CURRICULUM VITAE

There are few things more degrading for a man of consequence than to be obliged by necessity or consigned by fate to having a day-job.  

Such was the case in a prior incarnation for my dear friend David Schoffman.

For years he reported to work and dutifully performed his required tasks like Kafka in Prague. His desk, adorned with adorable photos and knick knacks collected on the occasional vacation, was a landscape of corporate obeisance and respectability. The cubicle was his second home, his first being a bed and the microwave with which he heated his rubbery frozen dinners.

His job was not lacking in social capital and the pay and benefits were more than generous. He rose quickly within the ranks and was considered something of an expert in his field. People looked up to him and regularly sought him out for his professional advice. 

Had he any passion for his work I have no doubt he could have risen to the rank of senior vice-president. But David was one of those listless laborers whose soul was always elsewhere. 

Though he never received any formal training he always had a knack for art. Whenever he was sent on a business trip somewhere he would pass the time between meetings making idle drawings on hotel stationary.

I suppose the world of work has a fairly slim margin for what is deemed acceptable behavior - especially for those within the echelons of upper-middle management. What might be considered charming or silly or harmlessly puerile among the creative class is often deemed by Human Resources to be offensive, repugnant, and in the worst cases, downright criminal.

A safe workplace free from sexual coercion and duress is a legally edenic condition scrupulously maintained for reasons of economy and public relations. As soon as David became a liability he was summarily let go with a small severance and a gentle slap on the wrist.

   The rest of course is contemporary art history. Schoffman has never looked back ... except for those times when he needed decent health insurance ...

from The Body Is His Book: 100 Paintings

THE GREAT PRETENDER

Imitations d'ombres is an obscure Alsatian art form that is both subtly ephemeral and mystically concrete. There is no English equivalent but the closest approximation would probably be something like 'shadow impersonations.'

My father, the jazz pianist Sordello Malaspina was a master. So was my uncle Serge. Together they could create an entire phantom army of silhouettes using only a pocket torch, a white wall and their four fists.

They tried to pass their mastery on to me but my chronic dyslexia and fear of the dark posed challenges too insurmountable to overcome.

My good friend, the Los Angeles conceptual artist David Schoffman has revived this provincial form of expression and has truly made it his own. As part of a year-long process, David creates in haunting chiaroscuro, uncanny likenesses of show business celebrities. Instead of hand prints like the one's in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater, Schoffman thinks of his work as ghosts, channeling the actual spirits and souls of these departed vedettes using nothing but light.

His shadows are so life ... I mean deathlike that many stars have tried to commission him to create their shaded profiles and twilit likenesses.

But Schoffman will have none of it. "I do stuff like that," he explained to me the other day on Skype, "and the next thing you know I'll be appearing on some stupid reality program.

Anyway, you can't deny he's good at what he does and I'm sure my dad and uncle would approve. Here below is one of my favorites:

Amazing!