1. I am attempting to produce a painting which would, in some respects, coincide with David Hockney's 'A Bigger Splash'.

2. My first attempt rested on a simple premise. Live in California, dye my hair blonde, forget the history of the West since 1967, in short, be David Hockney.

3. I discarded this method after a single day's work. (Fortunately, I had not got round to dying my hair blonde.) To be, in some way, David Hockney and reach 'A Bigger Splash' seemed less arduous - and, consequently, less interesting - than to go on being Paul Melia and reach my own 'A Bigger Splash'.

4. To compose 'A Bigger Splash' in 1967 was a reasonable undertaking; at the beginning of 1996 it struck me as being almost impossible. It is not in vain that almost thirty years have gone by, filled with exceedingly complex events. Among them, to mention only one, is Hockney's 'A Bigger Splash' itself.

5. Despite numerous obstacles I have painted something. It - and Hockney's painting - have been reproduced below.
   
   

   David Hockney, 'A Bigger Splash',1967 Acrylic on canvas 243.8 x 243.8 cm copyright David Hockney

   Paul Melia, 'A Bigger Splash',1996 (unfinished state) Acrylic on canvas 243.5 x 243.5 cm copyright Paul Melia

   
   
   
6. The viewer will see that even in its unfinished state my 'A Bigger Splash' is more subtle than Hockney's. For example, it is well known that Hockney's practice in 1967 was informed by Modernist theory. But that my 'A Bigger Splash' - a contemporary of Lyotard's 'The Postmodern Condition' - should be informed by such a discredited theory! Although Hockney's painting and mine may be visually identical, mine is almost infinitley richer. (More ambiguous my detractors have said, but ambiguity is a richness.)

7. In passing, my friends have told me they recognise something of my personality in my painting.

Although my 'A Bigger Splash' is unfinished I would like to take this opportunity to thank my tutor, Pierre Menard, without whom my undertaking might have been unthinkable. I hope it will not be too long before I am able to lodge a reproduction of my finished painting on the Information Superhighway.