Happy Birthday, Jackson Pollock!

"When I am in my painting, I'm not aware of what I'm doing. It is only after a sort of 'get acquainted' period that I see what I have been about. I have no fear of making changes, destroying the image, etc., because the painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come through. It is only when I lose contact with the painting that the result is a mess. Otherwise there is pure harmony, an easy give and take, and the painting comes out well." (From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson_Pollock)

What a neat quote! I am not an artist by nature; mostly because art doesn't fit very well with my perfectionist-self :) However, I really like this view on art. "The painting has a life of its own"...it makes art sound like such an incredible, magical thing that just happens. Sometimes I feel like that with writing; like these words just come and the stories and poems have lives and minds of their own, too.

Pollock was famous for his very unique style of painting. Rather than use easels and paintbrushes and careful strokes, he often used sheets or giant pieces of paper -- or even walls! -- and other tools, like trowels, sticks or knives to make his abstract paintings. Often he'd mix foreign substances, like crushed glass or sand to his paint to give it a different texture.

Many people have criticized both Pollock's methods and paintings as being something "a five year old could do", because his style included flinging, dripping and splattering paint onto his work surface, to make things like this:




According to Wiki, "Pollock denied "the accident"; he usually had an idea of how he wanted a particular piece to appear. It was about the movement of his body, over which he had control, mixed with the viscous flow of paint, the force of gravity, and the way paint was absorbed into the canvas. The mix of the uncontrollable and the controllable. Flinging, dripping, pouring, spattering, he would energetically move around the canvas, almost as if in a dance, and would not stop until he saw what he wanted to see."

Pollock had a very original take on painting. His work was truly his; it was his individual form of expression, and I love that about him. Maybe art doesn't have to be a perfect, realistic, carefully calculated work; but rather an intense, unique, even mysterious creation?

If Jackson Pollock were still alive, he would be celebrating his 97th birthday today! Happy Birthday, Jackson Pollock!

See More of Jackson Pollock's Work