Scott Eagle

This blog is a digital journal. It is a place where I keep links and images to refer to like I would a sketchbook. WARNING; I will update old posts and sometimes combine old and new posts so that I can find things more easily. This blog is also intended to function as a reference for my students. I will keep posts about artists, subjects and materials mentioned during class. http://www.scotteagle.com/

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POINT OF VIEW IS EVERYTHING

Each morning I awake with the faith that I can one day be the grenade pin for a butterfly effect that changes the whole world, but sometimes I feel more like a butterfly in a tornado. This is an image that is in progress.

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DISSONANCE

Richard Cheese is my new hero. This is a cover of Nine Inch Nails song Closer. Imagagine Sammy Davis Junior doing Closer....Definitely NSFW.

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 Working titles; Nostalgia or A Step By Step Guide For The Minimalist Painter,

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Probably NSFW and offensive to many. I am reblogging from http://www.wicked-halo.com/2009/04/closer-desconstructed.html

CLOSER DECONSTRUCTED

I came across this making of for NIN’s video Closer, and anyone who’s seen this, know this video is as weird as they come. I highly recommend watching this (it’s about half an hour long, so be prepared) because it’s really interesting to see all the kind of work and art background information that went into it.

We get:

really yucky facts (the pigs head and the meat ribs were real, not props, and were stinking up the entire set…gross; the ribs were bought cheap because they were already rotting…ok, even grosser; Trent Reznor apparently pucked from all the spinning);

technical stuff that makes you go, was that really necessary? (it was shot with an old silent movie camera that kept breaking down, as opposed to being filmed with an actual camera and adding the old stock look in post production; there was no artificial lighting, the set was built to have natural light);

and ofcourse a really interesting lowdown of director Mark Romanek‘s influence stream.

Francis Bacon, Man Ray, James Van Der Zee, the Quay brothers and Joel Peter Witkin were all artists he took inspiration from, and altough I was somewhat knowledgeable on some of them, it made me want to dig up their work to see just how it influenced the making of this particular video (more on this below).

THE MAKING OF

NIN: The Making of the "Closer" Video from Nine Inch Nails on Vimeo.

THE END VIDEO (there’s also a version with comments by NIN frontman Trent Reznor here)

INFLUENCE LIST

The Quay Brothers – Streets of Crocodiles This animated short creeps me out…probably some badly resolved childhood issue with porcelain dolls! Their work has also inspired Tool’s videos “Prison Sex” and “Sober“, and they worked on Peter Gabriel’s Sledgehammer. This particular work was based on a short novel of the same name by the Polish author and artist Bruno Schulz, and was selected by director Terry Gilliam (Brazil, 12 Monkeys) as one of the ten best animated films of all time. Francis Bacon What is it with painters and their obcession with meat? Mark Ryden’s approach though is more my thing, Bacon’s style is rather austere.

Portrait, 1952

Figure with meat, 1954

Joel Peter Witkin He deserves a LOT of credit for the visuals of this video. His visuals are all over the place. You can get an actual comparison between these and the frames of the video here, along with some other JPW photos (but beware it’s NSFW ;) Witkin’s macabre output was also featured in Alexander McQueens S/S 2001 runway show. You can check the video for that here (at aproximately 2:55) and compare it with the original here.

Face of a Woman, 2004

Siamese Twins, 1988

Penitente, 1982

The Sins of Joan Miro, 1981

Harvest, 1984

Joel Peter Witkin

The imagery of the woman with the spinning eggs on her fingers was inspired by a detail of this 1948 painting by Rudolf Hausner, “Forum optyki zwróconej do wnętrza”

NIN and Mark Romanek also collaborated in the video for “The Perfect Drug”, which I’d actually posted a while back and whose visuals were heavily influenced by the work of illustrator Edward Gorey.

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Collaboration With Todd Coats

The second picture is what Todd gave me. I did do a little bit of work on top at the swim meet last week before I took this picture. The top image is what I sent back today along with several other images like 3 and 4 (which I kept for myself). You may know Todd for his appearance on David Letterman or the TRU Tobacco Campaign.

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COLLABORATION WITH TIM FRENCH

The image above is the first step in a collaboration with Tim French. We are each starting pencil drawings on white paper not using anything darker than a 4B. I will give this to Tim today and he can add or erase ANYTHING he wants.

Background information about image for Tim. You know about the hoodie. The man above has just pulled the pin from a grenade. That was drawn using this picture that I took from my web cam.

I am leaving the butterfly without its markings in case you want to change the species or do something else. The butterfly is perched on the grenade pin.

I used the image of Marlon Brando below as reference for the face. That picture came from the set of Apocalypse Now while shooting the final scene.

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The spelling of the word BUREAUCRATIC is the perfect example of design by committee in a BUREAUCRACY.

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MY STUDIO WALL

Sam Phillips: Bring... bring it home? All right, let's bring it home. If you was hit by a truck and you was lying out there in that gutter dying, and you had time to sing *one* song. Huh? One song that people would remember before you're dirt. One song that would let God know how you felt about your time here on Earth. One song that would sum you up. You tellin' me that's the song you'd sing? That same Jimmy Davis tune we hear on the radio all day, about your peace within, and how it's real, and how you're gonna shout it? Or... would you sing somethin' different. Somethin' real. Somethin' *you* felt. Cause I'm telling you right now, that's the kind of song people want to hear. That's the kind of song that truly saves people. It ain't got nothin to do with believin' in God, Mr. Cash. It has to do with believin' in yourself.

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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.   VanderMeer’s instructions touch upon many aspects of creative writing that will improve the reader’s skills, such as plotting, structure, worldbuilding, creating scenes, and narrative design. Wonderbook features an impressive array of helpful tactics and essays from some of the biggest names in fantasy and sci-fi today, including: •    George R. R. Martin •    Lev Grossman •    Neil Gaiman •    Junot Díaz •    Karen Joy Fowler •    Charles Yu About the Author Jeff VanderMeer is the author of more than twenty books and a two-time winner of the World Fantasy Award. His books have made the year’s-best lists of Publishers Weekly, LA Weekly, the Washington Post, Amazon, the San Francisco Chronicle, and many more. He is the cofounder and codirector of Shared Worlds, a unique writing camp for teenagers, and has taught at Clarion, the world’s premiere fantasy/sci-fi workshop for adults. VanderMeer is based in Tallahassee, Florida.

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Louis C.K.: Why I won't let my kids have cell phones

Should your children be as stupid as everyone else's? Louis C.K.'s stance, as the red-haired one explains to Conan O'Brien, is that he's not there to make them happy. Read this article by Chris Matyszczyk on CNET News.

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ENDING IN A BOOK: READING AFTER McLUHAN

A wonderful website.

I had a hard time believing that The Medium The Massage was published in 1967. It's message and design look contemporary even today.

"Marshall McLuhan taught us that media environments are so pervasive that we find it difficult to do anything but unconsciously habituate ourselves to them. It is as if, since Gutenberg and the dissemination of printed matter, we have been constantly using books but are unable to really see them. But when a medium starts to lose its monopoly over us, latent qualities come to the fore. Following McLuhan’s prescient examination of reading and its contemporary transformations, this installation hopes to foreground the book in its totality as a sensuous object, with materials, patterns, and dispositions telling tales that are as in need of their own reading as any other narrative."

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Kitchen Decor by Dexter

Above, Red Splash Kitchen Chopping Board

The Dead Cool Desk Buddy

Splash Red Spoon Rest

"The EX" Knife holder

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DARK SIDE OF THE POPE

By Scott Eagle     A short video made by splicing together stills from a graphic novel I am working on called The Dreams Of Icarus Elck. There is no sound until I can find a copyright free version of the Imperial March.

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Sketchbook Pages

A scene from the "book" I am working on. My actual sketchbook photographed and altered to convey what is going on in the mind of Icarus Elck.

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DISSONANCE

Scala Choir - Creep (From 'The Social Network' trailer)

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Is An MFA The New MBA?

Companies all across America are starting to see a critical talent gap as older employees retire. Arts students may not have all the traditional...

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THE ORIGIN OF DARTH VADER

The following are references for a project I am working on.

IMAGE ABOVE  THE LORD, HOMELAND, THE LEADER INSTALLATION (Scroll to bottom of blog)

Michael Rakowitz

The Lord, The Homeland, The Leader Installation (Strike the Empire Back series) (2009) comprises pencil-on-vellum drawings that, among several narratives, tell the tale of Uday, the oldest son of Saddam Hussein (who was killed in a shootout with American troops in July 2003). An illustration shows that in 1980, when Uday was 15, he accompanied his father to a screening of Star Wars in Baghdad, just prior to the outbreak of the Iran-Iraq War. Lucas’ sci-fi classic made an impression on young Uday, much as it did on Rakowitz, who himself was a passionate fan of the space-fantasy saga as a child. In 1995, when Uday was charged with forming the Fedayeen Saddam (“Saddam’s Men of Sacrifice”), he personally designed their helmets and uniforms based on Darth Vader’s outfit. Though the Fedayeen were known to be the fiercest of the Iraqi troops, fighting on long after the rest of Saddam’s military had collapsed after the 2003 invasion, later discoveries indicated that their Star Wars-inspired gear—black shirts, trousers and a ski-mask worn under the Darth Vader-esque helmet, which was actually made from plastic—was not at all ideal for combat.    

  FROM DURER TO DARTH

STAHLHELM (plural, Stahlhelme) is German for "steel helmet".

HE’S WATCHING YOU

This striking poster was designed in 1942 by artist Glenn Ernest Grohe (1912 – 1956) for the Office of Emergency Management. It shows the menacing, shadowy figure of a German soldier peering directly at the viewer over a dark wall with contrasting large text: He’s Watching You. This cool caution poster was intended to motivate adherence to the laws and prudence to the wartime rules about secrecy in the industrial sector and the close proximity of enemy eyes and ears.

  BEFORE STEAMPUNK: STARWARS 1800’s ROOTS

JOSEPH CAMPBELL AND THE POWER OF MYTH WITH BILL MOYERS _ STARWARS

  ANH PRE-PRODUCTION ART

THE COMPLETE DARTH VADER

  Obviously http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darth_Vader

  The Visual Development of StarWars     

  The ultimate test of your will 10 HOURS OF THE IMPERIAL MARCH