Thursday, July 3, 2014

A Beginners Guide To Blotter Art Collecting

So, I posted to Reddit.com/r/LSD for the first time recently, on a whim, and got some really great questions from people there. In particular one person wanted to understand how to get into blotter art collecting. They asked me to answer some questions for them, and so I did, but I thought it appropriate to recreate the answers here, on account of there may be more than one person who is interested in seeing their list of high-quality questions answered. The permalink to their post is here:


Their question text is below:
 
I'm so lucky to have come across this because I have just decided that I wanted to start collecting myself. As a newcomer to the scene, do you mind if I ask you a few questions?
1) How would you suggest I start collecting? What artists, etc?
2) What should I be on the look out for?
3) What are some good shops/websites to buy from?
4) How do you store your blotters? Are they stored in sleeved portfolios? If so where can I get one?
5) And lastly, out of curiosity would you have any blotter sheets that I could buy off you to kick start my collection?
Thanks for showing us your awesome collection! Definitely going to follow your blog closely. 

ANSWERS: 1) ... If you care about investing, meaning, that you want your artwork to store your expenditure as a value, later redeemable be reselling your art for the same as you pay for it, or potentially even see an increase in value, then you need to get really lucky, or you need a lot of capital to start, because true vintage pieces that are very rare cost a lot already.

The only other investment quality pieces that are a sure thing, aside from true, old vintage overruns that were never intended to be art in the first place, are the vanity pieces, particularly those mass produced by Tom Lytle, that have signatures of the (often now deceased) psychedelic luminaries, as well as artists and actors and musicians integral to either the movement, the time period, or something that ties them to and makes them members of the family, so to speak. Luminaries such as Ann and Sasha Shulgin, Mark McCloud, Alex Grey, Timothy Leary, Ken Kesey, Albert Hofmann (<--Its very, very spendy to get a real Hofmann signature, as he tended to do a lot less of the mass signings), John Lilly, Robert Anton Wilson, Dr. David Nichols and undoubtedly, there are plenty more I'm not thinking of off the top of my head, though these are some of the very biggest names you are going to see on blotter art. Only Ann, Mark M, Alex G,  & David Nichols out of that group are still alive. Other rarer and valuable to moderately-valuable pop culture names that have appeared on blotter are artist HR Giger, musician Mark Mothersbaugh,  Actor Peter Fonda, and Porn Actress Annie Sprinkle.

However, while I don't  think that wanting your investment into something rather unique and rare to at least maintain its value or even increase is necessarily a bad thing, I do think that you should only get into blotter art collecting if LSD has meant something important to you, and changed your life in some positive way. That way, you have something meaningful to you to hunt for, and then, as you branch out into more pieces that may have no personal significance, but nonethless, carry artwork that strikes a chord with you, or depicts something of personal significance, you can describe to people why you buy the pieces you buy. In that light, if vintage blotter art holds no personal meaning for you because you are too young to have taken anything from about 1999 or earlier that was actually printed in an overrun, rather then printed for pure collections' sake, and particularly anything from before 1995 or so, as there was almost no vanity blotter at all at that time existent yet, then I won't say that you need to somehow find personal meaning in blotter art that holds no significance to you personally.  In that light, you may want to keep any vintage pieces you acquire essentially incidental purchases because they happen to have the signtaure you want on them. 

Really, the bottom line, is that nobody can tell you what to collect and why, because what floats your boat, turns you on, tunes you in, and strikes that nerve with you may be totally different from anybody else in the community. As such, I would say do your best to learn the ropes, and then  be confident in any purchase you make because you are buying pieces meaningful to your life.

2) Look out for reprints of vintage pieces. If it seems to good to be true compared to the pricing of other identical vintage pieces, on, say eBay, then it probably is. Same as with all walks of life. Also watch out for people that ask you what you are buying it for. I have many friends in the scene and before  I got to know a lot of them well, and I was just a customer in some cases, I was NEVER asked once what I was buying blotter art for. Even if the blotter art was cheap, with a very unique but unknown design, and I was buying it in bulk. Nobody worth their salt wants to know what you are going to do with your blotter art. They know a good sale when they smell one, and you should also recognize what is appropriate to share or not to share. A love of blotter art by you and another person who is a stranger to you on the internet, does NOT mean they want to discuss LSD usage or quality or memories, past, present or future with you. Just because I think you should collect the art only if its meaningful to you, does not mean everyone does, and your seller may be straight edge, no nonsense, profit minded, republican, so make no assumptions---And even if you make assumptions, keep in mind if you step over the line, which can be a different line for everybody, --And they happen to be someone who is a bit older and maybe a big player in the psychedelic scene in general and they happen to be a blotter collector, the last thing you want to do is make yourself look like a naive jackass with no common sense.

3) Zane Kesey's site: http://www.key-z.com/            --He is solid and will never do you wrong.
    Mark McCloud's site: http://www.blotterbarn.com  --He is solid and will never do you wrong. 

However, http://blotterart.com is better than both, IMO, only because they have made exhaustive effort to actually have real vintage art in stock, and plenty of it, as well as a lot of more famous vanity artwork....but you are going to pay through the nose for the very rare stuff...... 

I like their selection best, rather then the first two sites, which are heavy on self promotion. However, the first two websites proprietors, respectfully, with the first being Ken Kesey's son, and the second being the Godfather of Blotter Collecting himself, these two have a legitimate claim and history behind them to be doing what they do, whether or not their websites are heavily focused on their own artwork. 

All in all, these sites are best for seeing a lot of pictures in one place, and then going to eBay and knowing what you want, and remaining disciplined when you look for it. If its not there this week, check next week. Not there today, check tomorrow. 

4) Glass frames for the really rare and expensive ones, and a sleeved portfolio with all "acid-free" paper and plastic material .....Ironically, which is suitable for long term storage. And then, I have so much of certain prints or what have you, that boxes and boxes with stacks are all over my den as well. Can't frame every copy of everything!

5) Sure--- Not necessarily the pieces with the most meaning to you, but I do have duplicates of a few of the big names that I could probably part with, and definitely a bunch of certain prints that DON'T have sigs on them but are vintage nonetheless that I could part with as well. Get ahold of me on Reddit via the message system by first locating me at the start of the thread that the comment I linked above takes you too. Or, via Gmail at DockEllisDee(AT)Gmail(DOT)Com. Don't expect an immediate response at either place but I will get back to you. I'd rather not post what I would part with here for fear of coming off as a solicitation--which this is not--so if you want to buy any art from my personal collection of signatures or vintage or vanity overruns, just get ahold of me at one of these two places I have provided. 

The most important rule to blotter art collecting is that you get prints that you like/love, or are by or depicting artists or figures or pop culture that you love and find meaningful, which are on high quality paper with good inks, and that the person selling them can tell you about them. Your pieces do not need to cost a lot for you to enjoy them.

I hope this is a good start!! I wish you the best of luck!!

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