Eraserhead: Dead Mice

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Eraserhead

David Lynch used to collect dead mice 

When he went to Vermont to visit a friend, he found a little dead field mouse and then he got a dish that seemed like a tea saucer with roses on it that had been out there for a while. 

He put the mouse at the bottom and then poured epoxy over it, finding the result to be unbelievably beautiful.

The polyester resin heated up as it cured and it heated up the mouse enough so that the blood boiled.

Blood came out of the mouse's nose and floated, like a cloud, up to the surface of the resin, and with that a whole cluster of little baby maggots.  

The resin solidified like that and so everything was locked in its place. 

It was beautiful and incredible, with clear clear pink like a rose coloured plastic. 

It was a beautiful thing. 

He liked organic things but not necessarily because they were dead, but because he liked the way that nature goes to work on something after a certain point

Quote source:

1.  David Lynch: I´ve changed a lot since I started ERASERHEAD and finished ERASERHEAD, for sure. I´m not anti-life, but, it used to be that I´d get into some really weird stuff -- like in Philadelphia, I collected dead mice. Like I went to Vermont one time to visit my friend. Search &Destroy:  With your collection?
   David Lynch: No, I built onto my collection in Vermont. You see, I found this little dead field mouse and I got this dish, this deep dish that had been out there for awhile, and I poured epoxy over it and I´m not kidding -- it was unbelievably beautiful! Because this dish had roses on it, it was like a deep tea saucer with roses on it, and there´s this little grey field mouse at the bottom. They polyester resin heated up as it cured and it heated up the mouse enough so that the blood boiled and the blood came out the mouse´s nose and floated, like a cloud, up to the surface of the resin, and with it a whole cluster of little baby maggots and all of the sudden, everything Froze like that and it was locked. It was so beautiful, it was incredible. Clear, clear pink, like a rose colored plastic.... It was a beautiful thing. I like organic things, and I don´t like them necessarily because they were dead, but I like the way nature goes to work on something after a certain point....(Search & Destroy No.9, 1978)