Introduction

This page contains the amazing works of art my wonderful wife Emma has created during the time of quarantine: the COVID-19 pandemic of 2019/2020. She decided to recreate famous art with the stipulation that each work must contain an artist dummy (the “Doofus”), a wooden duck (“The Duck”), and the latest fiction work of Hilary Mantel (“The Book”), both these latter two she received for her birthday this year.

Without further ado, I’ll give you over to the Doofus and the Duck…

Early Works

April 2020

A collection of early attempts. Simple, stark, almost minimal in their abstraction, they provide a ground work of what is to come…

Assumption of the Doofus

Birth of the Doofus

Creation of Duck

Pieta

Doofus Slays Holoferduck

Vitruvian Doofus

Doofus Crossing the Alps

Conversion of the Doofus

This work, representing a major piece by Caravaggio, became a breakthrough work for the Company. Suddenly drama, in this case in the form of lighting, makes an appearance. It would take a fraction longer to mature, but the seed of greater works was planted!

Stabat Duck

Washing of the Feet

Easter Saturday

Happy Easter, from Doofus and the Duck

This last sequence were created to commemorate Easter 2020.

American Gothic

This marks the end of the early period of work. After this the world of Doofus and the Duck begins to become more complicated.

The Company Expands…

April 2020

Once limited to the three main protagonists, the Company now begins to expand and the works start to become more complex.

St Francis Preaching to the Animals (after Giotto)

Many of the new members of the Company are seen for the first time.

Doofus with the Head of Duck (after Caravaggio)

Le dejeuner sur livre (after Manet)

Doofus and the Ark: A Moral Tableau of Extinction

This work marks the first major use of props to create an epic effect.

The Inspiration of Doofus (after Caravaggio)

Doofus and Duck present a tableau for Quasimodo Sunday

This work sees a major innovation with the Book becoming a much more flexible artistic device.

Doofus and the Duck present a tableau of M. Manet’s scandalous painting, “Olympia”

The captioning of the Company’s works reaches its basic form.

Doofus and the Duck present Raffaello’s masterpiece, “The School of Athens” (and introducing the ABC Interpretive Dance Bandicoot recreating his famous role as the philosopher Diogenes)

With this major work we have reached the end of the early period. This rendition of Raphael’s “School of Athens” creates the framework for all later works: the epic proportions; the introduction of a major new star, the ABC Interpretive Dance Bandicoot; props in abundance; and the cast of thousands. There would be no looking back!