Today, April 8th 2020, makes the 30th anniversary of the now-iconic mystery horror drama television series, Twin Peaks, which was created by the uncompromisingly creative duo Mark Frost and David Lynch.

The iconic murder mystery series, which has had audiences captivated since its debut in 1990, survived declining ratings and commercial difficulties to rise back from the dead with prolific form. With a cult following like no other, Twin Peaks has left fans guessing at every turn.

“I don’t ever explain it. Because it’s not a word thing. It would reduce it, make it smaller,” Lynch once said in an interview with The Guardian. “When you finish anything, people want you to then talk about it. And I think it’s almost like a crime. A film or a painting—each thing is its own sort of language and it’s not right to try to say the same thing in words. The words are not there. The language of film, cinema, is the language it was put into, and the English language—it’s not going to translate. It’s going to lose.”

Like many fans of the show, the guessing and reading between the lines has always been part of the joy in watching the series. The Mondo Gallery, a permanent art space in Austin, Texas, featured a curated mix of original artwork and limited edition screen prints and is welcoming a series of David Lynch-inspired work.

A past exhibition opened in time for the ever-popular Austin SXSW Film Festival. ‘The Art of Greg Ruth – A Twin Peaks Interpretation‘ will saw over 60 original prints inspired by David Lynch and Mark Frost’s Twin Peaks series.

“Twin Peaks changed everything in the spring of 1990, and I was mesmerised by its weekly soap-opera format and brilliant dance between mystery, comedy and romance and a kind of horror that had never before existed on the small screen,” said artist Greg Ruth. “It influenced a generation of admirers and later inspired me to use it as a short series of portraits of the various keys characters as I tested my new love of graphite work under the umbrella of my self-assigned weekly drawing series, The 52 Weeks Project.”

“It is a wellspring of totems, symbols, storytelling and character that is unmatched by any other contenders out there. Twin Peaks continues to be a deep inspiration for me personally, and it is nothing short of the most insanely fantastic honour imaginable to be able to launch this print series and gallery show. If I could only whisper in my ear 27 years ago with the promise of this…”

Here is a little look inside the exhibition…

(All images via Greg Ruth)