Huebler. A moment passes. Huebler, Huebler. Dear Huebler. How do I begin? Mr. Huebler. Douglas Huebler. Scratch that last one. My pen crisscrosses the page in response.
I first heard about Douglas Huebler about a year ago from a friend. I remember standing inside his studio contemplating a design that I had been working on for several weeks. This particular design is the kind of thing that suffocates you and makes you run madly and wildly inside your mind. I felt extremely helpless and a little vulnerable because my ideas seemed to reach infinity, never settling to take a form that I could work with. I voiced my reflections to my friend, “William, I am struggling with a design that I’m working on now. I’m thinking ducks, like quacking ducks. What do you think?”
In the middle of replacing several books onto his shelf, William turns to me and gazes upward and to the right in thought. “Ducks” he simply says. He sort of smiles a knowing smile and finishes replacing the books onto the shelf. “Well Ray, I want to say I’m not surprised, but I am. You always seem to have a knack for riddling people with your work and I am no exception”. He walks idly over to the sofa facing the large floor-to-ceiling windows. His hand smoothed a wrinkle in the fabric along the edge of the sofa. “Why ducks?” he asks me while taking a seat on the sofa and crossing his legs comfortably. He gestured lazily toward an empty chair to his right.
“Why not ducks?” I ask in response while taking the offered chair. We both stared at the world outside and beyond his studio watching the rain make drips and drops onto the window panes. I remember it was a nice moment; a moment where I could really stop and breathe and unwind a little from the craziness that was my life at the time. No sounds except for our conversation and the rain outside reached my ears.
“Of course you’d say that” he chuckled softly, adding to the serenity and peacefulness of the moment. “You know, I think you might find some interest in some of Douglas Huebler’s work.” He got up to hand me a pamphlet from his work table. “This is just some information about his exhibit on variable pieces.” I opened the pamphlet to the introduction of Huebler’s work while William continued to explain his reasoning for my potential interest, “At first glance, you would think that the form of his work is the point of interest and no doubt, some of his photos are very interesting, but it’s not the most appealing part. He puts an immense amount of thought into his work prior to creating it. I like to think that the form only compliments the statement that he has attached to it rather than the other way around. You both think conceptually and have an understanding that the more important aspect of a piece of work is not the form which ends up in a gallery, but the temporariness of the message you want to get across.” William returned to his sitting position on the sofa and stared out the window in thought.
I valued William’s advice so I waited patiently for him to finish his thought before speaking again. A few moments later he continued, “So, it isn’t the duck you ask me about that I am interested in. I am more interested in the idea behind the quacking ducks!” He glanced sideways at me with a grin etched across his face.
Coming back from that memory, I stare down at the ninety-nine duck heads all facing the right. No two ducks are alike. I quickly and as neatly as possible scribble at the bottom of the 11 rows and 9 columns of duck heads, “A NICE, CUTE, COLORFUL, QUACKING DUCK NAMED ANDY WILL BE RAFFAELED AT THE NEW YORK CORRESPONDANCE SCHOOL MEETING MARCH 26TH, 1969 AT SACRAMENTOE STATE COLLEGE, CALIFORNIA”. A leaflet for a conference meeting with the above location and time was posted on the campus bulletin a few months ago. I had grabbed it in hopes of using it at a later time. The nice, cute, color, quacking duck part was added to make the design my own. I hastily wrote “Dear Huebler,” at the top of the page and folded it.
Knock Knock. I scrambled to open the door and smiled largely at Huebler. “It’s great to see you Doug. Come on in, sorry for the mess” I apologize as I hurry him inside. Douglas stepped carefully over small and large texts books, photos, and papers. I laughed and ushered him into a clear chair.
“I was just thinking about you, you know. The first time I heard about you from William. William Wilson, you remember him don’t you?” I ask him while taking a seat on a stack of papers across from him.
“Ah yes, nice guy! He helped me with a few of my projects actually. Got me really thinking about some of them” he shrugged off his coat and got comfortable. “Before I forget…” he reached into his bag with all his photo supplies he always carried everywhere and took out a few large sheets of paper. “Here is the statement and some photos of Variable #34 that you asked for.” He handed it over to me.
“Thank you, I really appreciate this!” I smile and place the photos aside for now.
“Why did you want it anyway?” he asks.
“Well, you don’t know this, but your variable work has really influenced me to create Andy.” I took out the folded piece of paper I had just finished writing before he arrived. I handed it to him now. “It took me about a year to create him and some other characters, but I am finally content with the result, thank to you and William.”
“Wonderful!” he exclaimed while opening the piece. He laughed loudly, “I never do understand your work immediately, but I love to get them all the same. You have a way of making me think so hard my brain gets tired!” He laughed again, “I’m so obvious with my statements, I wonder if I could learn a little something from your subtlety.”
“Art wouldn’t be half as much fun as it is now if everyone worked in the same way!” I explained. He nodded in agreement and put Andy away. “Anyway, as I was saying earlier, you really inspired me a lot this past year and I asked you over in order to properly thank you for everything. Variables is truly a great piece.”
“I am deeply flattered by your kind words, Ray. To be absolutely honest, Variables only began when I decided to pick up my old camera again after so many years without working in photography. I was so inspired by taking photos again that ideas flooded me. That was when I began to really think about my work! I am sure William told you otherwise” He smiled a small smile and continued, “I know it isn’t the conventional way of working conceptually, but it happened to be that way for me.”
“I love when people work unconventionally! If anything, I am only more inspired by your work and work habits.” I smiled at him and got up. “I’m planning on visiting William today, would you care to join me?”
“Absolutely! Absolutely” I see a fleeting look of strong emotion on his face as he gets up, “Shall we?” He asks.
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