“Where’s the duck?” was a common question around the San Pedro waterfront, as visitors arrived for the third day of the festival.   Smaller models of Hofman’s creation floated among the ships in port, and local artisans did a brisk business selling duck-themed jewelry, clothing and cookies.

Hofman sums up viewers’ reactions on his website: “My sculptures cause an uproar, astonishment and put a smile on your face. They give people a break from their daily routines.”   His projects since his creation of Rubber Duck have included the world’s largest zeppelin, in which he chose four hundred seventy people to fly with him in 2008.   In 2010, Hofman tied ten thousand flip-flops together–creating a reclining figure he entitled “Fat Monkey”.  And his 2011 “Big Yellow Rabbit” is a thirty-nine-foot-tall stuffed rabbit with sprawled-out ears and its hind legs in the air.

And for 2014?  Even as spectators snap selfies with Rubber Duck, Hofman’s Facebook page has a photograph of his newest creation: a thirty-foot pink bamboo kitten.

 

 

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