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Bryan Saunders Does Self-Portraits On Drugs, Reveals What Taking Bath Salts Feels Like (PHOTOS)

Bath Salts

First Posted: 10/23/12 EDT Updated: 10/24/12 EDT

Meet Bryan Lewis Saunders, an artist who's spent more than 10 years making self-portraits while on a variety of drugs.

Saunders took bath salts in March and drew a picture of himself. Bath salts are synthetic drugs that are causing nationwide panic as newspapers link the easily accessible substance to violent -- and sometimes fatal -- outbursts.

Heinous crimes have indeed been connected to bath salts. Earlier this month, Ronnie Lee Hardesty allegedly took a hammer to a church door and interrupted the congregation while high, and Brandon DeLeon took "Cloud 9" -- one variation of the drug -- before he tried to bite cops.

GALLERY: Saunders' Self-Portraits ON DRUGS

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  • 1 Bump Of Crystal Meth

  • Bath Salts

  • 1:2gm Cocaine

  • 4mg Dilaudid

  • 10mg Adderall

  • 10mg Lortab

  • 15mg Buspar (snorted)

  • 90 mg Abilify

  • 100mg Trazadone

  • A lot

  • Abilify, Klonopin

  • Ablify, Xanax, Ativan,

  • Absinthe

  • Ambien

  • Butalbital

  • Butane Honey Oil

  • Cephalexin

  • Computer Duster

  • Cough Syrup

  • DMT

  • g13

  • Geodon 60mg

  • Haloperidol & Ativan

  • Hash

  • Huffing gas

  • Kinebud

  • Lighter fluid

  • Loritab

  • Morphine & Dilaudid

  • Mushrooms

  • Nicotine Gum

  • Nitrous

  • PCP

  • Percocet

  • Pot brownies

  • Pruno

  • Resin

  • Risperdal

  • Risperdol 2

  • Ritilin

  • Salvia 2

  • Seroquel

  • SOMA

  • Valium IV, (Albuterol, Saline & Oxygen) mixture

  • Valium

  • Valium IV in the hospital

  • Xanax

  • Zoloft

  • Zyprexa

But Saunders, a peaceful man who claims he "doesn't do drugs," chalks all the bath salts attacks up to psychos going psycho. It's not going to turn the user into a face-biter, Saunders says, unless that person is predisposed to face-biting.

"It's a misconception that the drug causes these attacks -- it's crazy," Saunders told HuffPost Weird News. "Now, it's a terrible terrible drug to do. But bath salts in itself isn't evil."

So what does doing bath salts feel like? Saunders said he's only tried any given drug -- except for weed -- one time. But he said bath salts gave him the worst trip of all.

"It made me angry, ornery, just gave me a real vicious angst," he said. "It's like a dark cloud of doom settling on your shoulders. Your brain gets really clogged.

"You just want it to end -- I'd never ever do it again," he added.

Saunders started his "Drugs" self-portrait project in 2001, because of the "accessibility" of drugs back then. It's part of a broader series of self-portraiture, in which he's drawn nearly 9,000 pictures of himself.

As for "Drugs," Saunders says he'll continue to do the portraits as new substances come to him. There are a few he hasn't tried, like heroin and crack.

"I'd love to do a self-portrait on crack," he said. "I've never done it. It seems a shame there's no crack self-portrait. But I'm not gonna go out looking for a crack rock."

"Near Death Experience" by Bryan Lewis Saunders & Spastic Dementia from Bryan Lewis Saunders on Vimeo.

 
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04:56 PM on 11/10/2012
I find Mr. Saunders' different outputs very interesting. Having taken some of those drugs, both legally and not, his reaction to those I'm familiar with were amusing and right in line with what I've experienced. Same goes for those I haven't tried but either know what they are supposed to do as psych meds or have heard about them from a number of people.

The others, well .. all I can say is that I'll never try bath salts!