This is an ode to LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide)

The piece was done as part of the annual ADX skate deck art show and was also my first real art show.

Incorporating many different design elements and materials including acrylic paint, holo tape, clay, actual feathers, acrylic sheets, engraved designs filled with gold ink, and LED light strips, you really need to see it in person. None of these decisions were made without purpose.

The holo tape captures the vibrant rainbow nature of the psychedelic experience

The engraved designs feature a Soaring Heart, flourishing plants + mushrooms, and LSD molecules through which the mounted lights behind shine like a constellation.

The acrylic discs that act as portals are strategically placed over the existing truck mounting holes to hide them and allow light to pass through.

The board is also several inches off the wall which provides a pleasant backlit effect, allowing the piece to double as a customizable mood/night light.

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Insights

The title was something I had been sitting on for a while. I usually text myself funny thoughts, bits of insight, or names for art projects. The project titles tend to be a play on words that spontaneously pop into my head at inopportune times, as creative inspiration tends to. This pun had been kicking around my head and notes for years.

I always liked the idea that LSD could be used as a tool for psychotherapy, in effect allowing you to perform corrective surgery on your mind the same way a scalpel can allow you to perform surgery on the physical body. It can also do serious damage the same way a blade can. It’s all in how you use it.

I also noticed that LSD always felt more clinical, precise, and sterile than mushrooms.

"Lysurgical" seemed the perfect pun to encapsulate these ideas.

The surgeon hand of whatever higher power you believe in whether it’s your higher self, the universe, god, consciousness, love etc. descends into our lower realm with it’s acid soaked scalpel coming down and dropping it into the mind of our subject, causing splashes in the subconscious and bringing form to the different aspects of ones inner self.

The soaring heart and eye are a recurring motif that represents love and awareness. As the subject becomes more aware of the subconscious aspects of itself, it also becomes more aware of it’s own capacity for good and evil. We all exist in between these two extremes; no one is ever fully good, and never fully bad, perpetually feeling the pull of both.