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An Urgency To Finish In May, Checkoway gave birth to a daughter, Sophia Grace Thomsen - coincidentally, on Billy Pappas's birthday. "I called Billy at least once a week and got updates," she said, "but I would only hear about delays and talk and bumblings and more talk among Billy, Larry, and Brother Rene, Billy's so-called administrator. I started to wonder if this thing was ever going to happen and if maybe I ought to turn my attention elsewhere. I was completely frustrated by the fact that, however funny it was, Billy kept making these objects to send to David Hockney and Hockney kept not receiving them or someone would send them to a wrong address. That was part of the story - the bumbling quality of Team Billy - but my life was passing and I was tired of waiting." At one point, David Hockney had miraculously phoned Gary Vikan. He had been moved by the sincerity of Billy Pappas's most recent letter and would indeed love to see the portrait. "Perhaps the next time I am flying over Baltimore?" Hockney said, and suggested that that time might be at Christmas. Billy and his team were jubilant. Hockney was coming at Christmas! Only no one had stopped to ask Hockney exactly when or how or where and no one had any direct contact info for him. Christmas came and went and Checkoway marveled at how passive the team was. It was during this time that Cookie Pappas and Gary Vikan both said to Checkoway with sighs, "Well, I guess the only thing we're doing is waiting for Hockney," and as the words came out of their mouths, Checkoway knew that that was the title of her film.
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A Film by Julie Checkoway. A Littlest Birds Films Production.
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