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“Keep your eye on the doughnut, not on the hole.”
David Lynch died last week at 78, and that quote was included in the statement released by his family.
“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 doughnut and not on the hole.’ It’s a beautiful day with golden sunshine and blue skies all the way.”
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I am a casual fan of David Lynch, the surrealist American filmmaker, insofar as you can be a casual David Lynch fan. I mean, the first season of Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet and Wild At Heart all made me feel some type of way; I appreciate the fact that Lynch made the kind of art that makes it hard to say whether you “like” it or not. He was doing something else. (Eraserhead seems like it’s none of my business, though. I know it’s a classic, yadda yadda, but I Googled ‘Eraserhead baby’ and I’ve seen enough, thank you so much!!!)
Watching Lynch’s work isn’t just an experience, it’s a sensation. His images — so evocative that nearly any still could also be a painting — make you feel good or weird or uncomfortable or deeply unsettled, sometimes all at once. As my husband correctly said, watching a David Lynch movie is like watching someone having an anxiety attack or two people have an argument in front of you. I think Lynch wanted you to feel things beyond “entertained.” I think he wanted you to feel, period.
But I am a big fan of David Lynch, the person.
Filmmaker David Lynch at his Los Angeles home in March 2002. (Chris Weeks / The Associated Press files)
I like that he was from Montana. I like that he was big into meditation. I like that he did his own weather reports. I like that he had a huge weird brain but was also kind of an aw-shucks guy who didn’t seem to have an indoor voice. I like that he thought in pictures and vibes, not necessarily words. I like, per actor/frequent collaborator/friend Kyle MacLachlan, that sometimes Lynch’s directions to actors were “more wind” and “think Elvis.” I like that “keep your eye on the doughnut, not on the hole” was his worldview.
Lynch was someone who created art, and a lot of it, across many different mediums. Not all of it was “acclaimed” or “visionary” or any of those critic’s terms, either. But he kept doing it. He kept creating. He kept putting himself out there. Because he was keeping his eye on the doughnut.
David Lynch would have turned 79 on Monday, which was Inauguration Day in the United States. A day that, for many people, felt dark, foreboding and hopeless.
Lynch was an American filmmaker who made movies about America, save for The Elephant Man and Dune.
“I like certain things about America and it gives me ideas. When I go around and I see things, it sparks little stories, or little characters pop out, so it just feels right to me to, you know, make American films,” he’s quoted as saying in 2005’s Lynch on Lynch. A lot of his movies were also Americana circa 1950s-coded.
“It was a fantastic decade in a lot of ways… there was something in the air that is not there any more at all. It was such a great feeling, and not just because I was a kid. It was a really hopeful time, and things were going up instead of going down. You got the feeling you could do anything. The future was bright. Little did we know we were laying the groundwork for a disastrous future.”
On Monday, in honour of his birthday and his memory, Lynch’s family invited everyone to join “a worldwide group meditation” for 10 minutes to spread “creativity, love, and peace,” and I can’t think of a better counter to what was happening in D.C. What is about to happen in America.
David Lynch left us with so much. So much art, so many ideas, so many good thoughts. Keep creating. Keep putting positive energy into the world. Keep making art because art is resistance.
Keep your eye on the doughnut, not on the hole.
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