Brazilian artist turns marijuana smoke into art

In a bit of ingenuity, Brazilian painter Fernando de la Rocque is turning his marijuana smoking into an art form.

The history of artists creating while under the influence goes back at least as far as the absinthe era, and more recently, Brian Lewis Saunders experimented with a host of substances in a self-portrait series that went viral earlier this summer. De la Rocque goes a step further, however, by using marijuana smoke as one of his materials.

His golden-hued images are the result of the 32-year-old artist blowing smoke through a stencil over paper.

Never let it be said his creations don’t require effort or commitment. The Associated Press reported that each print takes a week to finish and up to five joints worth of smoke every day.

The report also indicated that the artist “stumbled upon” his technique in 2009, which seems like a fairly appropriate choice of words if you imagine one’s frame of mind after that kind of intake.

Though smoking marijuana is illegal in Brazil, a show featuring De la Rocque’s work opened in Rio de Janeiro’s Ipanema neighborhood last week, and prints reportedly are selling for $2,500 each. That may seem expensive, but to be fair his materials’ cost is a lot higher than the average painter’s.

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