THE RETURN I'm not Linda

[eyeboogers]

Possibly nothing, but maybe something. Today I saw an exhibition of photography/mixed media artist Richard Prince's work. One piece caught my attention, "I'm not Linda" from 1993.
Update: I just discovered that Richard Prince claim to have dated Sheryl Lee around that time.

 

[Tulpa]

Woah

 

[Jasper]

It’s like a Rodney Dangerfield joke. The art isn’t in a completely different universe as Lynch, especially some of Lynch’s mono-prints, and Lynch loves using text in his art, although not that neat and tidy type.

If Richard Prince really dated Sheryl Lee around 1993, I wonder if he more specifically dated her around the time of FWWM. Lynch could have met him or seen his work then, or Lee could have met him through Lynch or, who knows?

There seems to be a decent chance that Lynch saw this piece (or something related) at some point, and if so, he really must have gotten a laugh out of it. In the joke, when Linda finds out who Richard is, she conveniently becomes not-Linda. When Cooper gets mixed up with the identity of “Richard,” Diane (“Linda”) beats a hasty retreat.

Fascinating discovery.

 

[Jasper]

OK, so in 1994 Sheryl Lee had a major role as photographer Astrid Kirchherr in the Beatles biography film Backbeat. Ringo Starr (real name Richard Starkey) was played by Paul Duckworth, while Beatle Paul McCartney married Linda Eastman in 1969, a few months after the release of The White Album, mostly written on the band's retreat with their entourage (including Linda) in India with the Mahareshi Mahesh Yogi, founder of Transcendental Meditation. The band collapsed the following spring. Coincidence? I think not.

What? No, YOU don't make sense!

 

[Jasper]

The above-mentioned film, Backbeat (1994), focused on early Beatle bassist, Stuart Sutcliffe, and his relationships with girlfriend Astrid Kirchherr (played by Sheryl Lee), and best friend John Lennon. While looking around, I stumbled upon this post by "iStealyournewspapers" in this Reddit thread:

Not a lot of people know that [early Beatle Stuart] Sutcliffe was a really talented painter. He went to art school with John Lennon. The mega famous artist Richard Prince helped get his work shown a few years ago at Harper’s Books in East Hampton, NY. He even made a cool very limited print edition that includes a photo of Stuart. My mom has a signed (by RP) test print from the edition and it comes with a numbered catalogue signed by Richard Prince and Sutcliffe’s sister.

Now, this doesn’t add any credence to my earlier silly ramblings, but this does present the possibility of some kind of additional resonance between Richard Prince and Sheryl Lee. Did Prince get especially interested in Sutcliffe by way of Lee?

So, here are a couple of examples of instances where Richard Prince mentions Sheryl Lee, which come with no proof of their veracity:

ONE

“RP: Yeah, I was very sensitive about noise, which, if you’re going to live in New York, is crazy. But I paid so much money for that situation. And then I ended up renting to the strangest people. I rented to the woman who played Laura Palmer on Twin Peaks, Sheryl Lee.”

TWO

“I once went out on a date with the girl who played Laura Palmer in Twin Peaks. She could have been anyone to me.”

Incidentally, I discovered a 2021 post about the Richard Prince Richard/Linda thing on the Twin Peaks Reddit. It didn’t receive much attention.