Jack Kirby's Memories of New York Tenement Life

 

A panel from Jack Kirby's late-in-life autobiographical story "Street Code", showing the claustrophobic tenement family room he grew up in, alongside a panel from an early '40s Newsboy Legion story he wrote. Kirby was always drawing upon his life experiences in his work. 

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Recently Read: Room to Dream by Kristine McKenna and David Lynch

Journalist Kristine McKenna and director David Lynch's 2018 biography-memoir Room to Dream utilized a novel approach: each of McKenna's well-researched, fact-based chronological chapters are paired with Lynch's memories, observations and anecdotes. I approached this book with a slight trepidation, believing that the work of great artists (and, by extension, the greatest artists) is best served by no explanations or commentary by the creators. After having finished the book, I still think the same. Simply put, art not stripped of its mysteries and origins is more magical. As Stanley Kubrick asked, wouldn't we enjoy the Mona Lisa less if Da Vinci had explained why she's smiling?

Having said that, I couldn't put Room to Dream down. Lynch's working process and his idiosyncratic (and often hilarious) ruminations are highly entertaining. For those who want more details about Eraserhead, Lynch's painting exhibitions,Twin Peaks, aborted projects and music collaborations I didn't know existed - it's all here. Dichotomies of human nature exemplified in his work are also here: in one paragraph Lynch will describe the peace inherent in Transcendental Meditation and in the next offer an offhand reference to another love interest (or wife) he left for someone new, not seeming to discern a contradiction in the two. 

Room to Dream is liberally supplemented with unusual photographs and a complete, chronological appendix of works.

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