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WHEN I PAINTED MY FIRST MURAL, I NEVER THOUGHT I WOULD END UP IN CHINA

In September of 2020 I started painting my first mural. The wall was 56 feet long by 17 feet tall on the side of the ARTLAB building in Greenville, NC. I teach painting and drawing and have had many students go on to do amazing things, including become muralists. How hard could it be, right?

It almost killed me.

I had planned on thoroughly documenting my Quixotic endeavor here with the necessary sober and academic rigor required, as I have done on Facebook. But like everything in 2020 and 2021, events have taken a very unusual turn. In fact, five minutes before I made the video above about bubbles and finishing a mural and not dying, photographer Ryan O’neal Harper just happened to walk by and take the picture that you see before you start the video.

Behind the scenes (on Facebook) Sanny Wroblewski had contacted me to ask if I was interested in having this mural reproduced and exhibited in Beijing, China. Since I have been alive a very long time, I have had lots of people tell me that they were going to pay me buckets of money and make me famous. I told Sanny what I tell everyone that has an amazing opportunity — Of course! But, I never get my hopes up because, I am not famous, but I do have a jar of quarters.

Anyway, Sanny continued to contact me with details and started including other people, so I started paying attention. She then asked me to send a photo of the mural. At that time, the only high quality photo I had was Ryan’s singular amazing shot, so that is what I sent.

A few weeks later, she sent me these pictures and kept explaining things. But I could not wrap my head around what was going to happen.

Then I received the picture below, which was by far the most engaging and confusing of all of them.

From her first inquiry, Sanny had said she wanted to reproduce the flying fish mural in China, so when I received these images from Daniel Kennington and Sanny, I thought that this was what she meant.

But then she sent these images.

I have never been so confused and happy and overwhelmed by a series of events in my life. I am just incredibly lucky to have been included in ART FOR THE PEOPLE. My work, as well as 22 other murals are each reproduced twice around the US Embassy. One of mine is life size and is over the front door. THAT MEANS THERE ARE 2 OF ME IN CHINA RIGHT NOW 😳.

The U.S. Embassy in Beijing proudly announces the launch of Art for the People, a public art exhibit showcasing street art from the United States. The Art for the People exhibition is the first of its kind to decorate the exterior walls of the Embassy compound. This effort highlights the universal value of freedom of expression, as well as our ongoing commitment to direct engagement with the Chinese public.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken: “We want a U.S.-China relationship that includes space for direct, honest, and robust public engagement. Art for the People represents the diversity of American society. It also embodies our deep commitment to genuine exchange with the Chinese people.”

American cities are home to countless examples of street art–some commissioned and some created organically. All are part of a rich tradition of public art that proves art does not belong only in private museums or galleries. Art is for the people, by the people, and represents public expression at its most fundamental.

The goal of street art is not always beauty; sometimes the art seeks to inspire reflection or spark public reaction. Sometimes it is popular, sometimes it is controversial. The point is to raise awareness of important issues that affect communities, such as immigration, police reform, or drug addiction.

In showcasing 23 examples of street art we do not endorse any particular message. The artists and works on display include the voices of immigrants and visitors to the United States and represent a range of political views and social commentary from communities across the country. We are proud to create a window into this vibrant and critical part of American arts and culture.

The video below is a one minute timelapse video of the entire installation of all murals.

Thank you Sanny. You are amazing!

Can Someone Please Help Me Find My Grenade?

The Butterfly Effect Version 3: 1 and 12.jpg

Since 2013 I have been visually exploring the idea that technology has increased the probability that the actions and opinions of seemingly insignificant people and/or events can have unanticipated consequences that sometimes destroy lives. The images and text below are my reflections on my creative process over the past several years and many images are still in progress. This series is called The Butterfly Effect: Version 3.

If you work with Photoshop you will probably understand how I am doing this. If you do not, just think of each image as a separate painting. There is no artspeak or Photoshop nerding below because I taught myself to use Photoshop and have only learned what I need to get the effects I want.

Working with digital files and transitioning back and forth between traditional graphite drawings, acrylic or mixed media paintings and digital files has allowed me to save images at certain points that seem significant, or that I have not resolved, while continuing to explore alternate possibilities for that same image/idea.

In early 2015, I made a little doodle on a scrap of paper (above left) about a hoodie wearing hooligan (Icarus Elck) pulling the pin from a grenade. I liked it, so I scanned it and began drawing on it with my 13" Wacom Cyntiq using Photoshop. I took some reference pictures of myself in the same pose (see above lower right).

I was not happy with the drawing of the butterfly, so I removed it. I wanted the hoodie character to be an "Everyman" or everyone (androgynous) character. I integrated the Leonardo Study Of An Angel into my drawing. For me, that angel represented the feminine aspect of the persona as well as suggested that this person was not just simply evil and/or malevolent. Upon further reflection, I realized that anyone that brings new information into the world is also dangerous to the status quo and can potentially blow things up in a way that is eventually positive..

I slowly introduced color.

Despite the comment above, I was jokingly calling my character the Unabomber because a person wearing a hoodie and holding a bomb reminded me of him and also because when I was in college, I resembled that sketch.

I considered emphasizing the character's psychological turmoil by layering the image with a tornado painting I had done (Above right).

Then I reintroduced the butterfly. For me, the butterfly represents the liminal space between idea and action. It is the pause for reflection and is the conscious moment of awareness. It is also the symbol of transformation and, obviously refers to the title The Butterfly Effect.

Unfortunately, at the time I was making this particular version, I hit a point where I was seriously questioning the sanity of about half of my fellow Americans. At that time, I was not able or even willing to try to understand their motivations and actions. The color in the image above represents that overwhelming anger and rage.

I felt like there was a beast welling up inside of me, and I digitally modified an acrylic painting of mine called Acceptance (pictured above left), to represent that idea. Acceptance reminded me of the parasitoid stage of the xenomorph in the movie Alien. It also reminded me of the red knight in the movie The Fisher King and the vagina dentata in the movie Teeth.

As women marched on Washington, I imagined a grenade exploding into millions of butterflies with razor blade wings. I wanted to create a beautiful explosion and stumbled onto the effect pictured above left by inverting the butterfly wing layer, which made it almost unrecognizable. The image above right is that same layer switched back to normal.

As I mentioned, I taught myself to use Photoshop and I am sure there are lots of easier ways to do things. But I just play around until I get the effect I want or stumble onto something better.

I wanted to destroy part of the image and accidentally used the sharpen tool too many times. The effect was interesting, so I kept doing it - for about a half an hour. Really. The right hand side of the image above is the result.

I then inverted most of the image to explore the idea of a literal visual opposite of the character.

One day, I happened to turn off one layer and, forgetting the acceptance image was in the stack, produced the image above. That little "accident" took me in a direction I had not intended. Once I saw that "the beast" had essentially become a "headdress" or mask through which my character experienced the world, I spent quite a bit of time separating the "beast" or maybe "shaman" from the background.

The image above is the point I finished separating the Beast/Priest from the background. I had forgotten about the grenade and was focused on creating a left hand.

I do not know why, but I decided to use a poorly drawn hand doodle (above left) that was in my sketch book.

I digitally painted it (click the image above to see middle image), but it looked weird. I know, I know. You are probably thinking; "That is weird and nothing before that was weird?".

Anyway, the hand needed to be on fire, so I made fire (click the image above to see the far right image).

I placed skeletons like the ones above inside the body of the Beast Priest.

I thought that I was finished with this series until I realized that along the way I had dropped (forgotten about) the grenade.

The remaining three images below are in progress and represent my attempt to make a smooth and "logical" transition between pulling the pin on the grenade and the hand being open and on fire by working backwards. I have not worked on them for over a year, but they are calling on me to finish them.

The creation of anything implies that there was an impetus or problem motivating the maker. I am trying to understand my place in this crazy world, and the images I create are my way of thinking through making instead of thinking through words in my head.

When I began this image, I thought I knew what it was about. I would tell people that Icarus Elck was each of us (Icarus is the fallen son and Everyman is each of us) and in this image, I represented that frustration and rage toward what we cannot control or what we fear. I would say that the butterfly was that tiny event, or moment of clarity that would bring us to complete focus on this moment right now, and the subsequent realization that we are at a point of no return. Do we blow ourselves up, or do we put the pin back in the grenade?

After many years of thinking about this (because I am a bit slow), I cannot honestly say that this image represents everyone. I could not possibly know what anyone else really thinks.

It represents me. I am Icarus Elck. I am the fallen son. I am just another human being like you (I hope : ).

Maybe you can see it, but I cannot…yet. Where is the grenade and where am I?

American Illustration + Exhibition Review = 🙌

It has been a good week!

The image above was selected as a finalist for the American illustration 38 competition, AI is the most prestigious illustration competitions for “cutting edge” illustration work.

It was one of only 413 images selected from over 7,000 submitted.

This year’s distinguished jury included: Chris Brand, Crown Publishing; Hannah K Lee, The New York Times; Janet Michaud, Politico; Dennis Huynh, Buzzfeed; Maria G. Keehan, Smithsonian; Aaron Rinas, Art + Mechanical; and Marianne Seregi, National Geographic

I also had a blushingly wonderful write up in the Winston Salem Journal by Tom Patterson for my solo show at Delurk Gallery in Winston Salem including this quote;

“Winston-Salem native Scott Eagle is one of North Carolina’s most skilled and thematically ambitious artists, as well as a professor of painting and drawing at East Carolina University’s School of Art and Design. His own work spans multiple mediums in its richly imaginative exploration of personal spirituality through imagery derived from mythology, art history, his dreams and his experiences in the waking world.“

WHY IS THIS A TWITTER MEME? IT LOOKS JUST LIKE A HUMAN BEAN (And what does that have to do with my mixed media drawing class?)

IF YOU DO NOT LIKE WORDS, SCROLL DOWN FOR LOTS OF PICTURES

This semester (Fall 2018) I taught my favorite class ART 3555 Mixed Media drawing. The class was originally created a hundred years ago by my mentor, friend and rock star Paul Hartley. About 50 years ago he scheduled me to teach that class for the first time and told me that the most important thing that students had to learn from that class was to play again. The reason I said “again” was that for the first three years of the curriculum, our students are drilled and critiqued and questioned to the point of exhaustion and sometimes even hating what they are making. Paul taught me, and what I hope my students take away from my class is that you have to give yourself permission to see the world as a child sees it. You have to try to look at a problem (any problem) without the blind, jaded adult filter on.

When I say adult filter, I mean the schema, framework and lens you have built in your mind to move you through the world toward the goal(s) that you have set for yourself or that others have set for you. The adult is supposed to be efficient and practical and get the job done. Have you ever heard of efficient or practical creativity?

ART 3555 is for juniors, seniors or first year graduate students because most of them have built up a healthy adult filter to survive the amount of work, and the repeated critiques of the quality of their work required to progress through an art and design degree. Those students have become efficient, practical and occasionally lazy with the pre-fabrication/brain storming/rough ideas for problems because they do not have a lot of time to complete assignments. They have great technical skills if they made it to this class, but the pre-fabrication/brain storming for the assignment is the most import part of the process and the easiest to skip. They have forgotten how to play.

I have observed that most students will use the first idea that pops into their head. If there are potentially an infinite number of solutions to a problem that I give, why in the world, would anyone assume that the very first one is the best? It is clearly the most obvious solution, but more important to this issue is that this is the way that we tend to look at any problem we encounter. We assume there is one answer and that the sooner we find, the sooner we can move on. That is a practical and efficient way to look at life.

On the first day of class, I say (basically) the following out loud, “In this class it is your job to play and have fun. Do not misunderstand that to mean goof off. You will work your ass off if you expect to pass. As long as you try to solve the essence of the problem, I give you permission to draw or paint or sculpt or video, etc., whatever subject matter you want and no one can criticize you for that choice. We can ask you why you made a particularly bizarre or even inappropriate image or object, but we cannot make a value judgement on your choice(s). If someone does challenge you, all you have to say is “Scott said I can do whatever I want”. That means you can paint unicorns, lighthouses, pirates, puppies, kittens with laser beam eyes, etc. It also means that if you make an image or object and you do not know why you did it, that is okay. You have my permission to say that you do not know, because I have learned that very frequently I make something and I cannot say what it means or why I did it. When you are really in the moment of making and spontaneously create something without the adult filter on, it is just like waking from a dream. It takes time to figure out what it means, or if it means anything important. And, most importantly, because it is your PERSONAL problem, we have no business placing a value judgement on what you just did.” I then give a demonstration and usually draw a unicorn with a lighthouse for it’s horn.

As you might imagine no one believes me at first. It is only after I enforce the play laws during the first project, that the most creative and/or sometimes the quietest students surprise us with amazing, or funny or bizarre things. Trust is the foundation of this course.

I also make things for this class (I do not hang my work at critiques) and require periodic trading of work with the possibility of not getting it back. I put my own artwork in these trades as well as former student’s work from this class. The image above comes from my solution to a problem called MULTIPLICITY;

MULTIPLICITY

Using the image you are working on for either the LIMINALITY project or the KRYPTONITE project; or both; or a project from another class; you will produce at least 10 variations of that image(s) using the techniques and technologies and parameters introduced in class.

MEDIUM  

WIDE open. There are an infinite number of ways to use digital printing, traditional printmaking, photography, transfer techniques, scanning, and Photoshop, etc. as techniques for mixed media drawing, painting and ideation.  The objective is to use creative improvisation, new techniques, scanning, Photoshop manipulation, printing and/or any other duplication means on a variety of surfaces. Your goal is to encourage accidental and novel combinations of surfaces, techniques and images.  

TECHNIQUES

I will demonstrate several techniques in class and provide you with links to others.

PARAMETERS

Your starting image should have a protagonist and antagonist. If you are working with a nonobjective image, a pattern or an abstraction, you will have to decide what is the protagonist and what is the antagonist before you begin.

1. At any size you wish, re-create the antagonist (or part of the antagonist) using techniques you have never used, using transfer techniques, by collaging, and/or by making it out of other things and taking a picture of it. Do at least 5 of these. WORK FAST!!!

2. Create an image where the protagonist from your original image is surrounded by, overwhelmed by, confused by, etc. different versions of, copies of, transfers of, etc. the antagonist that you created in #1.

3. Remove the antagonist from your original image then print the remaining image leaving room to redraw. Recreate the antagonist using a technique that you like but have never used before. Find a tutorial of this technique and share/submit to me.

4. Edit out the protagonist from your original image and redraw that image using a technique that you like but have never used before. Find a tutorial of this technique and share/submit to me. This can be a completely digital image.

5. Create a new image using any part(s) of the original.

6. Recreate or print the previous image on a new surface that either relates conceptually and/or changes the image’s meaning or readability

7. Recreate part or all of your original drawing in the real world. You could make a diorama, draw with masking tape, recreate as an installation, etc. You will record/submit this drawing as a video or photograph. It could be as sophisticated as this or as "simple" as this.

8. Combine the image created in 7 with any part of an image from 1-6.

9. Combine any part or all of an image from 1-8 with any part or all of a different image from 1-9

SIZES  

any

The image that I started out with was called The Lifecycle.

When I got to number 7, I decided to use just the skeleton’s skull.

I started doing several of the numbers again using the the skull. For example, I took a photograph of a skull that used to hold the license plate to my car. See below.

Then my friend Vik Sexton http://www.pwartware.com/ said that I should make a geranium in a cranium. So I did.

Then I thought about the series of severed heads that I did when I turned 40 about 15 years ago, like this one.

Since I just stepped down from being an administrator last semester, I thought it quite relevant to visually let that part of me die so something new and hopefully beautiful could replace it. The images below are some of the things I made.

Then I started this larger pencil drawing. I got to the point below and really liked it but wanted to try something a little crazy with paint. I did not want to ruin what I had done so far, so I scanned it into the computer with the intention of printing a high resolution image to paint on instead.

I decided to clean it up a little.

And then I decided to see what a little color would look like.

I liked the color so I added a little more. I had planned on using a day lily for the flower, but the eyes seemed both alive and dead. I jokingly named the file for this the “human bean” because the shape of the head reminded me of a bean. That also related to the idea that a seed, or bean, is a tiny corpse that eventually is reborn as a plant.

I added even more color. Bean rhymes with meme which is an element of a culture or system of behavior that may be considered to be passed from one individual to another by nongenetic means, especially imitation.
• a humorous image, video, piece of text, etc., that is copied (often with slight variations) and spread rapidly by Internet users.

A meme is like a dandelion in the way that it spreads so quickly and easily across the digital landscape. The head that I created looks like it was once human, but it has now been invaded by something malicious. That thing has mutated and taken on the characteristics of its host.

So why is this a Twitter meme?

Twitter is designed to spread encapsulated ideas, opinions and news rapidly and in one direction; forward. In my opinion, a great deal of that information has been malicious, and frequently false or misleading. Twitter has allowed for the propagation of a virus of intellectual laziness that has infected our entire culture. If you look closely at the human bean Twitter meme, you will see why IT is so dangerous. It has already begun it’s journey to a new host. Is that you?

Thinking Through Making

It is both an honor and privilege to be selected to speak at the 2018 Yuma Art Symposium. My topic will be Thinking Through Making which has become the collective mantra at East Carolina University School of Art and Design where I work.

My thesis for this presentation starts with the obvious; the creation of any "thing" requires an impetus or problem. But, once a problem is solved, there is no reason to continue making; right? So, for those of us that continue making, there must be some motivation behind our idiosyncratic iterations.

Sometimes we know exactly what the problem is and why we create.

And we spend time and money to study our problem; and we learn about the history of our problem; and we meet people that have successfully confronted our problem;

725e5fd55ecbf8d6658044617c9b08f3--crocodiles-alligators.jpg

And they help us to control our fear and be confident of our skills; and they teach us to visualize our problem;

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So that when we have finally mastered our problem...

we are ready to face "THE REAL WORLD".

But, as most of us know, life has different plans for us.

And frequently, the problems we encounter are far worse than we had ever imagined.

And occasionally the objects that we have made force us to acknowledge that maybe the real problem has been right in front us, and we have not seen it.

So, with my presentation, I will explore how my creative process and personal problem solving have led me to the conclusion that maybe, just maybe, the things that we create are remaking us as we are making them.

The Bureau Of Make America Great Again Welcomes You With Open Arms.

The Bureau Of Make America Great Again•  Digital Image — The Bureau Of Make America Great Again• Digital Image

This post is a heavily edited version of a previous post from March 27, 2017 entitled What Does North Karolina and Kandy Korn have In Common? My Search For Reference Material For A North Carolina Travel Poster (Part 1 - один "a-deen”)

The activity we call art making is at its core visual problem solving. I will be giving a talk entitled Thinking Through Making at the Yuma Art Symposium in Yuma, Arizona in February of 2018 that explores this idea in greater depth. I mention it here because I do not offer my images up as iconic or even as artwork in the modernist sense. The images and objects that I create are a tangible expression of my thought processes.

Through the creation of my work, I explore a variety of political, psychological, social, religious, etc. issues. As a work evolves, accidents and events happen that not only change the appearance of the work being created, but also frequently change my understanding of, and opinions about the image/issue(s) being grappled with at that moment.

The image above was originally intended to function as a spoof of a travel poster for the state of North Carolina and I had even intended to include the following text;

The North Carolina Bureau Of Make America Great Again (NCBOMAGA ) welcomes you with open arms. We are the reddest and whitest state in the nation, so don’t be blue.

The BOMAGA is a fictional organization created by my friend Jeff VanderMeer for an article that appeared in Slate magazine; “Trump Land”

The image I created was in response to the presidential election as well as the bathroom bill , the illegal voting districts created by the North Carolina legislature , the defunding of public universities, etc., etc., etc. After recent events, it is clear that those people and groups that believe hate, bigotry and violence are legitimate means to achieve their goals have been emboldened by the vocal support of this president and I can no longer tolerate, or stand silently as that cancer spreads.

I work with, teach, and have good friends across the spectrum of race, religion, gender, ideology, etc. I get to see first hand how hate and prejudice effect innocent people.

As a white man, I am also privy to the politically incorrect and often racist opinions, off hand comments and thoughts of my fellow “sweet”, white, usually God-fearing North Carolinians. I am embarrassed to say I have rarely spoken out, nor directly confronted those people because I (mistakenly) assumed that public opinion had swayed, and that most people were good at heart. I (mistakenly) believed that most people of conscience would not vote for politicians that proudly supported discriminatory laws and policies, nor would they even consider voting for a politician that repeatedly encouraged violence toward others.

I was wrong. For 62,984,825 Americans, fear, anger, the desire for change, or the belief that we have nothing else to lose was stronger than the consequences of voting for a white nationalist egomaniac with thin skin. That is too many people to simply dismiss as deplorable.

I want radical change in Washington and in my own state. I must confess that I have voted for Republican politicians more than once. I definitely lean to the left on the issues, but I have a rationale for my beliefs that does not fit either Democratic or Republican ideologies. Having said that, I must admit that after this election I no longer think either party has a coherent ideology.

The 2010 info graphic below by David McClandless respectfully illustrates and contrasts the beliefs of both of our political parties.

I thought I lived in a democratic republic where an elected representative championed the desires and needs illustrated above. Through a process of debate and deal making, I thought that our elected officials compromised so that the majority vote and in theory, the opinions of most constituents would be enacted into policy and law. But gerrymandering and legislation designed to make wealth and power flow in one direction have created an oligarchy. That oligarchy has successfully convinced us, through partisan news outlets and social media, that there are only 2 political solutions, and thus an implied right and a wrong way to solve a problem.

I encourage you to read the article by Andrew J. Bacevich, Trump Is Not the Problem. It is a slightly conservative but even handed assessment of the current state of affairs in which he gives the following list of changes necessary to heal many of our gaping political wounds. I have edited each for brevity.

Abolish the Electoral College.
Rollback [elections] gerrymandering.
Limit the impact of corporate money on elections at all levels, if need be by amending the Constitution.
Mandate a balanced federal budget
Implement a program of national service, thereby eliminating the all-volunteer military and restoring the tradition of the citizen-soldier.
Enact tax policies that will promote greater income equality.
Increase public funding for public higher education
Beyond mere “job” creation, attend to the growing challenges of providing meaningful work—employment that is both rewarding and reasonably remunerative—for those without advanced STEM degrees.
End the thumb-twiddling on climate change and start treating it as the first-order national-security priority that it is.
Absent evident progress on the above, create a new party system, breaking the current duopoly in which Republicans and Democrats tacitly collaborate to dictate the policy agenda and restrict the range of policy options deemed permissible.

Like most, my list would have different priorities but I think that this list is an excellent bipartisan way to start. I submit this as an illustration that there are those of us on the left that do not fall into the ridiculous caricature of tax loving, communist, bleeding heart liberal. It is also an acknowledgement that I am aware that most of the people on the right are not goose-stepping skinheads with right arms outstretched toward 45. I want my elected representatives to advance laws and policies like those listed above and be willing to compromise in order to form a more perfect union.

I know that I have no influence on the national debate and really little influence over anyone or anything. This is not written to change minds. Instead, it is a note to myself and maybe those that really know me.

BLAH! BLAH! BLAH! WASSUP WITH THE CANDY CORN?

Sorry! So my first visual response to the presidential election was rhetorically aimed at those people I know that voted for the president and other politicians that sought to advance only the interest of white American men despite claiming to be "God fearing". I mention God because I do not know any conservative atheists, although I know that they do exist.

God Bless America   •  Charcoal On Paper•  48"w x 60"h — God Bless America • Charcoal On Paper• 48"w x 60"h

Immediately following the election I revisited an image that I have posted about before, as a way to visually convey my perception of the hypocrisy of their decision.

The original version of God Bless America above is meant to emphasize the idea that religion is an anchor in a sea of chaos. The image below is intended to visually represent what happens when religion is used as a justification for discrimination and violence.

I had planned on doing more versions of the Aerie Bomber (posted below) dropping Jesus bombs on marauding Mexicans, sinister Somalians and insane ISISians. But I am very easily distracted by, work, news, Facebook, Instagram and anything sparkly.

The Aerie Bomber (This image is not finished)

I start way more drawings and paintings than I finish. Below is a picture of a few of the versions of God Bless Amerika in progress. While I was working on these images, and before I flipped Jesus on his head, I wanted to see what it would look like if I made Jesus into a scarecrow.

My first concern was that it would be heavy handed. I know, I know; you are probably saying to yourself; "Attaching a crucifix to the body of an eagle is not that extraordinary?" So, in my defense, I always tell my students; "There is a terrifyingly vile place that is filled with your greatest fears as well as the most loathsome beasts that exist solely to exploit your weaknesses. That place is called Toofar and you never know where Toofar is until you get there.

But do not despair because Toofar is surrounded by a magical kingdom of love and joy and happy trees. That kingdom can only be entered by passing through the valley of despair in the land of Toofar and looking into the eyes of the beast that knows your greatest fear and saying it’s name.

Only you know that beast’s name. And only you can utter that name and then take 2 steps backwards. For that is the gateway to the mystical kingdom of Dunn."

While walking along the winding path toward the land of Toofar, looking for pictures of scarecrows, I realized that my favorite, highly intelligent, lovable scarecrow looked a little bit like a Klansman.

The detail below is part of the reason I began to work on something else.

Detail of God Bless Amerika   (This image is not finished) — Detail of God Bless Amerika (This image is not finished)

I liked this image a lot, but there was something about it that troubled me greatly. Hooding Christ made me feel like an executioner. But as I was drawing, I noticed that the hood looked like the beak of an eagle, which was a very happy accident. The serpentine repetition at the edge of the hood reminded me of a Renaissance ruff. As I was searching for pictures of those, I realized that I had forgotten that clowns used to wear ruffs and that made me very, very happy (See below). But it was the weird face on the image above and one other thing I found while searching for clowns and scarecrows that made me pause on this image.

Clowns and scarecrows led me to Halloween and it was there that I discovered candy corn.

Rosanne Season 5   •  Halloween Episode — Rosanne Season 5 • Halloween Episode

If you would like to see some of my visual research for these images; I have been saving most of them on Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/eyriestudios/the-north-carolina-bureau-of-make-america-great-ag/ I recommend starting at the bottom and scrolling toward the top because that will roughly be the chronological order.

When I was looking for this reference material in early 2017 I bought a few bags of candy corn and out of curiosity, I tasted it. The amount of sugar and waxiness was so overwhelming that I spit it out. It also hurt my teeth. My immediate association to that experience was the blog posts, memes and FB posts I was seeing after the presidential elections. Men and women whom I knew sincerely believed themselves to be morally just and good hearted people were nay saying and denying any association to bigotry and hate by voting for 45. Many were openly denying associations between an uptick in hate crimes and violence with the election of someone that had repeatedly condoned and even encouraged discrimination and violence.

That denial became even more terrifying and bizarre when I started seeing people refer to anything that questioned their beliefs as fake news. The term alternative facts was by far the most horrifying and surreal spin I have ever seen.

Detail•  The Bureau Of Make America Great Again•  Digital Image — Detail• The Bureau Of Make America Great Again• Digital Image

Candy corn is fake corn. It looks like fire. When turned upside down, it made me think of monster teeth. Candy corn is ludicrous and really bad for you if that is all you eat.

Candy corn is a triangle just like the Klan regalia. I spent weeks digitally altering the Klan image into the ludicrous image below. I even went so far as to show how really aroused my Kandy Korn Klansmen and women were.

If you voted for, but have not yet spoken out against this president and our North Carolina political representatives that openly seek to prevent fair elections, that seek to continue a history of discrimination against women and minorities and most importantly deny reality, and advocate the ridiculous notions of alternative facts and fake news, then you support the over throw of a dysfunctional two party system by a white nationalist authoritarian regime. Silence and no action is tacit acceptance.

I don’t know about you, but I have a finite amount of time on this earth and I believe that I was brought forth to make this world better than when I entered it. Anger will only make things worse. What is happening is literally mental. The only way I can think to confront this level of insanity is with humor. I encourage you to do the same.

If you want to use these images to represent your own beliefs, or if you are digitally savvy enough to alter them and make something more interesting, you have my permission to download them and do so.

If you have ideas for something more ambitious and want a higher resolution version, just let me know what you want to do. We makers must use our skills for good and the most revolutionary thing you and I can do is to freely give our time and talent in order to form that more perfect union.

My dream would be to form a militia of mimes, clowns and/or drag queens to confront right wing extremists and entertain us all at the same time.

Clowns have already been used with great success.

http://www.neatorama.com/2007/09/03/clowns-kicked-kkk-asses/

and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThGR-7DbLEg

Never forget: SHEET CAKING IS A GRASSROOTS MOVEMENT!!!!!!

The History Of Theology

Recently a patron asked me to explain the meaning of the image above. It is titled Theology and was completed over 15 years ago, but seems relevant now. This is an edited version of what I wrote and since it was originally written in one sitting, it jumps around chronologically like my mind does.

THEOLOGY

After I had received my MFA in 1992, I did not have a job and my wife was working full time as well as going to school. We had a brand new mortgage, a new baby and for several years I had been having recurring dreams about tornadoes that were inspiring paintings like the one below which was based on a print by The House Book Master called Death and the Young Man

At that time I was having physical and emotional problems that could not be explained. Many years later I would be diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder. But that is another story.

At the same time I was working on the tornado paintings, I started the painting below titled Portrait Of A Man Wearing A Red Tarpon.

That image was inspired by the painting below by Jan Van Eyck titled Portrait of a Man Wearing a Red Turban.

Many scholars believe that this painting may be a self-portrait (which is what I would like to think). It is technically virtuosic, and depicts a man that appears pensive, but proud. The turban may be an allusion to worldliness. During Van Eyck's lifetime, the artist was a respected professional.

When I graduated from college, I had an amazing and incredibly patient wife, a beautiful, healthy daughter and we owned wonderful house with an fantastic mortgage payment. I was having severe panic attacks and anxiety that never stopped. I very seriously thought I was going crazy.

I was adrift in a liminal space between school and work; between childhood and being an adult; and even between being a mother or being a father because I did not have a full time job and my wife was the one supporting us. I was a stay at home dad at a time when no one else that I knew was doing that.

I had started painting the Madonna and Fish images while I was in college and continued to create variations in which I substituted a fish for the Christ child. The oil painting below is based on the Leonardo painting called the Madonna Litta.

As I am sure you know, early Christians had used the fish symbol (the "Ichthus") as a way to find out if they were communicating with another Christian. Today this secret symbol is on the bumper of most Christian's cars. It has become a brand that declares what team you are on. Most of the Christians that I have quizzed do not even know about the significance of that symbol.

The Madonna and Fish paintings and drawings were my attempts at creating an iconic image that depicted what I believed to be the feminine nurturing conception of the religious experience. It was maternal and required an unquestioning acceptance of the literal religious symbol to transcend the duality of human existence. The Madonna holding a fish was also intended to point out the absurdity of the love of a symbol devoid of humanity.

I then tried to depict the way that I believed most men expressed their spirituality and religious beliefs. At that time I believed that we men intellectualize religion and wear it like armor to protect us from evil and/or the things we do not understand or agree with. I have observed men to be more interested in ideas and ideologies than human life and when we feel threatened, or when we want something, we use religion as a weapon to attack those whom challenge our faith or stand in our way.

I created several images exploring that idea including the one below titled Study for Theology.

It was inspired by the Leonardo drawing below which had the warrior's disposition I was trying to reference and call into question.

LEONARDO da Vinci, Profile of a warrior in helmet, c. 1472, Silverpoint on prepared paper

But it was not until I had left the idea for a while and finished a series of work on the Icarus and Daedalus myth as well as reading the book The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time by Jonathan Weiner that the final pieces fell into place.

Theology is the study of religious faith, practice, and experience, especially the study of God and of God's relation to the world. If God cast Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden, heaven is closed to us. We are separate from and cannot experience God directly except through death. As far as I know, every religious text has been written by a human.

The drawing above depicts a man pointing to a piece of paper with instructions that illustrate how to fold an origami eagle. The man's image is based on Jan Van Eyck's self portrait. On top of his head sits a finch which, for me, alludes to Darwinism and the scientific method.

He is unaware of the real bird on his head and he is also unaware of the fact that the instructions that he confidently points to illustrate how to make a symbol for a bird and not a real bird. He has turned his back on the real world. The environment, represented by the clear cut trees, is dead. It has been sacrificed to make the paper for his sacred text and for my drawing. The thing he worships, the eagle, has no place to live. As the world dies so does he. His scalp is as barren as the landscape.

The only things that break the boundry of his world are the finch, the origami instructions, and death (hair). Additionally, there are several things that I was thinking about that are probably not discernible to anyone else but me even after I explain them. For example; There are two steps intentionally missing from the origami instructions which is an allusion to the missing texts from the Bible. The wrinkles in the origami instructions used to look like a flower. The wrinkles around the theologians eyes are birds heads facing each other. His tie is an inverted tornado and anyone that has worn a tie knows that it is just a fancy noose.

To emphasize the absurdity of this entire endeavor, the right hand corner of the window into the Theologian’s world is out of square and, instead, it is parallel to the wrinkle in the paper. The fact that the instructions to make the sacred bird refer to my last name is my acknowledgement and awareness that I, like any human, am limited to my own point of view which is based on the amount of information that I have at this moment in time. The eagle is also our national symbol and a symbol of patriotism and war which are diametrically opposed to the Christian conception of agape.

P.S. February 24, 2017 - The Madonna and Fish and Theology images represented the mother and father. Their child is Faith.

Faith    Charcoal on paper      1993 — Faith Charcoal on paper 1993

My Mother's Death, The Politics Of Hate And Pulp Fiction

This is a window into the Rube Goldberg way that my mind works.

I have had a really horrible year but I am very fortunate to have friends and family to support me. They have been here whenever I needed them and I know they will be there for me in the future as I am here for them.

That said, it has been incredibly difficult for me to grapple with the reality that many of the people I love and care for voted for a future that is the antithesis of everything that I believe in and what I thought they believed as well. Since I was born and raised in the Bible belt, most of my friends and relatives profess to be good Christians and on this Christmas day, it is those people that I am addressing.

I do not think that social media is the place for debate or contemplating any idea at any depth and that is not my intent. This is not an attempt to convince anyone that their choice was wrong. Instead, what follows is written to people I personally know that said they did not want to vote for the president elect, but did anyway.

It is the only way I can think to communicate how ripped apart I feel by your decision to support such a disgusting human being as the president elect. This train wreck of a rant began a couple weeks ago, but was put on hold when a series of events distracted me from my original purpose.

Do not watch the videos if you have not seen the movies. There is psychological and/or graphic violence.

Like most of you I was shocked on November 8, 2016. But, unlike many of my friends, I was not sad; I was fucking furious! I was shocked that many of my family and friends bought into, or just plain ignored the race war nightmare scenarios painted by a terrifyingly thin skinned megalomaniac set on world domination. I was fucking furious that so many smart people voted to send a billionaire business man to "drain the swamp" that he owns and stands to make way more money from as president. The week after the election I wanted to send the Jew Bear to the front door of every single person that voted for the president elect.

Like most of you, I was shocked and offended by the fact that many of my family and friends voted for a person that openly hates women and I wanted them to suffer for their stupidity (women) and misogynist views (men). I have a really hard time wishing harm to any woman, but men.... I wanted every single man that voted for the president elect to suffer the agony of grabbing the Vagina Dentata. Of course, the president elect would be first in line for that gang bang.

But the thing that pissed me off the most was the fact that many of my family and friends insisted that they were not racist and that it was not their fault that there has been a huge spike in violent racist attacks and harassment since the president elect began his campaign. They insisted that they were not racist even though they voted for a man that openly encouraged the radical right's violence and has never apologized for his clearly racist and xenophobic rhetoric AND PROMISED he would implement policies and enact legislation and continue to encourage that same racist rhetoric. Every single time I saw my family or friends share or like a post on Facebook naysaying and denying a link or responsibility for the current state of affairs, I wanted to carve a swastika into that person's forehead.

I did not post anything, or write anything in those first weeks of shock and anger. It stayed and simmered in my incredibly cluttered mind and as I tried to understand why intelligent people that I knew and trusted had chosen to repeat history, I grasped for logical explanations like the IllusaryTruth Effect and I slowly began to accept the fact that many of my family and friends were probably (hopefully) not able to acknowledge or even see their own prejudices. But, every time I heard one of them say that I had to give the president elect a chance because he won the election ---> Butch: You okay? Marsellus: Nah man, I'm pretty fucking far from "okay".

Yesterday, December 24, 2016 I said good by to my mother. I was able to be alone with her one last time and thank her for my life, and her love, and her guidance. But, when I touched her beautiful cold skin for the last time, the overwhelming sadness I had somewhat successfully contained for the past month overwhelmed me. The grief burst from my chest and scraped my throat raw with its violence and intensity and I must admit that it has been hard to write, or even see through the blur of tears today.

My world had already changed in every sense of that over used expression. Now the woman that gave me life is gone. Of course just her death would have had a tremendous psychological and potentially symbolic significance. But, by chance, her death is now linked in my mind with the death of my country. Or, to be less mellow dramatic, her death is now linked with the death of many of my dreams and the trust I had for many of my friends and family.

Those dreams have been replaced by a dystopian nightmare; A bad 1984 or a rehashed Hunger Games, where every day and with every cabinet appointment it gets worse. For example, the state that I live is literally no longer considered a democracy , the president elect actually said he did not need intelligence briefings and denied that there was a Russian hack and dismissed the overwhelming proof presented by US intelligence reports and yesterday a family member jokingly asked what was wrong with Carl Paladino's comments about the Obamas.

I am not a granola eating "damn libral" communist chasing utopian fantasies. I am just an average guy trying to come to terms with what just happened. Our next president won the election on a coded promise to "Make America Great Again" and a promise that he alone could fix America's problems. He has insisted that we wait and trust him to do the right thing. Anyone that has questioned his intentions or methods has been been mocked repeatedly with 140 characters, or has been attacked by his supporters, or worse.

On this religious holiday it has finally sunk in. OUR PRESIDENT ELECT IS A TERRORIST and if you are a Christian, as are most of my neighbors and many of my friends and family, I NOW understand your acceptance of his vision for the future. I NOW understand why you really could not vote for Hillary Clinton.

“I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent.” (1 Timothy 2:12)

I NOW understand why you applauded the idea of building a wall and bombing the hell out of your enemies because;

“Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him: But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people.” (Deuteronomy 13:8-9)

Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity: Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and woman: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at my sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient men which were before the house.” (Ezekiel 9:5-6)

“Every one that is found shall be thrust through; and every one that is joined unto them shall fall by the sword. Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished.” (Isaiah 13:15-16)

I NOW understand your uncomfortable tolerance of me and for those that wish for compassion and equality for all humans;

“And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath spoken to turn you away from the LORD your God.” (Deuteronomy 13: 5)

I NOW understand why you have enabled and why you encouraged the terrorism of your enemies. It is because YOU ARE ANGRY or YOU ARE AFRAID.

I did not agree with my mother's politics, but she was the person that taught me to never follow the herd. She also never tried to tell me what I should believe. Instead, she encouraged me to question conformity. Throughout my young life, if I ever mentioned wanting to have something or said I wanted to do something because everybody else was doing that, she would reply, "If all of your friends were running toward the edge of a cliff, would you follow them to your death?".

On this Christmas day in 2016 I wish my friends and family peace and happiness, but I will not follow you over the edge of that cliff. I will not support a leader that uses fear and now very real threats of violence and intimidation as a weapon to terrorize the people of our great country. And, more importantly, I will not tolerate those that condone his rhetoric or actions.

On this Christmas day I challenge you to consider the following;

I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:23-26)

I believe the passage above is the key aspect to being a true disciple of Christ. I literally just looked upon death, so these issues are weighing heavy on my mind. Each of us will die and we will take nothing with us when we go. To devote one's life to the accumulation of material wealth and power is useless. It is the antithesis of Christ's teaching. That idea is beautifully illustrated by the character Jacob Marley in the Christmas story Scrooge.

But the most import passage that the Christians that I know choose to ignore is;

But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; (Matthew 5:44)

Since I have gone this far down the rabbit hole with my rambling quixotic rant; and since we have already crossed into an alternative reality run by a xenophobic celebrity game show host, I do not feel guilty about throwing out one more strange idea.

Pulp Fiction presents an incredibly effective examination of a Biblicalesque conversion by using a very unusual narrative sequence (Here is the movie rearranged in the correct sequence) to emphasize the results of interpreting an event as a miracle. The scene below happens at the end of the movie and functions as a comparison of the characters alternative interpretations of the event. At this point, we, the viewers know that John Travolta's character, Vincent Vega is dead. He did not believe in the miracle and there is a wonderful allusion to his own death scene in the final few seconds of this clip. Remember that Vincent Vega died right after he took a shit.

Samuel L. Jackson's character Jules Winnfield experiences the same event as Vincent Vega, but sees it as a miracle and here is my strange idea; His character is a direct reference to the biblical conversion of Saul. I believe that Jules character is a combination of Matthew and Saul. The Apostle Matthew was a Roman tax collector before his conversion. Jules was a drug lord's money collector/hit man. Both were bad hombres. Saul experienced a miraculous vision and was converted. He became the Apostle Paul. I make this assumption based on the fact that the biblical passage Jules repeats in the scene below is not the actual passage Ezekiel 25:17, but instead, a mashup of several quotes.

We have seen both characters actions and the subsequent results of their beliefs/actions. We are, at first glance, left to decide if what happened was luck or a miracle. But I ask you to consider a diferent question; Would you be able to accept this murderer as reborn and forgive him of his sins? Would you welcome Jules, the black murderer, that clearly has been converted, into your life and into your home?

I personally know someone that has made this conversion. He was a very bad hombre and has turned his life around. He is tortured and tested everyday and I try to be there when he needs support because he asked for my help. He has given up evil to follow Christ and has forsaken material wealth. Could you give up your possessions and wealth to devote yourself to an altruistic existence? I know that I am not strong enough to do that. "But I'm trying real hard."

So on this Christmas Day, I thank my family and friends for their love and care. If you voted for the president elect, I have not come to grips with your decision. We are on the opposite sides of a terrible wall and it troubles me greatly that you support a terrorist and the antithesis of Christian values. But, I love you still.

And I will challenge you to live by the passage that I live by;

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:28)

I am a very small and insignificant part of an incredibly large and complex web of interactions and relationships. My opinions and actions do not affect that many people, but, I know that at any moment, I may become the tipping point or causal action for a cascading sequence of events that could change the world. And so can you. If there is a God, she courses through our veins at this very moment. I know with my heart and head that each and every one of us is a single cell in the body of that God, and that is the reason why such horrible people like our president elect thrive. He is a cancerous tumor spreading hate and fear into your heads and hearts.

I, on the other hand, have this one life to live and my time is the most precious gift that I have to give.

So, I sincerely thank you for spending a few moments of your time with me and suffering through my cathartic rambling.

Now excuse me because "I'm gonna take a shit". 😜

When Digital And Traditional Painting Meet

The following entry is a description of the mixed media digital printing and painting process that I have developed over the past few years. I work in many different mediums including acrylic paint, oil, mixed media, and purely digital. This is a heavily edited version of a previous blog post (The Adventures Of Icarus Elck) about the methods I used to create 30 unique mixed media prints for the ECU faculty exhibition in 2011.

There are now acrylic mediums that can be applied to 2D surfaces to make them receptive to high quality archival digital printing. Once printed, these images can be sealed with UV varnishes to stabilize the surface making it possible to paint or collage on top of the image without releasing or lifting the water based, pigmented inks used to print the digital image. What is unique about the process I use is that I am painting back into these images with traditional paint and then running the print/painting back through the printer, sometimes multiple times. This process is unpredictable and causes accidents that inspire me to change the image.

At that time I was creating the work described below, I was using a cheap Bamboo Wacom tablet (which has been completely redesigned and now is nothing like what is pictured below). I now use a Wacom 13' Cyntiq.

If you would like to see a sided by side comparison of digital and traditional painting, the video below is by our MFA Alumnus Jonathan Peedin, and was used during a presentation in October 2012 at the Southeastern College Arts Conference in Durham, NC. where he spoke at the invitational panel "Technologists, not Technicians: Integrating New Media in Art & Design"

THE ADVENTURES OF ICARUS ELK

Tornadoes have consistently appeared in my work since I started dreaming about them on March 29, 1989. For many years the dreams were terrifyingly vivid and often bordered on lucid. In many of those dreams I ran from the tornadoes, as did the characters in my paintings and drawings. At that time, my intention for this particular image was to finally turn and face the tornado.

I had begun this pencil drawing

with the intention of drawing a character, based on the clip art image below, walking in a field of poppies. I have been developing a personal/universal avatar called Icarus Elck. The image below is the first iteration of that character and was not the direction I ended up taking. I chose this particular image because it reminded me of Faust, and the expression, as well as the song, Candle In The Wind. I also saw it as a visual metaphor for the way a psychiatrist analyzes dream content, or the way an academic/traditional oil painter might think about digital painting.

I tried to shoot reference shots, but quickly realized that the anatomy of the original drawing is incorrect and I could not duplicate it. If you do not believe me, stand in front of a full length mirror and try to recreate the pose exactly. I promise you that if you have children or a roommate, they will walk into the room the moment you do this.

I liked the obviously dated, black and white drawing, so I decided to just use the image exactly. In the Artworld, it is called "appropriating". In music it is called "sampling". When somebody does it to you, it is called stealing. : ) Remember - Everything Is A Remix

I was not happy with the intestine like tornado in the original drawing, nor with the beginnings of the poppy field.

So, I scanned the drawing into the computer and edited out the intestinal tornado.

I wanted poppy fields for their link to tornadoes that I had grown up with and for their tie to mind altering drugs and the war in Afghanistan.

I chose this iconic scene and edited out the characters as well as desaturated colors and mirrored the image. The black and white landscape that resulted reminded me of old postcards of tobacco fields in North Carolina.

cJzGXDAxmsdIdC5cXehi-KuRV0j2_cSefB6gOl2cgO0Xg65m9kSSzikyTA5bar8cy8aiKy1zlqvjCA=w880-h440.jpg

I introduced the man, and decided to add a few flowers.

Here are some early test prints.

At that time I was teaching myself how to use Photoshop and got carried away with layers and the digital drawing process.

Believe it or not, I start every image by saying “This time I will not get obsessed with minutia.”

I tried to build scale model for reference. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2411308566274.200586.1358044650&l=93d1e04a28

Below is a studio shot of some of the different versions at various stages of completion.

Here is a weird one that I like.

A shot of the actual printing.

My studio Friday, October 7, 2011. The day the paintings were due to the gallery.

The 30 best ready to be hung.

Installed.

This particular image has continued to evolve and change over the years and now that you have seen how it began, you can probably see how it is related to these images;

“God Bless America”

The image God Bless America is intended to do what the statement “God Bless America” does. It appears to be a rallying cry and statement of unquestionable moral allegiance and righteousness. But in reality it is an amalgamation that just won’t fly. Picture in your mind what will happen when the eagle (America) takes flight. Christ (God’s moral authority) will be turned on his head and become an abomination.

Religion is an anchor for the soul in a world of chaos. Nations and states are arbitrary geographical regions and change frequently. “God Bless America “ makes us feel patriotic and morally just in our actions, but it is actually an incredibly selfish statement that says God loves my arbitrary geographical region more than your random geographical region.

What about the rest of the universe for God’s sake : )

Tiny Tim from "A Christmas Carol" says "God Bless Us, Everyone" http://videoquoter.com/

I FINALLY HAVE A WEBSITE

A GREAT BIG THANK YOU TO ERIKA GIBSON for taking time away from her ceramics to put together a website that I could actually update all by myself at any time and not have to ask her to do it for me. I LOVE IT! For some reason she seemed really happy to do this.

Visit her W EBSITE and/or follow her on INSTAGRAM

ALSO, A GREAT BIG THANK YOU TO TODD COATS. He has devoted literally years to solving my impossible requirements for a new identity (why are you laughing?) and successfully created a branding that is the most amazing, huge, smart, and whatever other Trumpian adjective you care to insert here or anywhere. He has worked under such duress that it will deserve it’s own blog post.

Here he is teaching David Letterman how to use post-it notes.

In March, 2006, My boss, Todd Coats. and I traveled to New York to be on the Late Show with David Letterman. There, we created a likeness of stage manager Biff Henderson out of Post-It Notes. This is a montage of the clips coming in and out of commercial, with the introduction and reveal of the final product.

INFORMATION ABOUT THE WORK. The titles for the groups of images refer either to the title of a consistent body of work, or to the idea driving the creative process behind the work in that group. For example The Search will be where I post my doodles. They usually begin with no conscious intent and simply evolve as I search for their meaning. The Found are images that have significant meaning to me. I will devote future blog posts to the explanation of some of those works.

Finally, this site is organic and will change. I am still working on the FENG SHUI-ing. So, if you have suggestions on how I can make your experience more zenful, please let me know.

✔️ Encourage helpful people in your life by hanging a pleasant-sounding wind chime.
☐ Place an energetic fountain near your front door.
✔️ Clear the entryway to your home.
✔️ Make sure your home encourages learning.
✔️ Get rid of unwanted frustrations by fixing broken objects.
✔️ Spice up your love life with plants in the bedroom.
✔️ Position your bed to feel safe, loved, and great.
☐ Block drains to keep dollars from draining out of your pockets.
✔️ Boost your career with a better desk position

Keep "meditating" for up to 15 minutes. APPLE: http://apple.co/1Kb4x7N | ANDROID: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jasonheadley.hnestmeditation Get the book: http://bit.ly/1WnTWit

Artwork Featured In 41st edition Of Creative Quarterly Magazine

I had one piece selected as winner in the Professional Artist Category and one piece selected as runner up in the Professional Artist category for the 41st edition of Creative Quarterly Magazine.

I have been selected by Creative Quarterly Magazine as one of their top 100 creatives for 2013. The publication assembled a panel of international judges that selected the top 25 pieces in each of four categories for special recognition.

Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction

WONDERBOOK
The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction
By Jeff VanderMeer

I have been included in an amazing writing guide that uses hundreds of images by artists and illustrators as inspiration for creative writing.

I have 4 artworks used as illustration on seven pages, an interview and even a full page picture of my studio shelves.

Jeff VanderMeer, award-winning author of The Steampunk Bible, has taken a completely new and wholly original approach to the writing guide, and created a manual that not only utilizes invaluable written information, but also teaches via scores of helpful and stimulating illustrations. Through an accessible, example-rich approach that emphasizes the importance of playfulness as well as pragmatism, Wonderbook energizes and motivates while also providing practical, nuts-and-bolts advice about how to improve as a writer. The book is filled with more than 200 images and pictorial exercises that will expand the reader’s creativity. These imaginative and influential illustrations are sure to inspire the next generation of aspiring fantasy writers.