Paul Ruscha Essay
#15 Doro Hofmann (Visiting Painting)
#16 Paul Ruscha (Responce Painting)
I’ve always been a duck fan (like the representative suite in my bird cards) for they represent the hearts in the traditional deck of playing cards. Ducks seem sort of dumb to me, just like Sonya in Peter and the Wolf who became so endangered by that big, bad wolf; just like one in love – hence, the heart which abandons all caution to throw itself into what it thinks will be a rosy thereafter, but ends up being a very scary event in anyone’s life. I got the feeling from the painting which was brought to me, that its motion of falling through space was like careening in an uncontrolled path of unfinished fate. I feel that the word, falling made me recall that delicious taste of love, even though the statement words in German which were superimposed over the painting I was given for reference were about art – not about dumbstruck love.
Nevertheless, that dreamy sense of falling through space led me back to the ducks. Years ago, I made some pillowcases which I gave away for Xmas gifts. I’d found the bedding in Pic’n’Save. There were flying ducks printed on the fabric, but the ducks looked like they were dead, and when they were turned upside down, they looked like dead ducks falling. I found my DEAD DUCKS FALLING stamp by accident a few days ago in my garage, after I studied the Circle of Truth painting which was my reference and it seemed like what I wanted to revisit in a different way in art. So, like the reference painting which had an upper left to lower right diagonal, I chose not to use a lower left to upper right diagonal, although it became hard not to influence my desire to do that because I love diagonals. Most of my calligraphy is on the diagonal. But, I chose a V-formation which is like geese use and I let my ducks fall into that vortex. The ducks I drew on a plastic vacuform point-of-purchase cover and a CD disc protector. I love plastic in a multitude of shapes, and have grown a huge collection of them over the years. So, I got to use several mediums to create my final canvas, that of ink-stamped letters, acrylic and ink on verso plastic.
I used to caution one of my favorite artists not to talk about his work too much or reveal his process because it would sort of kill the mystery of how art’s done. I apologize for my own transgression of that very act, so now I guess I know what he means. But I hope I haven’t talked too much about it so I dispel your initial response to it, but just go ahead and fall for it whether you like it or not. Like my ducks who are circling the truth of love in a downward spiral...