It ain’t high art but it helps to be high

October 22, 2017 8:29 PM

Wiley Wallace’s art is what you’d get if you tried to create a Spielbergian “kids in peril” classic on mescaline. Interestingly, Wallace says that he uses his own children as models for the characters in his paintings. A press release states that “at times realistic depictions deliquesce into abstract blurs of bright colors, while at others subtle apparitions make their way into otherwise unassuming everyday scenes.” Yeah, they “deliquesce”…

Website and Instagram
posted by Johnny Wallflower (13 comments total)

I really enjoy the title: WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON IN WILEY WALLACE’S CRAZY SCI-FI PAINTINGS?
posted by zardoz at 9:08 PM on October 22, 2017 [4 favorites]

My first reference for these is Alex Grey, but differences of intent and commentary are substantial. It's hard to single out a favorite, but Stay Connected resonates with me and I don't have kids.
posted by lazycomputerkids at 9:56 PM on October 22, 2017 [2 favorites]

There's some good stuff here and I like the techno-supernatural themes. I think a pot reference sells it short!
posted by rhizome at 10:12 PM on October 22, 2017 [1 favorite]

Is mescaline still a thing? I think that of it as 1970s Carlos Castenada stuff. Haven't seen a reference to it in literally decades.
posted by msalt at 10:50 PM on October 22, 2017 [1 favorite]

Hot damn this is some Omni magazine shit right here.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 12:49 AM on October 23, 2017 [12 favorites]

Yes! You put your finger exactly on it. These look straight out of Omni. I was trying to figure out just exactly where I'd seen that precise look, and you nailed it. My God but those are channeling the Omni-80s zeitgeist hard. They look so much of that decade I was feeling strong déja vu as I scrolled past them.
posted by los pantalones del muerte at 1:10 AM on October 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

Is mescaline still a thing?

many many years ago I was advised that anything for sale that's being represented as mescaline isn't, and to avoid
posted by thelonius at 4:48 AM on October 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

The one with the young lady with hatchet and space blanket (#5 on the artist's website) is very evocative of that Omni short-story illustration mood. Teenage me would have stared and stared at that one. Not just for the crinkly, shiny space blanket, but for the delicious gnobby rocks/clouds. And of course that orange...thing... would run off the top of the page, making me wonder what secrets were just out of reach.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 5:11 AM on October 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

These are rad as hell and I'd totally put one on my wall.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 5:38 AM on October 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

Besides Omni, it also reminds me of 1970s-era illustrations for Psychology Today magazine and textbooks by Phil Kirkland.
posted by larrybob at 11:19 AM on October 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

They put art like that in the textbooks and tried to teach that drugs were bad?
posted by thelonius at 11:33 AM on October 23, 2017

many many years ago I was advised that anything for sale that's being represented as mescaline isn't, and to avoid

That was my experience. Tried it once, or more accurately I tried something that night, and what a terrible, terrible night. Would not recommend.
posted by zardoz at 9:16 PM on October 23, 2017

many many years ago I was advised that anything for sale that's being represented as mescaline isn't, and to avoid

One thing I read many years ago is that it is not nearly so potent as acid, which is clearly an outlier among all chemicals on earth. Like mushrooms, you need a clearly visible quantity of even pure mescaline to get effects. Anything aspirin sized or smaller just isn't enough, so it must be a different drug. I have some information on the topic that may be of interest to enthusiasts, but don't want to post it publicly. DM me if you'd like.
posted by msalt at 12:41 PM on October 25, 2017