David Lynch - photography by and image copyright - Sandro Miller
There’s a storm (Eowyn) raging around me as I write and I can hear the ocean is truly wild, perfect conditions for something creative as I’m thinking a lot about the wonderful David Lynch since the recent news this month of his death a few days shy of his 79th Birthday. In fact he is constantly on my mind just now and I must admit to having shed a fair few tears. It is weird how the death of a complete stranger can impact one so much and create such feelings of sadness.
I’ve not blogged for over 4 years (lol) so this must feel urgent to me - who is interested in stopping long enough in this crazy busy shallow voyeuristic in nature, social media fulled quick sugar hit with zero nutritional value world we find ourselves living in to read a very long personal blog about David Lynch these days anyway, eh?
“Social media” - how many relationships, friendships (or potential ones) does that ruin? Awful!! But that’s another blog…
Back to the topic. I appreciated David Lynch greatly in life when he was alive, he and his work have inspired me hugely as an Artist over the last 30+ years and his incredible body of work is something I have regularly dipped in and out of over time since I discovered him. And I have lost track of the amount of times I have quoted him, referenced him and his work or said ‘my life feels like i’m in a weird David Lynch movie’, particularly throughout the pandemic.
Despite being almost 3 decades older than me I also loved him as a man, a human, such a beautiful creative soul and generous gentle older stylish and cool gentleman with a stunningly attractive mind. I’d take a beautiful intelligent mind over anything all day, always and his hands, he had very lovely lovely hands. I would have loved to have worked with him as an Actress or taken anything really (ha) just to have gotten close to him!
I love his voice and the way he speaks, very childlike and innocent, almost like he is always shouting.
I obviously did not know him but the sheer positive outpouring of love these last weeks in the press and social media since he died (particularly by women it seems who felt comfortable working with him, never abusing his power, a brilliant sign) by the many who were lucky enough to work closely with him confirms to me he lived the love and kindness he seemed to ooze in his relationships and when he talked and through his work. Knowing his work well is probably why I’m so sad, I feel like I knew him just a wee bit and in these increasingly strange and unsettling David Lynchesque times, things always felt okay with him still in the world.
I first heard about David and his work around 1990 on the release of the original series of Twin Peaks but admittedly I was too young and just did not get it or him. I was not ready.
The next time I revisited his work was around 1995 when I was training to be an Actress in London at East 15 Acting School as my friend Steve was so passionate about him and his films I could not help but take notice, Steve also had the posters of Blue Velvet and Wild at Heart on his room door.
I remember the Blue Velvet Poster Art work so vividly, blue roses (a rose, one of my favourite flowers) the woman's beautiful neckline bone vulnerably exposed and and the statement “in dreams you’re mine”. The whole neon blue/black weird vibe struck me and captured me in to wanting to know more. Same with the ‘Wild at Heart’ Poster Artwork, the car, the sunset/rise ( I am a sucker for those) and the two very cool actors on the poster, Nicholas Cage and Laura Dern, it also said that the film had won the Cannes Film Festival in 1990 and anything French was hot AF to me at that time as a young student (and still is).
I must say that on watching those two films I was definitely intrigued but I still was not 100% sold. I think at that time I was always trying to view his work through the literal lens and that was getting in my way of understanding his work.
At the same time I tried to watch David’s 1977 surrealist horror film ‘Erasurehead’ that he wrote, directed, edited and did everything on. But I was just so weirded out and horrified by it that I started to think was it just me? And I just did not get his work…
I left him and his work alone for a while as I was very busy studying many different Directors/Genres/Actors’ works as part of my training but he was definitely on my radar and I realise on reflection I was definitely almost all in. I would read about him from time to time and transcendental meditation that he practised twice a day daily for 50 years and any time I heard his voice and snips of him talking about creativity and his artistic process I stopped and listened and I always gave him my full attention.
Starting to learn more about David as a human (rather than his work) began to open my mind up more to understanding his work better and I started to understand that his works were deliberately vague, conceptual, representative or without definite endings etc so that the audience could bring themselves in to the works and decide for themselves what it meant to them - he was not a fan of talking about his work or his works always making sense with neat finishes. These were my falling in love with David Lynch eureka moments along with often finding myself seeking out more and more of his works because of their exquisitely beautiful visual and aural moments making experiencing his works hugely immersive. Music was also so intrinsic to his work as it is to mine.
His filmic, visual, aural kind of work felt missing for me in Theatre (at that time early 2000’s to mid) and I think I found in him, his worlds and works a resonance and depth that really tapped into the deepest parts of my soul and I definitely stated to experiment more and more with myself as a canvas and conceptual, visual and physical themes for Theatre due to David’s influence.
A work I was a collaborator on devising and can definitely say I was conscious of David’s influence on me was a 3 hander called ‘K’ for the Arches Theatre, National Theatre of Scotland, Traverse Theatre and the Tron and that won the The Arches Award for Stage Directors.
The Arches as a space was always the main character in all my works whilst working there (2006 - 2011) as it was just so unique and atmospheric below Central Train Station in Glasgow.
‘K’ was very visual, we messed around with the audience, wordless, physical, the narrative led by music and was inspired/rooted in the themes of Franz Kafka’s ‘the castle’ - on reading the novel as part of my research for the gig, I had another light bulb moment in connection with David Lynch and viewing his works.
The Castle explores themes of alienation, self, external systems of power, frustration, a quest for direction and the transcendental world. This was definitely the game changer for me to understanding and viewing David’s work and I realised quickly after that creative process on “K”and on rewatching “Erasurehead” that it was quite obvious that he was exploring themes of fear, anxiety, mental illness, fatherhood through a horror dream/nightmare lens.
And though I don’t love all of his work equally, I respect them all and his unique way of working and staying truthful to himself and his creative process and idea. His work is infinitely smart and human and I was completely hooked and ALL IN from then on! I now could not get enough of him.
in 2006 British Theatre was obsessed with centralising and worshipping the playwright (and still is 20 years later) and that was jarring (and at that time early in my career, often was making me doubt myself) with me and the direction I felt I was heading in.
As a classically trained Actress I will always respect the written word and the playwright and I will always be so grateful to have learned all that I did in my classical training but I definitely do feel that this mindset of the Industry narrows infinite possibilities for how to make Theatre in the UK and what kind of Theatre can be made as a result - that traditional approach is definitely not the route I take when making my own works despite my classical training. I think there can and should be more ways accepted working within and how to create Theatre with equal respect.
David Lynch definitely made me feel that it was okay to feel this as he had many different approaches to making his work, he often led his films with a photographic visual moment of inspiration or the music first (with his long time collaborator Angelo Daniel Badalamenti) to determine the atmosphere and direction of the work. He also seemed to really respect his actors as equal collaborators bringing their own ideas to add to his with a mindset of everyone involved just making the whole thing even better.
David also did many things (musician, actor, painter, photographer etc) and talked extensively about how that was okay and that the more things you can do the better your work will be as all these many creative things influence and only deepen one-another. He made that all feel okay within me too as opposed to the purist mentality of British Theatre where everything is so segregated and separate, playwright, director, actor, designer, lighting - he made it feel okay to be able to do all of the layers on a work and to embrace that.
The fact that many of his works took often many years to make, as many as ten sometimes as he kept running out of money was also a comfort for me - if someone as brilliant as him was going through that then it must be okay that I am too. He gave me permission to slow down, embrace all the art forms I was working in and let them all influence my works. Also very importantly too, to let the passing of time deepen and strengthen the ideas and work too.
I love the way he talks about ideas and how he says ( I am paraphrasing), we catch ideas like fish, we don’t take credit for creating the idea just the catching of it and how we express it. A chef doens’t take credit for making the fish just the creation of the dish.
And the bigger the idea we are capable of catching is in direct response to how big and deep within ourselves we are prepared to dive and the amount of consciousness we have. Just so profound and beautiful a way to put it. I so get it. He also talks a lot about how most people are only prepared to live life at a top surface level and how he struggled with that, I do too - I am a deep thinker with an even deeper soul and struggle with the fake and the surface! Traits my industry are awash with.
I could write about David Lynch for days but I will stop soon for now. I find myself at a crossroads in my life and I am asking myself many big questions.
I’ve worked in the Arts professionally for almost 30 years and it has felt like an awful lot of hard work, glorious too but difficult.
Having recently entered into my 50’s I’m asking myself ‘do I want to continue to work as hard as I have the last 30 years for the next 5, 10, 15, 20 years?’ The answer is a very clear and a resounding NO! Also am I prepared to continue shrinking my vision to match shrinking funding budgets (it’s felt like that my whole career) available to me? Again a huge fat NO! It’s frustrating and soul destroying.
With the same breath I do also somehow finally feel very satisfied with my artistic achievements (despite the lack of money never available to make my work), who I am as an Artist and human right now and all I have managed to achieve in my work whilst juggling many external things and losses and whilst being a mother, wife, running a space too. They say you are your most creative when you have nothing, no resources but I’m so very tired of that narrative, it should not always have to be that way and I feel like I have so much!
I could never have dreamed of many of the incredible opportunities I have been so fortunate to have and works I have been a part of making, countries I have visited all over the world and shown my work in with a full circle feeling - a recent full funded work in my home City. I am very proud of me. I have worked incredibly hard and consistently for these opportunities but right now I feel like I need a change of focus - I am a life learner and I would like to do, try and explore other things and I feel that I am needing a deeper love as I get older - i’m not sure my job working within Theatre is cutting it right now. I’m a little bored…
2025 is a year I have fought hard to secure as a slower year where I plan to turn my lens inward and take a deep transcendental dive down within myself in true David Lynch style to have a good root around, maybe catch some of those great big fish (ideas) and to find out what more lies beneath within Sharron.
Who am I without my work as an Artist?
Thank you David Lynch for so much during your time here in this world and for the incredible legacy to continue on with that I will always visit in the coming years in your physical absence…
Anyone still here reading, thank you, you’re wonderful and I think you are the bees knees. I love you too!
I urge you reader to check out his body of work and keep revisiting it over time and for now I leave you with some of my favourite David Lynch works & quotes in no particular order:
“the straight story”
'“Rabbits”
“Mullholand Drive”
“the short films of David Lynch”
“Twin Peaks” (all of it)
“the Elephant Man”
“Dune”
“Blue Velvet”
“Wild at Heart”
“David Lynch the Art Life”
All of his books with “catching the big fish” a must! Everything really - get the picture, I love him! :)
"Inside, we are ageless and when we talk to ourselves, it's the same age of the person we were talking to when we were little. It's the body that is changing around that ageless center."
- David Lynch -
“I believe life is a continuum, and that no one really dies, they just drop their physical body and we'll all meet again, like the song says. It's sad but it's not devastating if you think like that, We're all going to be fine at the end of the story.”
- David Lynch -
“Ideas are like fish. If you want to catch little fish, you can stay in the shallow water. But if you want to catch the big fish, you’ve got to go deeper. Down deep, the fish are more powerful and more pure. They’re huge and abstract. And they’re very beautiful.”
- David Lynch -
“Everything I learned in my life, I learned because I decided to try something new.”
― David Lynch
“Float with me in the world of ether.”
― David Lynch
“Im not a musician but I play music, So it’s a strange thing”
- David Lynch -
“Music deals with time and timing. It’s so magical but when you get into it every little sound and every little space between the sounds, it’s critical, so critical. And if it’s not there, it not only feels wrong but it ruins things”
- David Lynch -
“You don’t need a special place to meditate, you can transcend anywhere in the world. The unified field is here and there and everywhere”.
- David Lynch -
“I believe in creative control, no matter what anyone makes, they should have control over it”.
- David Lynch -
“Transcendental meditation is like a car, a vehicle that allows you to go within. It’s a mental technique”
- David Lynch -
“A film or a painting – each thing is its own sort of language and it’s not right to try to say the same thing in words. The words are not there. The language of film, cinema, is the language it was put into, and the English language – it’s not going to translate. It’s going to lose”.
- David Lynch -
“I like to make movies. I like to work. I don’t really like to go out.”
- David Lynch -
Philip Weddell & Sharron Devine in “K” for the Arches award for Stage Directors, the Traverse, the Tron & National Theatre of Scotland (courtesy of the Arches Press Office).