops (Meriam-Webster). As we already know, kaleidoscopes are used in psychedelic art. These displays of vibrant lights produce psychedelic experiences to the audience. This psychedelic music, just like the art, has inspired numerous amounts of individuals for generations to

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