David Lynch's Paintings Before Films: Tracing His Artistic Origins

David Lynch (Missoula 1946 – Los Angeles 2025) began his artistic journey at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA) in Philadelphia before making his film debut with Eraserhead (1977), which took five years to complete. At PAFA, he simultaneously explored experimental film, painting, and sculpture. His first short film, Six Men Getting Sick (Six Times) (1967), presented to teachers in 1967, blurs the line between painting and film: six painted heads vomit on canvas, with projected elements like hands and the word "SICK." The work repeats four times with a cacophonous soundtrack presaging Eraserhead and Twin Peaks: The Return (2017). Another early work, Woman with Screaming Head (1966-67), depicts a screaming woman with a partially covered mouth, influenced by Francis Bacon, exploring themes of identity loss and the division between consciousness and subconscious. Garden (1969) features a zigzag line familiar from Twin Peaks's Red Room, enclosing a stage-like landscape with an alien form filled with black liquid and wires, suggesting danger beneath the familiar. Lynch's paintings are essential to understanding his cinematic imagery and postmodern aesthetic.