Following a week long hiatus, the Clown is back. Slipknot percussionist and artist Shawn Crahan has dusted off his picture boxes and combed through his gnarled memory to bring us some of his most striking images to date. We begin this week with "After the Show," a shot of a girl with a cigarette that's aglow with color and life. What blows us away isn't her bright blue hair, it's that rough, weatherbeaten hand with chipped black nail polish that makes us wonder if she's been working in a machine shop -- or worse. Click "more" to see the pic and read Clown's comments.

This is a world I'm usually not a part of. I tend to have as much fun as I can before the show and during the show, and then after the show I pretty much hibernate and crawl into a rabbit hole and disappear. I'm unavailable for anything. But once in a while I can feel the energy that's there right when we get off the stage and I can tell the circus is going to begin -- the aftershow show. This is a couple of lovely ladies that were partaking in the festivities, whatever they may have been. I felt the energy and decided I needed to get off my butt and get out of the hole and make an entrance to see if there was anything worth grabbing on film.

I look and study and then I grab, and I felt that this one was great because there's a lot of texture and saturation going on from the color of her blue hair to the pink of her knuckles to her nails being half done to the flame of the cigarette. Then you move over to the other girl and she's got fishnet stockings and there's a beer cup on the floor. So I'm just swirling around in my mind after a great show and trying to find some other lurking potential that I normally wouldn't grab.

I'm eaving my coffin and pursuing my own art and furthering my experiment known as life. For me, this shot is all about the hand. Everybody's like, "Whoa, her hair is so blue," and I'm like, "Man, check her hand out. It's all you need to know."

Following a week-long hiatus, we'll resume our photo guest blog with Slipknot percussionist Shawn Crahan (Clown) tomorrow, and in the months ahead we've we posting some of his most surreal, sexy, funny and disturbing pictures to date. But for now, check out the last installment of Clown photos we've posted over the past six months. Click "more" to see such stuff as screams are made of.

Concept 16

Goat

Plugged In

Timeless

Today is the Day

Sister Brother Devil

Clownhead

Chris

Here's the second of three batches of photos we've posted over the past six months from Slipknot percussionist Shawn Crahan (a.k.a. Clown) for his weekly "The Eye of a Clown" guest photo blog. Click "more" to see all of the photos and read Clown's revealing commentary.

Uterus

Blindsite

All of Life and Death

Baby

Self

Far From the Tree

Snakeypoo

Droppen Down

Pretty much every week for the past six months, we've posted a photo by Slipknot percussionist and creative force, Shawn Crahan (a.k.a. Clown). Some have been hypnotic, others have been disturbing, but they've all been surreal and evocative. Over the rest of the week we'll post links to everything that's gone up so far, and get ready for another six months of Clown's creations starting next week. Click "more" to see the first batch and read Crahan's comments.

You Will Be

Clown Her

No More Flying

Safely

Coming to Life

Satone

Pink

Glassghostboys

For most of his weekly HeadbangersBlog.com photo posts, Slipknot percussionist Shawn Crahan (a.k.a. Clown) has sent us single-frame images that have been warped and manipulated either in the developing stage or in post-production. This week, however, he sent us a composite of images of fellow percussionist Chris Fehn, which was created using a digital camera's preset mode. By gauging where each of 16 equally sized frames would wind up in the image, Crahan employed mathematics, creativity and luck to create this week's striking image. Click "more" to see the picture and read Crahan's comments.

I used to own a camera called a Nikon Cool Pix 950, and like a lot of digital cameras, you can ask it to take a single image, or one every second. And this particular camera had a preset for taking 16 photos starting in the left hand corner. So if you look at this picture, the first frame is up in the left hand corner, then it goes to the right, then drops down and starts over to the left and zigzags like that until the last image. I was really trying to figure out how I could use all 16 images to put his face in his face, and I decided it was really all a matter of timing it right.

So, I got several individual ones, then I ran up close to him and got those pictures of his hair and I zoomed in and out on him, running closer, moving back, all to try to make this thing and create something from nothing. And the subject is Chris Fehn wearing one of the masks we had made of our faces, and they're very disturbing because they're motionless. There's no breathing or movement. They're death masks.

I did this photo as an experiment to take something that's preset and trying to develop something else out of it. The machine is real mathematical. It''ll take 16 pictures and make one photo. And I'm all for going against the programming because when you add the organic to the machine you get happy accidents. And this is me looking for the happy accident, putting the human behind the programming and trying to rework the formula.

And that is something we should all be doing in this world because if we continually revise something that hasn't been working and trying to make it better, it might not be as beneficial as completely destroying what was made. Sometimes, completely destroying what is can get you closer to what needs to be. And that's a big problem with where the world's at right now.

We think we're so smart. We got it all figured out and we have all these laws and all these rules, and all these goals that we want to work through. But if anybody hasn't figured it out yet, we're not meeting any of our expectations. We're not really figuring anything out. We can say that there's a hole in the layer around the earth and the polar icecaps are melting, but are we really all doing anything about it? Maybe we need to against what we know and what we think in order to solve the problem.

In magic, it's important that the hand be quicker than the eye. The opposite often applies in photography, a medium in which the mind need to anticipate what's coming up before the finger clicks on the the trigger. It's kind of like being a good athlete or surviving on the battlefield. What you see isn't enough, and can often be deceptive. To thrive, it's essential to rely on instinct, experience and an indefinable sixth sense.

In his latest submission to "The Eye of a Clown," Slipknot percussionist Shawn Crahan chooses a grisly photo to explains how a good shot sometimes comes when you least expect it, and only if you're ready when the image reveals itself. Click "more" to see "Clownhead" and read Crahan's comments.

This is a day in the life of being what I am and I remember this very clearly. I really, really work as hard as I can to be able to take my camera everywhere I go. If I could, I'd have it while I'm at the grocery store, I'd have it when I'm having sex, I'd have it while I'm driving the car. I just try to make a habit of having it everywhere in case the epiphany hits. This particular day I was rewarded.

I'm very infamous for finding other showers at venues. I have people that work with me who help me get my after show clothes and everything I need to take a shower -- shampoo, conditioner, soap, towell -- and I'll walk right offstage and right into this area that's way, way, way away from everyone else. Because there's just too much bulls--t talk going on about the show, and I don't give a f--k. I do the best I can, and if I screwed up or something wasn't right, I don't want to reflect on what everyone has to say. I want to reflect on what I think and I say. So I isolate myself.

This particular day, I get into this cold-ass bathroom, I had my camera on me and I had no idea what I was going to witness. I took off all my clothes, threw 'em down in the corner so you can't see them. I took my mask off and threw it right down on the floor. I got my nude-ass body in that little shower room there. I took a shower, came out. This is what I saw.

That's my mask, and this is why you need to break through all fundamental ideas keeping you away from having your camera with you at all times. I just felt this is the epitome of what I do. People want to give us shit about our masks and what we do and our art. But that thing's alive. That's a mask off the Iowa cycle. There was a pentagram on my face and a "6" carved in the forehead and the left brain was exposed. I would just cover myself in blood for that whole album cycle. Every show was like a living performance, and when I ripped off the living performance, it sat there and bled. It was so real and I had to rip that thing off my face to survive.

I did nothing here. The whole scenario is my every day world, and I feel this one picture -- although done on a really s---ty camera and probably not being the sharpest image -- this is life. It more or less is a crime scene photo. Everybody wants to be a rock star and everybody wants everything. Well, this sums up my life -- cold, wet, tired, beat down, hurt. But at the same time it's beautiful, clean, deadly and dangerous. It's everything and then some and I feel very fortunate to have gotten this photo. And to me it's another experiment of absolutely not knowing what's going to happen in the next second and having the ability to capture it when it shows its face, and also having the instincts to say, "This is something I need to get."

Generally, Slipknot percussionist and photographer Shawn Crahan (a.k.a. Clown) shoots eccentric characters and unsettling subject matter and then uses various unconventional tools to manipulate the images into things that are even more bizarre or macabre. But for "Sister Brother Devil" Crahan used a computer plug-in called Mirror to summon the beast. Click "more" to see the photo and read Clown's comments.

I have these two-headed Siamese twins in a big jar. I was studying them quite a bit because I love the fact that they're in formaldehyde in this jar, so there's a certain amount of distortion that takes place when you shoot them behind the glass. For this shot, I was messing around with some plug-ins from Mirror. It really intrigues me because you can create things that are not of this reality.

On the one hand I have my Siamese twins, but at the same time I have created this demonic sexual being in the middle that showed up because of the way I shot it it and the space and the dimension and the mathematics and I was able to bring something out. Normally, I don't like working with filters and plug-ins. I like to use hard techniques. I'm very influenced by Joel Peter Whitkin in that respect.

But Mirror is fascinating because in this situation, by shooting this picture the way I needed to shoot it, I was able to bring out something that was hiding its face. And it's very frightening when that happens and you have to step back and ask yourself what is real and what is not real? What do we see and what don't we see? I brought it out and I showed its face. It's very sexual and it's like the devil in both of the pigs. He's female and male, he's part of both and death is all around us.

If you love the experimental inclinations of Slipknot and their affinity for surprising listeners, you should really be familiar with Nashville, Tennessee's Today is the Day. Fronted by eccentric, individualist Steve Austin, the band has been releasing creative, jarring, acrobatic, spiritual, dissonant, disturbing and beautiful music since 1992. At one point, the group featured Mastodon drummer Brann Dailor and guitarist Bill Kelliher (on bass) and, over time, its chaotic constructions have influenced countless groups including The Dillinger Escape Plan, HORSE the Band and Between the Buried and Me.

In many ways, Austin and Slipknot percussionist Shawn Crahan (a.k.a. Clown) are kindred spirits, which is why when Crahan sat Austin down for a quick photo, he was able to capture a side of Austin that others often don't see, but which is an integral part of his being. Click "more" to see the picture and hear Clown explain more about the shot.

Steve Austin is a really good friend of mine. We used to hang out quite a bit and I'm a huge, huge fan of his mentality and artistic vision. He's a very, very detached person, and I love and respect that and require that a lot of myself as well. He came out to visit me and it was a great night that began with Ozzy being unable to perform on an Ozzfest, and Rob Halford had to stand up and sing some Black Sabbath songs.

It was incredible we were just in the moment, riding around golf carts all night and expanding our brains with art and the things we got to witness. At the very end of the evening, we were riding a golf cart around in circles on this mess of cops, and in my mind I was like, "This is perfect." It reminded me of the Jonestown massacre and I decided to create a scenario.

I had Steve sit down and I shot him with a medium format Polaroid, which I deconstructed. People in this business want things to be so perfect, but if you're human you realize that there is nothing perfect in this world. So, I demanufacture my Polaroids by ruining the integrity of them, and that becomes the integrity of them. They're 100 percent original. When you shoot with a Polaroid, there are all these chemicals that need time to develop the picture. So what I do is study interrupting the time and the process that was built for the world's efficiency. And, to most, you're left with something incomplete, but to me, this is the most complete thing of all.

So, here Steve is. He's the only one left. And as you can see on his face, he's slowly disappearing, too, and he's fine with leaving this reality and completely disappearing. That was the concept. You've got all these cups that thousands of people used, and they all disappeared into the darkness, and he's the last one and he's very fine and very comfortable and very calm with his decision. And I think that suits Steve well because he's a very out there person. He's one of the most intense artists I've ever met in my life. He is the real deal. Period.

What, no dead goat, monstrous face or nightmarish scenario? Has Slipknot percussionist and photographer Shawn Crahan gone soft? Hardly. He's just learning to appreciate the world around him, good and bad, beautiful and hideous. Here, he strays a bit from his normal apocalyptic vision to deliver a gorgeous statue in Australia using a very narrow depth of field. Click more to see "Timeless" and read Clown's comments.

This is the kind of stuff I'm doing a lot of right now. I'm really trying to get into the real details of photography, where the entire experiment is being able to have something in front of you and having the depth of field be in all the circles in the background. So, there's a tree back there with leaves, but I'm so close to her that all the light between the leaves gets into all that circular stuff.

When it comes to photography, I want to learn it all and be able to do it all. I want to get into just about every realm and study just about everything, so this is an experiment in not having to rely on distortion or layers or manipulating the image to create something disturbing. It's more about finding the subject, analyzing it, pointing, shooting and being completely happy with it. Boom, there's the image.

She was taken in Sydney, Australia at a park across from the hotel we stay at. It's a beautiful, beautiful refuge for these fruit bats. And at dusk every night, they fly off into the ocean and it's just so surreal. And her she is, and she's been sitting in the world for a very long time, and I just felt she was beautiful with the moss growing on her, yet the nose is completely free of any of that.

I've always had this saying that there's things in life that have been sentenced to time. I'll see faces in the sidewalk or in the wall and I'll say, "Well, this guy must have been bad because he's going to be here stuck in this brick for 70 years until this road is broken up and then he'll be out of Purgatory."

Well, I always wondered, "Why is she there?" So, I have a little flight of fancy and try to put myself into this thing and think, "God, she's here when it rains and when it's cold and when the wind blows and when the night sets in." That's why I chose her for the photo because I thought she was beautiful and had seen a lot in her lifetime as a structure.

Minneapolis metal band American Head Charge are driven by chaos, destruction and degradation, so it made sense that when the band wanted to schedule a photo session they contacted Slipknot percussionist and photographer Shawn Crahan (a.k.a. Clown) to capture their eternal state of disrepair. And in doing so, Crahan was able to figure out what unites them and symbolically represent it in a haunting photo. Click "more" to see the pic and read Clown's comments.

American Head Charge came to Des Moines for the photo shoot and when I showed up they had pretty much turned this room upside-down and were in a realm of unspeakable matters. It was a beautiful situation. I felt like they were all in a spiritual ritual together, which is why I shot them with a rubber cord binding them all together and connecting them to one process.

When I take pictures, I work really hard to feel what's happening and go with my gut instinct. In this case, I just felt like something had to tie them together into one thing. I know they're all individuals and they're all spiritually in different solar systems, but at this moment they were all in a realm.

Unfortunately, one of these gentlemen is deceased now, and I feel fortunate to even be able to meet and shoot him. So, it's difficult for me to look at this and see someone who's no longer here, and that just gets me further into what I do and what I have to do sometimes. And that's why I love art. You can live forever.