David Lynch
“It would be impossible for me to describe the effect David Lynch has had on my work and on my life.
“As a kid, I had feverish visions of people emerging from shadows, organs falling from the sky, inexplicable smokes and mists, and strange creatures making strange noises in strange situations.
“I found myself as an alien, desperately trying to relate to other people while simultaneously observing other people anxiously trying to relate to each other and all of us clumsily failing more often than not.
“Weird food and crumbling industrial infrastructure were an ordinary part of my life. I expressed myself with abstraction and surreality. I felt horror as a profoundly personal experience and it permeated everything.
“A sleepwalking lucid dreamer who often woke up in strange places with no idea where I was or any understanding of how I got there, I knew ‘dream logic’ more intimately than I understood my own family.
“And then I saw Eraserhead.
“For the first time in my life, I knew that I wasn’t completely alone on Earth.
“There was another human out there who caught magical things from mysterious places and brought them back to share with others. Another human who played and colored outside the lines.
“Unbelievable!
“It’s hard for me to avoid sobbing while considering this.
“As an adult (partially thanks to the internet becoming a thing), I watched interviews with David, explored his visual Artwork and explorations/collaborations in sound and music.
“He talked about medium not mattering as much as the idea.
“As I had always played in pretty much every medium available to me, I loved that he said what I had always believed so plainly.
“He talked about Creative Process as a type of fishing. Go where the fish are, bait your hook, and drop it in the water. Practice catching fish, and learn to catch bigger fish.
“Unconsciously, I was doing this, but it wasn’t consistent because I wasn’t applying conscious intent. Doing this consciously and with focus radically improved my work in a short period of time. Since 2020, my ability improved more than it had in all the preceding years combined. Simply because I chose to be fully conscious and focused on the process.
“He talked about being devoted to the idea as a pure thing and letting go of egotistical pretensions about ‘saying something’ or ‘expressing myself’. He said that he allowed the idea to determine what the work would be and put the idea in charge of the creative work, connecting and combining ideas if they were part of a bigger work, like characters and scenes in a film.
“Some time after 2020, I fully devoted myself to this practice and my work has improved to a point where if I were egotistical, I’d boast and brag about how ‘great’ I think it is. But by chopping ego from the start and making it about the purity of the ideas and not about me, I can simply enjoy and share stuff that speaks for itself.
“While his work has orbited an exploration of hidden horror and anger as an almost (?) supernatural force and mine has trended more toward alienation and evolution beyond it, we share an optimism in our work and a love for the things that happen which words cannot capture (a bit tricky to pull off with writing).
“While my aesthetics clearly differ (his love for noir and old Hollywood and my love for adventurous sci fi and psychedelic fairtyale shamanism have some Venn overlap but are clearly two distinct circles), and dreams haven’t helped him as much as they help me, his devotion to helping people has also inspired me.
“Teaching mantra meditation to children and convicts (and people who cannot afford the luxurious approach of the Maharishi) through the David Lynch Foundation has done the type of good that increases outward in exponential waves.
“As a practitioner of meditation and various mystical and shamanic disciplines for my entire adult life, I can attest to the beauty and power of this kind of generous work. Once my reputation has grown sufficient to follow this example (assuming it can), I can safely say that I will devote myself similarly to an exponentially increasing public work of, I hope, similar value in a similar spirit.
“David Lynch has been a great hero of mine, by simply doing the work and getting out of his own way; and by being generous with those he works with, audiences, and people in need all over the world.
“I wish I had had a chance to meet him before his passing in 2025. But his influence will live on through his foundation and a body of work spanning mediums, with collaborators from all walks of life.
“He taught me to treat this path like a career, with the focus and discipline that it requires. And to treat Art as a Calling, because it has called me from that other place and I answer that call whenever that particular phone rings. Because it’s important to me.
“Thank you, David.”