David Lynch: Someone is in my House

by David Lynch (Artist), Stijn Huijts (Editor), Michael Chabon (Contributor)

David Lynch has always been in the spotlight as a filmmaker, directing some of the most iconic movies ever made, but as a visual artist, he is less widely known. Lynch delights in the physicality of painting and likes to stimulate all the senses in his work. This new paperback edition brings together Lynch's paintings, photography, drawings, sculpture and installation, and stills from his films. Many of these works reveal the dark underpinnings behind Lynch's often-macabre movies. Others explore his fascination with texture and collage. Throughout, Lynch's characteristic style--surreal, stylish, and even humorous--shines through.

An introduction by music journalist and Lynch biographer Kristine McKenna, along with a thought- provoking essay by curator Stijn Huijts, offers fascinating new information and perspectives on Lynch's life and career. This book reveals an unexplored facet of Lynch's oeuvre and affirms that he is as brilliant a visual artist as he is a filmmaker.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Film, Collections, Horror, Photography, Coffee Table Books

304 pages, Paperback

First published February 19, 2019

About the author

David Keith Lynch was an American filmmaker, visual artist, musician, and actor. He received acclaim for his films, which are often distinguished by their surrealist, dreamlike qualities. In a career spanning more than fifty years, he was awarded numerous accolades, including the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Film Festival in 2006 and an Honorary Academy Award in 2019. Described as a "visionary", Lynch was considered one of the most important filmmakers of his era.
Lynch studied painting before he began making short films in the late 1960s. His first feature-length film was the independent surrealist film Eraserhead (1977), which saw success as a midnight movie. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director for the biographical drama The Elephant Man (1980), the neo-noir thriller Blue Velvet (1986), and the surrealist mystery Mulholland Drive (2001). His romantic crime drama Wild at Heart (1990) won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. He also directed the space opera adaptation Dune (1984), the surrealist neo-noir Lost Highway (1997), the biographical drama The Straight Story (1999), and the experimental film Inland Empire (2006).
Lynch and Mark Frost created the ABC series Twin Peaks (1990–91), for which he was nominated for five Primetime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series and Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series. Lynch co-wrote and directed its film prequel, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992), and a third season in 2017. He also portrayed FBI agent Gordon Cole in Twin Peaks and John Ford in Steven Spielberg's The Fabelmans (2022), and guest-starred in shows such as The Cleveland Show (2010–13) and Louie (2012).
Lynch also worked as a musician, recording the albums BlueBOB (2001), Crazy Clown Time (2011), and The Big Dream (2013), as well as painting and photography. He wrote the books Images (1994), Catching the Big Fish (2006), and Room to Dream (2018). He directed several music videos, for artists such as X Japan, Moby, Interpol, Nine Inch Nails, and Donovan, and commercials for Dior, YSL, Gucci, and the NYC Department of Sanitation. A practitioner of Transcendental Meditation (TM), he founded the David Lynch Foundation to fund meditation lessons for students, veterans, and other "at-risk" populations. Lynch died on January 15, 2025, after being evacuated from his home due to the wildfires that started in Southern California earlier that month.

Reviews

[Jonas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best exhibition catalogue/book of 2019 so far! Mesmerizing!

[Steven Godin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whether it be films, paintings, drawings, sculptures, photography or music, David Lynch is simply an out and out genius. Alright, we better take Dune out of that equation!

This collection was dark, disturbing, and so artistically stunning. Like flicking through the pages of a surreal abstract nightmare.

[Rob Hermanowski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to my close friend Danielle Buie for lending me her copy of this gorgeous coffee table-style book, which features much of David Lynch's non-film artwork (primarily paintings and drawings, but also photography and some experimental sculptor). Though much better known for his television and film work, Lynch has always been deeply invested in the still visual arts as well, and examining these pieces feels like getting particularly close to his inner psyche. Several extremely well-written and knowledgeable essays are also included. The obvious audience for this book are fans of David Lynch's films, but it can be highly recommended for anyone interested in contemporary art as well.

[Max Ceravolo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Would hardly say that I read this one. This is a fantastic coffee table book for those who enjoy looking at experimental and expressionist paintings/photos/drawings/etc. The book itself is gorgeous and the little blurbs and passages are enjoyable to read if you enjoy that sort of stuff.

Change the fucking channel fuckface is my favourite piece from the book.

[Aaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book to keep on the coffee table so when somebody comes over and asks "who's that?" you can scream at them to get out but also I had no idea this guy loved lamps so much. Anyway, RIP David Lynch.

[Paulo Mota · Rating 4 out of 5]

The quality of the work is unclassifiable, it is brave, consistent in intent and substance, develops and explores new ways. There are visible cycles of a construction/deconstruction, fractal cycles, from every 5-8-10 years, a new way would emerge. The substance stayed the same, more or less, it took a major turn after the 70's, that's a fact, but to me, that substance only expanded in consciousness - meaning, the intentions are the same, to me, they felt the same. I am clearly talking about the paintings, the mix media paintings, the drawings, the lithographs. Unbelievably interesting and powerful. If it works on a page you only can imagine what it does on the real canvas/support/frame.
Now for the photography part. Great stuff also, but unfortunately some are missing, things that I felt were important, the major thing is clearly the Small Stories Photographs, an exhibition I could see, twice and was somewhat sad about the fact that there were only two photographs from that series - Unless I'm totally off, there isn't a book about that exhibition. And I hope this doesn't have anything to do with the bad reception that was in a way represented by a bad french review. I connected with that exhibition and would love to revisit those photographs.
I'm aware that the paintings are on several other books, which I don't own, and probably this book has some of those paintings and then some more and I even understood the choices in the lithographs, because I also have seen quite a bunch and even one of my favorites (Woman with Dream) isn't there, but the lithographs are consistent in approach and I saw connections between them. Clearly there is also a connection between the photographs shown, but the Small Stories had a very interesting universe on their own form. I loved it and it made me cringe.
Then there is the upbeat surprise of the "The Angriest Dog in the World" short comic that was published in a newspaper for years. Some of them are present and I just loved them, it was nice to remember the funny side of David Lynch, brilliant humor that is consistent with the messages he wants to convey. I loved it.
There are small surprises, even the matchbox paintings that DKL did when he was without the proper tools. Overall a very nice portfolio.

There were some choices that in a way I would like to underline, for example, I can't for the light of me understand why they didn't print some high quality paintings horizontally (this would imply a 90º physical turn while holding the book), specially when the ratio is rectangular. I have a Francis Bacon book and that does happen too, it's a common thing in painting books, I don't understand this, at all. But with Francis Bacon you are on an win-win situation because the ratio of most of his paintings are best presented vertically on a page.
On the other hand there was some care with the Lynch paintings, some paintings appear twice, one with an enlarged part, amplified in two pages. That was indeed a nice touch.
Some paintings are horizontal though, but they are in two pages, it works but only to a certain level. In the Francis Bacon book that I own this is done but with pages that fold themselves, extended-width pages, to avoid the distortion of the gutter. But it isn't a nightmare. It's just small things.

The price is very low for such high quality printings and paper, I have to say. It is a very reasonable price I must add. The cover and the design in many ways is luxurious and everything is high quality. Compared to other books, I later found out, it is 40% higher, but this one seems more complete. But then again, this isn't a very fair comparison, since I don't own these other books.

The texts tell nothing new, nothing that you wouldn't know already from Lynch on Lynch/Beautiful Dark/Room to Dream and so on. But they work as a small introduction, synthesis of some kind. It was done with care.
Initially there is some introduction to the paintings, several actually, different points of view. I liked them, but they missed some big points, for me, somethings are highly subjective, clearly. So most probably this was on purpose. The texts focus more on an approach about time, texture, dimension, space. Somethings though I didn't even agree, and some were also very blank, naive, also. But in a way this is better than most of the explanations I found, for example, on my Francis Bacon Book. Trying to translate a painting to words, doesn't work, at all. Gilles Deleuze did it well, but only in a certain approach. So this book didn't went there, but sometimes people seem that they don't know what to write - in that case you shouldn't write anything. I understand that art is generally the best alibi to bring things to the surface with words, debates, essays. I am curious to read them, but I'm also very, very rigid about them. I want them to push my boundaries or make correlations that I would like to add or see mine in a different way. It's something that I normally don't find and when I find them they are in places were you wouldn't expect.
I'm going to give an example, the introduction to the paintings talks about how David Lynch used painting to explore notions of time and it even starts very well with a small print of a painting from the 90's - a painting that I was glad to find in the book also, a much larger print - but for example he NEVER, EVER, talks about the mixed media paintings that divide the image in three "equal" segments and the middle part is enhanced and amplified, like a camera-zoom, which is a direct influence from cinema language in a painting. IT would be nice to underline those things, things that emerged 10/15y later since that painting from the early 90's that DKL did. And instead what is said about the mixed media paintings, that to me are very very very rich, isn't much.
But that's me just being picky. I have to admit.
In many ways. A great investment! I am eager to visit the exhibition and to rewatch these pages with a magnifying glass.

[Gary Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

His art evokes the same feelings as his films. I love it, at his exhibition several people hated it.

[Andrei Mocuţa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beyond genius, beyond ridiculous.

[Emily K. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like the snowmen most of all.

[Kym · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great summary of his visual art, that people may not be aware of.

[#Bookw0rm$_Xx · Rating 5 out of 5]

David Lynch could film himself on a deranged crime spree and violate the Geneva convention in more ways than one and I'd still declare it a masterpiece.

[Hanka Lorinczová · Rating 5 out of 5]

So far the book written by multiple authors about the fascinating, dreamlike, dreamy, surreal, surrealistic, fantastic, dark, gloomy, magnetic, mesmerizing, majestic, spectacular, weird, fundamental, crucial, vital, important work of art and existence of David Lynch has been beyond beautiful and highly eruditely informative.
The book embodies the David Lynch's spirit perfectly - it's beyond luxurious, extremely intellectual, astronomically intelligent, cosmically emotionally intelligent, futuristically personalized - perfectly tailored to David Lynch's persona, heavily illustrated with his unprecedented masterpieces, fascinatingly surreal, strangely uncanny, pretty illogically dreamy - or rather with a dream logic, than something that is completely illogical.
David Lynch once said he wasn't that much of a verbal person, but I dare to say, it might have been only partly true, otherwise, he was indeed underestimating himself so heavily. His parlance, the amount of his vocabulary, his terminology, his nomenclature could easily overcome any human being in the history of this planet, that I dare to deduce it from his education, his historically unprecedented importance for the universe and cosmos of art, but also in general, until the very end of our entire evolution, the mostly optimistically said possible - in the heat death of the universe.
This book is equal to an inspiration, of something like the medicine against the lack of it, whether anyone wants to paint, sing, produce music, act, write lyrics, compose music, write literature of any kind, film, make videos, sculpt, design, animate, photograph - some pun and ingeniousness intended - it's fair enough to say, think and believe that David Lynch was a genius in all of these disciplines, also separately.
It's a journey, a way, a road inside the brain, mind, consciousness and soul of David Lynch himself to make us dream, to make us feel, to make us educate ourselves, to make us think, to make us hear, to make us see...
The book is beyond visually impressive, it's like a ceremony, it's very comprehensive, magical, majestic, maginficent, luxurious, beautiful and spectacular.
All these people not only knew David Lynch on a personal level, but also they loved and appreciated him and his art, that is just beyond words!

[Jay Gabler · Rating 4 out of 5]

While this book — created to accompany an exhibition at the Bonnefantenmuseum in the Netherlands — will help fans appreciate the fact that Lynch’s art began with drawings and has constantly returned to the canvas, the generous selection of Lynch’s many paintings, photographs, and other inventions won’t necessarily leave you convinced that the gallery is his worthiest venue.

Lynch’s most powerful work for film and TV trades on moving pictures’ capacity to stoke a sense of empathy and normalcy. Whether we’re watching Blue Velvet or Twin Peaks, we’re seduced by the premise that these are people we understand, characters who obey the same laws of physical and emotional gravity we do. Then, the bottom falls out.

With rare exceptions like a series of stark snowman photos (as you’d expect, Lynch knows how to capture the listing figures at their most grotesque), the work compiled here largely captures moments that are well below the long-gone bottom. Francis Bacon is a lodestar, and Lynch’s work is filled with figures whose own bodies are betraying them, leaking corpus across the canvas.

I reviewed Someone Is In My House for The Tangential.

[A. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Few interesting pieces for me (Man and Machine, the meaning of Phillip Jeffries in Twin Peaks The Return ? - Rock with Seven Eyes), most of the drawings are quite sinister, ugly and way too "internal"

The title of the book is very interesting though, as the sentence is used by him in many places, "the house" is a common worldwide spiritual metaphor, The implications might be not that good. Where are these two quote from ? 1. "Righteousness is not in entering your houses from the back doors."; 2. "Do not enter any house other than your own until you have asked for permission and greeted its occupants."

Not every internal image we have needs to be exteriorized, contrary to popular belief.

[Adam Rodenberger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lynch's art is, surprisingly, not really my thing. But I did appreciate being able to see the timeline of his progression and his "eras," taking note of which particular affectations stuck around in later years and which ones died off early. An interesting book containing the work of an interesting man, but probably not something I'll return to for much in the way of inspiration for my own work.

[Marko]

"I just like going into strange worlds." / Lynch has consistently, and in a way that now looks avant la lettre, developed a multidisciplinary art practice in which visual art, film, photography, and music coexist in a nonhierarchical way.

[Tom Flint · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lynch's unresting and boundless creativity on full show. He explored every medium he could get his hands on it would seem, from paintings to prints to drawings to photography to sculpture. He even made his own array of lamps. You can really see how he used these techniques as fuel for his films

[ajdå · Rating 4 out of 5]

mysig.se

[Kevin Scotton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting body of work 🫡

[Evan Frew · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ll have to buy a copy, along with Room To Dream, and hopefully I can buy an original Lynch one day!

[frankie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, this is an awesome collection of David Lynch's art. Loved it all!

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite dark & disturbing, imagine that.
I miss Lynch. What a unique individual.

[Carlos Montaña · Rating 5 out of 5]

Se ha convertido en uno de los libros más preciados de mi biblioteca. Completo e inspirador.

[Emma]

There's no doubt he was an artistic genius but a lot of these images also suggest one day it may be wise to search his property...

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

No lie I fell asleep twice looking over this despite looking through the whole thing in one sitting. David Lynch art just sort of ugly not gonna lie. Makes great movies though!

[Grace Andrews · Rating 5 out of 5]

this has the most beautiful art ever. I love david lynch.

[Van_Veren]

4.4