Artist Richard Jackson

Jackson’s neon sculpture “Ain’t Painting a Pain” greets visitors to his show at the Orange County Museum of Art.  (Don Bartletti/Los Angeles Times)

An assistant pours paint on a spinning globe during the “activation” of “Painting with Two Balls,” 1997/2013, at the Orange County Museum of Art. This work is part of the artist’s retrospective “Ain’t Painting a Pain” at the museum from Feb. 17 to May 5.  (Don Bartletti/Los Angeles Times)

With fresh paint splattered across the room, artist Richard Jackson waits for a lift out of his sculpture “Painting with Two Balls,” 1997/2013. This work appears in the lobby of the Orange County Museum of Art from Feb. 17 to May 5.  (Don Bartletti/Los Angeles Times)

A visitor walks through a maze that Richard Jackson made out of 10 large canvases propped on their edges. He originally built the work for the Eugenia Butler Gallery in Los Angeles in 1970, re-creating it this year for his show at the Orange County Museum of Art.  (Don Bartletti/Los Angeles Times)

Richard Jackson made “OCMA Wall Painting, 2013” by rotating wet canvases face down against the wall.   (Don Bartletti/Los Angeles Times)

For his new version of “Stacked Paintings,” a series begun in 1980, Richard Jackson painted 5,050 canvases and arranged them in a step-like formation.   (Don Bartletti/Los Angeles Times)

“Five Glass Heads,” 2006, by Richard Jackson at the Orange County Museum of Art.   (Don Bartletti/Los Angeles Times)

Richard Jackson’s “Deer Beer,” 1998/2013, involves firing paint balls from the backsides of deer as they revolve on a turntable.   (Don Bartletti/Los Angeles Times)

Orange County Museum of Art director Dennis Szakacs looks at Richard Jackson’s installation “Blue Room,” 2011/2013, which refers obliquely to a Duchamp chess game.  (Don Bartletti/Los Angeles Times)

Richard Jackson inspects a self-portrait in progress outside his Sierra Madre studio. He plans to use the piece to make a bobble-head sculpture.  (Gary Friedman/Los Angeles Times)

Artist Richard Jackson appears outside his Sierra Madre studio with a unicorn similar to the one made for his 2011 installation at the David Kordansky Gallery, “The Little Girl’s Room.”  (Gary Friedman/Los Angeles Times)

Richard Jackson in his Sierra Madre studio with a sculpture in progress, involving girls’ legs protruding from oversized boxing gloves.   (Gary Friedman/Los Angeles Times)