Mark McCloud is an artist and ex-art professor who for nearly three decades has been collecting perforated blotter art used to distribute LSD. He has acted as a curator for numerous exhibits of this art, showing parts of his collection (likely the world's largest), and has won two grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. (Most of his collection is made up of prints that were never dosed, and those that may have been are exposed to ultraviolet radiation which neutralizes any acid that they might have contained.) According to McCloud, "The first blotter known was a pair of some guy's underwear that was used to clean up a spill. It was passed around from person to person for months." Due to his collection of unique American Folk Art, McCloud has been threatened, set up, and busted by government authorities, as well as being subject to nearly constant surveillance. McCloud was acquitted from an LSD conspiracy charge in 1992, only to be charged again, and again acquitted in 2001.
Blotter Barn, a series of archival, fine art digital prints designed to document the infamous blotter art collection of Mark McCloud. The collection, also known as the Institute of Illegal Images is the most comprehensive collection of printed or embossed LSD blotter paper in the world. These large scale photographic digital prints are made on 100% rag, acid free, fine art paper, and digitally printed with archival inks. Each image is a photographic enlargement of a selected item from the McCloud collection, and depicts that item in every detail, revealing tiny elements that are normally invisible to the human eye.
Learn more about Mark and view his art and collection: