Fans Go Quackers for Bedard’s Allegorical Art
At first glance, respected poster artist Michael Bedard’s colorful, acrylic cartoon subjects--especially his paintings of rounded, little look-alike ducks and green, grinning alligators--seem playful; look again and there’s a sense of foreboding that is characteristic of Bedard’s work--or as the artist puts it, “It’s a weird little place that these duck pieces have existed in.†And a lucrative one. A sunbathing duck is blissfully oblivious to an encroaching crowd of alligators; two hapless ducks paint themselves into a corner, literally; a duck “Ship of Fools†is all alone on a dark and roiling sea--these works and many others have struck a chord with people worldwide, and earned the best-selling artist over $50 million in sales for his poster art.
Bedard’s latest projects are an animated TV series for Polygram, a feature film for Warner Bros. based on his “Santa Claus Brothers†creations and, unexpectedly, a first children’s book, the ominously titled “Sitting Ducks,†(Putnam & Grosset).
Due out in October, the book is an allegorical tale, a sort of a fowl “Soylent Green,†in which the folks doing the eating are alligators and the folks who don’t know they’re on the menu are ducks. One savvy duck’s unusual friendship with a reptilian worker at the “Colossal Duck Factory,†however, leads to a duck revolt and a dietary change for the alligators.
Original work from the darkly comic yet sweet story is part of a special exhibition of originals and limited editions of Bedard’s acrylic paintings that kicks off on Saturday at Every Picture Tells a Story with a special appearance by the artist.
“One reason I wanted to do a children’s book is that I was intrigued with the idea of going beyond the single frame statement and actually creating a story,†Bedard said. “I’ve always thought of the duck series more as story telling in a way than painting.
“It’s always been a vehicle for me to play with the bizarre ironies of life, because [the ducks] are on the precipice of danger, but a lot of people feel that they’re going to make it through these situations. I suppose the ducks are us, in a way,†he said.
Bedard, a Topanga resident, found his surprisingly successful ducks-as-Everyman inspiration when he adopted a flock of real-life quackers and watched as they managed to intimidate some of the neighborhood’s most notorious canine bullies.
“There was such great bluff and attitude about these really defenseless little creatures.â€
His painting, “Window Shopping,†a re-creation of Edward Hopper’s famous diner, in which duck customers seem unaware of the rapt alligator watching them through the window, was “the genesis†of the children’s book.
In the story, “the little ducks living in the city are in a real way in an urban pasture, thinking that everything is wonderful,†Bedard said. “This [one] little duck, is telling them, look there’s something you don’t know, and they don’t want to hear about it.â€
The alligators aren’t really “complete villains,†though. “In a way the alligators are like humans. [We raise] cattle, but we’re also like cattle, because we tend to go along with things that we’re asked to do.â€
Bedard is “flabbergasted†at what people of all ages are reading into the story. Some see it as a statement about vegetarianism, or about the evils of consumerism, others as building a bridge across cultural differences or simply about friendship, he noted.
Bedard’s path to art was a circuitous one. As a young Canadian transplant in a “mindless†factory job in Detroit, working in a factory building that “was the most interesting thing I’d ever seen,†he spent “basically a year of daydreaming.â€
Leaving the job “with all those pictures in my head,†Bedard said, “was kind of a rebirth, because it was then I decided that I would never do another job in my life unless it had to do with art. I didn’t care if I was painting cupboards.â€
Instead of attending art school, Bedard educated himself through “a lot of observing, asking a lot of questions from artists much better than me. What I found was a signature voice that I may not have found if I went to art school.â€
BE THERE
“The Art of Michael Bedard,†Every Picture Tells a Story, 7525 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, through Oct. 10; reception Saturday, 5 to 8 p.m. Gallery hours: Sundays, 11 a.m.-4 p.m.; Mondays-Saturdays, 10 a.m.-7 p.m. (323) 932-6070.
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