David Lynch: The Art Life

Jon Nguyen, Rick Barnes, and Olivia Neergaard-Holm present David Lynch in his own words, as he prolifically creates at home in California.

Better known for his films, David Lynch: The Art Life alternatively investigates his multidimensional paintings, while he tells the tales that led him to begin narrativizing canvasses in motion.

From his wholesome beginnings in Montana and Idaho, to his wild adolescent high school days in Virginia, Lynch constructs several transformative trestles and discusses time spent with both mom and dad.

His mom detected special abilities during his childhood and took comforting steps to lovingly cultivate them.

His father found his outputs to be somewhat too macabre while visiting him in Philadelphia however, after he had moved there to study painting and actively engage with distinct recalcitrant phenomena, and made some harsh recommendations the timing of which was ironically inappropriate.

It was classic feast and famine.

The feast.

He suddenly receives a grant to study film at the American Film Institute.

Famine: the creation of his masterpiece, Eraserhead, takes longer than expected, and he doesn't complete the film until after his father and brother show up to give him the, "you should start thinking seriously about life" talk, which shortsightedly reduces him to tears.

He obviously disregards their criticisms and goes on to become one of America's great directors, working in film, music, television and painting, notably forging a strong bond with Mark Frost.

It's happening again.

And Stanley Kubrick once stated (paraphrasing) that Eraserhead was the only film he ever wished he had directed.

I think that's in Michael Chion's David Lynch but I'm not certain.

Dark and sombre yet light and dreamy, his texts possess a mystic quotidian quality that defies sustained comparison.

The man himself showcased in The Art Life is down to earth yet provocative, humble and unique.

Listening to him modestly describe his formative years sounds like an extended free form boundless poem which patiently articulates all things clasped artistic.

Like Paterson after a few more decades.

What I gathered from his thoughts was that it was never a matter of stopping, or that creation is his life's work, just as others drive buses or cure the sick, it's just what he does, and he never had any inclination to do anything else.

A gifted storyteller and a remarkable artist, it's amazing that he never stopped working, and incredible that he continues to create to this day.

An honest to God/Buddha/Coyote blue rose.

In bloom.