Waiting for Hockney Page #4

---

"Merry Christmas. Love ya. Billy and Marilyn."

I've seen people who

work hard all my life.

But what he's done, is just, I, I

can't, sometimes I can't bear to watch it.

There were some days where I'd work

all day and I, I would I would do well.

But then the next day

I'd come to work and

there were times where I couldn't

quite notice what I did yesterday.

It was like spit in the ocean.

You know, even where he says, "I

only have the size of a dime left."

Well, you would think someone could

fill in the space of a dime in an hour.

Well, Billy, it would

take him two months.

I think only geology

moves slower than me,

when I'm doing my work, right? I mean,

hair grows faster than I draw,

trees grow faster, everything gro...

...everything happens faster except

maybe mountains forming or eroding.

I didn't come to this with,

with all the problems solved.

I came to it with an idea and

learned to ease the pain

I had in my body every day.

I tried to make sure Billy

didn't jump of the bridge

or take up another profession

like knitting or something.

The slings for my arms...

...I didn't start working this way I

would say till about four years into it.

And now I don't know how I held

my arms up like this for four years.

When he was doing Marilyn and

he was working on it for years,

you know, you're kind of waiting,

waiting, and waiting and uh,

it's like, you know, will

this thing ever happen?

Eight years. Eight years.

The guy could have graduated

from medical school by now.

I addressed every

single speck of that paper

with that kind of intensity and focus.

Billy is one of the most

rock-solid people I've ever met.

Billy is like a laser beam.

There were no down

moments in this thing.

Everything is 'hit it hard',

like my life depends on it.

Let's let everything go

to hell, except excellence.

Excellence at any cost.

Where it says 'NYU', Bill.

OK?

OK.

Hardly anyone even knows I finished

it. I haven't gone public with it yet.

That's where I am.

The work itself is complete.

Getting to the people to move it on, that's

critical, that's crucial, that's so important.

We need help from people.

Larry and I assembled my dream team.

Well there was myself.

Impresario, friend,

buddy, Dr. Lifestyle...

I'm just there.

My wife, Stephanie,

who is his archivist.

Basically to take notes

and take photographs.

I have the director of

a museum, Gary Vikan.

He's done an Olympic thing.

It is enormously,

technically sophisticated.

It is a way of demonstrating

how good you are.

And, Brother Rene is our administrator.

Brother Rene has the prestige of being

head of a very large private school.

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes