"Early in life I focused on the studying the “mystery schools” of Ancient Egypt, and learned how the Egyptian masters constructed their designs. It didn’t take long to realize that they were attempting to communicate something beyond the obvious. A deeper structure started to emerge. I can only show you some of the tricks they commonly used to lure people in, not what I learned along the way."

This discovery paralleled Marcel Duchamp's work, whose "ready-made" concept elevated ordinary objects to the level of Art. Like Duchamp, Hoppe infused his subject matter with mystery, recognizing objects' power to transcend their physicality when subjected to deeper analysis. The dolls, while absurd and almost surreal, also bore a Pop Art-like quality, linking Hoppe's work to modern and post-modern art movements.

How is it that people see, and describe with conviction, that this drawing is of a bee sleeping, a heart on an antique bench, a cuddle fish with a hand puppet, a deflated circus tent, a leather bladder resting on a sunflower seed tin, a Viking helmet, an octopus, a uterus on a pedestal, fiddleheads, an Asian pear, a Greek altar with a sacrificial offering, bagpipes, the top of an elaborately decorated cupcake, childbirth, Mother Nature, a saint who spends their life on a column, a homunculus, a turkey fu**ing an umbrella, and a hippopotamus?  Does that strike you as odd?

Honorable mentions:

@erendwolfe was the first person to throw down a guess.  “Fiddleheads and an Asian pear on a bed of sunflowers.”

@leximartinrealator was the first person to suggest an octopus which is not a bad guess.  When I met her, I was painting a giant octopus and it makes sense that she would see that.  She is also highly intelligent like an octopus.

@andybswift threw down two of the best guesses I’ve ever heard - “Very FULL bagpipes! Was my initial guess however on closer inspection it’s the top of cupcake or muffin decorated elaborately.”