David Hockney paints the pool at The Hollywood Roosevelt, 1988 From the LA Times - May 3, ‘88: “The result, when you looked into the filled pool of still water, was a vast spread of large blue parentheses, commas, or whatever. But when someone dived in, disturbing the water, all the commas seemed to come to life, weaving and dancing and shimmering... Joy soon turned to gloom when county officials noted that the painting violated state safety rules, which require that the bottoms of pools be unadorned, and ordered the Hockney squiggles removed or painted over. Paul Golis of Thousand Oaks memorialized the situation with an epic poem, from which I have his permission to quote: In California it was the written rule You cannot punctuate the bottom of a pool With swimming parentheses Or giant apostrophes Or posturing periods or carefree commas Oh, no, no, not a single one if you please. But alas, It came to pass, A talented Cockney, Named David Hockney, Innocently unaware, Painted not one, not two, But several pair. Fact is, his punctuation marks were everywhere. An art dealer, however, pointed out to the lawmakers that Hockney’s underwater work, if it could be sold, would be worth perhaps $1 million. It was a galvanizing thought. City Councilman Michael Woo urged Assemblyman Mike Roos (D-Los Angeles) to use his influence on the Legislature; Roos wrote a bill exempting the Roosevelt pool from the state law; it was passed, and Gov. George Deukmejian signed it into law.”