Feb 4, 2022
Back in 1995 Johnson City Tennessee artist Bryan Lewis Saunders began creating a self portrait of himself every day. As an artist, he also set out to look for experiences that would affect his perception of self and the world around him. To achieve these ends, he came up with an experiment titled Under The Influence. Everyday during the duration of the experiment, Bryan took a different drug or intoxicant and drew himself under the influence.
In addition to his visual art practice, he also performs spoken word and he was the subject of a documentary called Art of Darkness about the his drug experiment, which, he says, left him lethargic and with mild brain damage that wasn't irreparable.