I started with those orange sun shines, the madhatters, the Alice in Wonderlands.

Usually divisions come after you take LSD, but not at Mark McLeod's house.

The first one I remember being collectible was this little Saturn silk stream, and then

I was able to obtain a whole sheet that wasn't dipped, you know.

And so then it was easier to frame it and put it up.

Some people call it the Blotter Barn, or by its more cryptic name, the Institute of Illegal

Images.

And what makes these images illegal is not what's on them, but what's in them.

Because these particular works of art are all made up of many tiny taps of LSD.

And all those tabs bear skillful imagery made by artists from all around the world.

Experienced visually, they really just look like art.

But experienced personally, well, that's something else entirely.

In search of the host, we come to LSD.

I'm Dylan Therese, and this is Alice Obscura, a celebration of the world's strange

incredible and wondrous places.

Today, we're going to San Francisco to visit a one-of-a-kind art collection and meet

its one-of-a-kind curator.

Like great art, it has the same potential of changing your mind.

That's after this.

According to Mark McLeod, the origins of Blotter Art come from the criminalization of LSD.

LSD was originally distributed as a liquid, before becoming illegal in all 50 states.

After 1966, underground drug dealers started using something called Blotter Sheets.

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