Waiting for Hockney Page #3

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...begged,

I think we're doing really well.

Where do we want to take this?

Do we want to go to a gallery?

Do we want to go to an art dealer?

Do we want to go to a critic?

We were all thinking about

taking this to the next level and,

what's the next step...

I will give credit where credit

is due. Gary indicated he thought

Hockney should look at it.

You know the pieces are right. His

temperament is right. His mind is right.

Billy's thing is provocative.

He mentioned Hockney.

I thought it was brilliant.

He's David Hockney.

He's the rock star.

Hockney's an artist...

...and a very famous one.

I can't think of a better artist in

terms of a living, current artist.

He says so many things that

are right in front of my nose,

all of my life, but I never

really thought about it that way.

This guy, this Hockney person,

has constructed art history from at least

fourteen hundred to the twenty-first century.

He owns that.

What an icon to follow. Hangs out with the

best, hangs out with all the people to be.

After reading what I've read so

many times I've stopped and said,

"Damn, he's reading my mind."

You know, he has got to see this. He's almost

calling out for someone to do a piece like this.

I think he'll understand what this is.

David Hockney

David Hockney

David Hockney

David Hockney

David Hockney

David Hockney

David

Hockney

Hockney

David

Mr. Hockney

Hockney

Hockney

Hockney

Hockney

David

Hockney

David

Wow!

I think when Billy

unveils Marilyn Monroe,

I think David Hockney - after

he picks his jaw up off the floor-

is going to turn to Billy,

Gary, Brother Rene and say,

"What do you boys want with me?"

"You're showing me this great

piece. What do you want?"

I ultimately want David Hockney to

help me make a phone call to a man,

I want that man to respond

favorably to my work,

and hire me to do a commission.

In short, we had to

get Hockney's attention.

Hence, the pursuit.

Playing tag.

Intercontinental tag.

Is he in LA?

Is he traveling?

Is he in Norway?

Is he here?

Is he there?

He's everywhere.

He was the Scarlet Pimpernel.

That damned, elusive Pimpernel.

We started writing

letters in January of'03.

The first letter we sent

had a Zeiss lens in it.

That's something you don't

get in the mail every day.

The letters start to go to Hockney.

Wonderful.

No answer.

I'm like, OK, well, you know we'll

send another letter. So we did.

No response. Nothing.

Letter number three went

out with another lens.

We decide that we're

going to go over the top.

Billy decides to build

a magnifying glass.

This lens was about seven

feet long and three feet wide.

It was this big prop that I had made.

Just to get his attention. You know,

just to screw with the guy a little bit.

We mean business, we're stubborn

whatever. But, we weren't going away.

I'm thinking, "OK, well

should I hire a skywriter?"

I was seriously thinking

about these things.

But in the back of my mind I'm thinking,

"Well, what about Ren Weschler?"

He's done a book about Hockney,

and he's done essays about Hockney.

We need his entree.

We need his help.

We need him to make a

phone call that would go

right over the red tape factory

and get me an audience

with David Hockney.

I frequently get phone calls from people

telling me about people I have to meet.

And so I got one of those calls.

It was presented as somebody who had

been working on one drawing for ten years,

and that I had to see it.

I mean, it was an

enterprise of pure inquiry.

I had a series of questions:

Is it art?

Is it outsider art?

Is it the most ecstatic adventure in

the history of scientific illustration?

Is it insanity?

I mean, on some level,

that's what I write about:

Complete,

over-the-top nuttiness.

I'm the kind of guy who

cries when he's happy.

Ah, it was great.

It was one pitch, you know, and in my

mind, I had to hit a homerun or I was out.

And, I think I hit one.

He said something that no one else has,

which was very, very important to me,

and that was, "You drew the

mammal. You drew the human mammal."

And it's like "Yes! That's what I did."

So I'm just very relieved

because this is...

another dream come true...

another step taken...

and I'm...

closer to being home.

Hi Mom, it's Billy.

No, I'm not trying to

give you a heart attack.

It was like taking an

exam and getting an 'A'.

You know, that...

that's, that's how I felt.

And then, and then he said to me,

"So what you want to do about David?"

That's exactly what he said.

"So what you want to do about David?"

In October of 2004, we had heard

from Ren Weschler, a friend of ours,

that he had encountered this boy

named Billy Pappas from Baltimore

who'd done this incredible drawing that he

thought David would have great interest in.

From the sound of it, it sounded like,

"Oh my God! This is the greatest drawing

that's been done in the twentieth century."

And if somebody like Ren

Weschler is recommending it,

who's followed David's

work for twenty odd years,

it must be something.

So I think we had a very curious,

very optimistic anticipation

for what we were going to see.

Hello Mr. Hockney?

Hi, this is Billy Pappas.

It's a pleasure to talk to you.

Well, whenever it is most convenient.

I was thinking sometime between...

or, in around three weeks...

somewhere around there?

Yes.

OK, and Mr. Hockney,

is it OK if I bring Gary Vikan and

Brother Rene along since they've been

sort of...

OK, great.

Alright, well thank you so

much, I look forward to it.

OK. Bye.

We got it!

Billy was the second.

The first one was his

older sister, Gereese.

You know how they tell you

babies are all beautiful? Wrong.

She was very skinny

and sunken-in cheeks.

Billy was born nineteen months later,

and I can still remember I was in

the hospital and they wheeled him in.

And I was coming out of the

anesthesia and I looked and I said,

"That's not my baby."

You know, and they said, "Yes it is."

I said, "It can't be my baby."

He, he was gorgeous.

When he was maybe six

or seven months old,

you know, my mother-in-law,

God rest her soul

she was on the couch and she

was rocking him back and forth

and she says, "Cook," in

that little Irish brogue,

"you know, he's something

special. He's very special."

Billy is such an emotional, sensitive,

sweet person for everything on earth,

that he, he's just been

waiting for this so long...

I just can't wait.

Waiting, waiting, waiting...

the big day is here.

The most I've ever drawn is Little Lulu.

That was about it.

I'm not artistic at all.

I sprayed starch.

Little, little stuff, little things came

out and as I ironed they got crust...

Where's the shirt? I'll do it.

...crusted, and pressed into the...

Oh glory be to God, I'm going down.

Cake mix, the sugar, the oil.

There goes the poppy seeds.

Billy?

Yeah.

Oh, glory be to God. I have your shirt.

OK, with this shirt...

The black pants, of course.

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