s which appear in the green and red shrubs as well as through a burnt umber Mountainside are apparently new pieces in Hockney's composition (pp. 202-204). Therefore, for the first time, Hockney incorporated his trademark straight lines and gridlike forms to represent the feeling which is present in the flatlands of Los Angeles with the new element of wavy moving lines.
So the "Mulholland Drive" painting features both long, straight roads, right angles, and cubelike shapes which are characteristic of Hockney's work, but the painting is also filled with squiggly lines in a big azure swimming pool and slightly curved lines punctuating a green field of tall grass in the left corner of the work. Similarly, the brush strokes in the painting range from the straight red lines over a dark black parking lot to the curved green lines representing the branches of plants. The texture in the etched parts of the painting is much rougher than the smooth lines present where Hockney has painted solely with a brush on the canvas.
The message, or story, of the painting is really about how Los Angeles is a city whose inhabitants are constantly moving; thus, the painting is about that movement. Hockney's work conveys the feeling of a huge, wide city, with many cars crammed together during rush hour traffic on the eight-lane 405 freeway which winds its way through Los Angeles' Sepulveda Pass. The painting is about Hockney's perception of how Mulholland Drive is representative of the thousands of winding roads throughout the city which were built in an almost haphazard manner.
"Mulholland Drive" also represents Hockney's own shifting views of the urban environment which is dotted with rolling hills
and lush landscaping (Tuchman, 1988, pp. 84-85). The underlying message which the artist intends to convey is that Los Angeles is a moving city. Thus, Hockney has created a sprawling painting which encourages viewers to shift their focus from on...