#eraser

Food-shaped erasers parodying famous products you can find at the supermarket are really common here in Japan - how many of these can you recognize?

(I like the “0kcal”/“0ml” you can see on the drink bottle ones)

Inktober Day 12 - DRAGON

NINE INCH NAILS - THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL 

GRAPHIC DESIGN - SINGLE ARTWORK

TRACK 11: ERASER

I had played around with a few ideas for logo and title placement after selecting the image I was happiest with, and I settled on the one up top.

I like the placement of the logo and how there is a thick wire underneath it that looks as if it is holding it up. I also like how the ‘Eraser’ title is subtly in the centre of the image, and looks as if it is hand written on the photoset. 

I did indeed hand write the title for this one, as I thought it was appropriate given the title of the song. I flirted with the idea of doing an actual erased version, however when I used a graphite pencil to fill in a page and erase letters and words into it, the lines just weren’t thin enough and it looked sloppy. 

The compensate, instead of ‘erasing’ the word eraser, I simply drew a line through it making it look as if it had been crossed out. 

I’m happy with the way this cover turned out, I think it suits the song and is rich with meaning.

NINE INCH NAILS - THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL
GRAPHIC DESIGN - IDEAS DEVELOPMENT
TRACK 11: ERASER

Here are a few of the different options I have settled on for the ‘Eraser’ single artwork. I loved the way each arrangement looked and felt in black and white with the contrast turned up high and the exposure turned down. They have a real industrial feel and brought to mind the visuals used on the Nine Inch Nails tour promoting ‘The Downward Spiral’, particularly  the video that I have attached below. 

NINE INCH NAILS - THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL
GRAPHIC DESIGN - IDEAS DEVELOPMENT
TRACK 11: ERASER

Following the lucid interval of ‘A Warm Place’, our protagonist returns to a desperate fit of violent rage, however this time it is directed towards himself. 

Upon the realisation that he has become the very thing he set out to destroy, he knows that he too must now be destroyed. However, he is not yet ready or able to do it himself. He pleads for another to end his torment.

In developing ideas for ‘Eraser’, I wanted to use a set of passport photos I had taken a few years back and had lying around. I ended up getting these photo’s retaken as, admittedly, I thought I looked very ‘suspect’ in them for a passport. The beard and long hair just screamed “terrorist” to me, more so in a Ted Kaczynski way than anything else. It was probably a ridiculously paranoid train of thought, but as an American citizen living abroad, I just didn’t want the potential hassle going through customs for the next 10 years, so I went home and shaved to have them retaken. 

I wanted to do a different “erased” version of each image, one where my eyes were burnt out, one where they were scratched out, one where they were covered in ink and then one where I used bleach.

Once I achieved this literal erased effect, I wanted to tie in some deeper symbolism. I thought of how the protagonist was desperate to attain some sort of meaning in the absence of God in his life, but had failed in this regard and now wished to sacrifice himself for a greater good. 

Going back to the “terrorist” connotation I had attached to the passport photos, I dwelled on the idea of a “terrorist” and how that label is often given to someone by those of opposing ideologies. From the IRA to ISIS, one person’s terrorist is often another’s freedom fighter, thus making an objective definition of a terrorist very difficult to pinpoint. 

I took some religious imagery into the frame using a print of the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus. I believe it is a work by Leonardo Da Vinci. I then took some random electronic pieces I had found around the same time as the computer screen I had used for ‘The Becoming’ and positioned them as a frame around my passport images. I wanted to get an effect that was somewhere between a home-made bomb and a memorial shrine to a deceased person. The flowers were added for texture, but also to reinforce the memorial element as well as contrast with the electronic imagery. 

I was happy with the way it was looking, but wanted to bring the images into Photoshop and see what could be done with them. 

Dumbo’s magic feather, 5/16/2022

Today is my official retirement from my day job. I worked at an art museum for 33 years, life’s too short, you know? It was getting too stressful, the stress was impacting my health in a very bad way, so I had to leave for my overall well-being…that’s the way the cookie crumbles sometimes. It wasn’t a hill to die on if you know what I mean. I have no regrets. I am proud of my contributions to the institution. My grief and anger will become dull over time. I took with me my institutional knowledge, no one still working there knows the art collection like I do, the stories behind it, the renovations, the conservation, the inventory, where the “bodies are buried”…it doesn’t matter, really… the museum will go on without me, I’m sure they can figure it out someday.

I’m like Dumbo’s magic feather, they can fly without me.

Not my circus, not my monkeys.

I am grateful for my little sketches at night, they have helped me through a very difficult, sad time, at times I was fearful…you know, when you’re afraid to check your email because you’ve become so gun shy you cringe to see what’s waiting in the inbox thinking “what next?” (gaslighting.)

The sketches kept me going, and will keep me going for a very long time.

I’m free.

Angles, 5/15/2022

Going with the flow, 5/18/2022

Drawing by drawing, I’m getting there…going with the flow, going with the flow.

Trees, 5/17/2022