David Lynch, the co-creator of “Twin Peaks” and the writer and director of a string of films so uniquely and beautifully bizarre — “Eraserhead,” “Blue Velvet” and “Mulholland Drive,” to name a few — that only the coining of the descriptor “Lynchian” could do justice in describing them, died at the age of 78, just months after the news of his emphysema diagnosis in August 2024.
In a statement from his family posted to Facebook, they write, “It is with deep regret that we, his family, announce the passing of the man and the artist, David Lynch. We would appreciate some privacy at this time. There’s a big hole in the world now that he’s no longer with us. But, as he would say, ‘Keep your eye on the donut and not on the hole.’It’s a beautiful day with golden sunshine and blue skies all the way.”
In his youth, Lynch began what would eventually develop into a mixed-media artistic career with an initial focus on painting, taking weekend classes at the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design in Washington, D.C. after becoming inspired by local painter Bushnell Keeler and then hopping around in an effort to land somewhere that felt like a good fit, studying at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where he brought together painting, sculpture, sound and film for an installation titled “Six Men Getting Sick” in 1967, pushing him further into movie making as a way to make his art come to life.
In the 2016 documentary, “David Lynch: The Art Life,” Lynch says that he hated studying with “a powerful hate,” and that the only thing that was important was what happened outside of school, specifying “people and relationships, slow dancing parties, big big love, and dreams. Dark, fantastic dreams.” Born in Missoula, Montana, Lynch’s dreams were encouraged by a supportive family consisting of a mom and dad who he claims to have never seen argue, not even once, and his two siblings, Martha and John, and although he never got into too big of trouble — at least none that he specifies beyond a rebellious streak in high school — his hunger for the art life referenced in the title of his biopic made him a bit reclusive and single-focused in a way that became a detriment to his relationships and led to his fourth wife, Emily Stofle, filing for divorce in 2023.
“You gotta be selfish. And it’s a terrible thing. I never really wanted to get married, never really wanted to have children,” Lynch said in a 2018 interview with The Guardian “One thing leads to another and there it is. I did what I had to do. There could have been more work done. There are always so many interruptions.”
At the time of his death, Lynch is survived by four children: Jennifer, Austin, Riley, and Lula.
Part of the art life so beloved by Lynch was smoking cigarettes, a habit he began when he was 15, and in the documentary mentioned above he is almost never seen without one, often ashing directly onto the concrete floor of the studio in his Los Angeles home.
In a post to X (formerly Twitter) shortly after the news of his emphysema began to circulate, Lynch wrote, “I have to say that I enjoyed smoking very much, and I do love tobacco – the smell of it, lighting cigarettes on fire, smoking them,” adding that he’d made the reluctant decision to quit the habit two years prior to sharing his diagnosis. But the damage had already been done.
“I am in excellent shape except for emphysema,” he wrote in his 2024 post. “I am filled with happiness, and I will never retire.”
At that point in his life, his last feature film, “Inland Empire,” had been released in 2006 and efforts to obtain financial backing and distribution for his follow-up film, “Antelope Don’t Run No More,” and an animated film called “Snootworld” were evasive.
Lynch’s emphysema made it dangerous for him to leave the house due to oxygen intake and the fear of catching COVID, or even just a cold, but he said he’d direct from home if he had to, although he wouldn’t like it very much.
“I like to be there amongst the thing and get ideas there,” he said in a 2024 interview with Sight and Sound.
After the popularity of “Twin Peaks: The Return” in 2017, Lynch and series co-creator Mark Frost’s ultra-dark homecoming to the series that made them both a household name, one would think it would be nothing but open doors for Lynch, but there’s just not enough music in the air these days, I guess.
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Aside from making and breaking the mold when it comes to creating television, film, gallery-quality works of art, and albums, Lynch was known for being a long-time practitioner of transcendental meditation, which he often said was his go-to way for “catching the big fish,” meaning his ideas, which come to him through meditation as though floating from the bottom of a deep, dark sea.
In 2006, I drove from where I lived in Chicago at the time to what was then called the Maharishi University of Management (now the Maharishi International University) to see Lynch speak, as though traveling to Oz to meet the Wizard, but with way more quinoa at the end of the yellow brick road, and to the tune of special guest Donovan singing “Mellow Yellow,” instead of a munchkin going on about lollipops. And, in between lectures on TM and its many benefits, capped off by a message from the Maharishi himself via satellite, as Zoom wasn’t a thing at the time, I got to share a cigarette with Lynch. Well, sort of.
Just prior to Lynch’s time on stage at the event, I went outside to have a cigarette and he must have had the same idea. Standing up against a wall, facing the grass to the side of the campus, I lit my cigarette and looked to my side to see him just a short distance away, also leaning up against the wall, lighting his own. Our eyes locked for a brief moment and I saw a wave of anxiety wash over his face, likely concerned that I would disrupt his prep time by running over to rattle something off about the Log Lady, or to ask what the hell they really made the “Eraserhead” baby out of, and where does it live now?
But I didn’t. I just turned back to the grass, as did he, and we finished our cigarettes and went back inside.
“There is a price to pay for this enjoyment,” Lynch said of his love of smoking in that initial statement on his emphysema and, unfortunately, that check came due.
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