He made something that looks easy, but is in fact hard, look easy...

"Here I saw a man who had both broken all the traditions of the past and unified them, who had gone beyond cubism, beyond Picasso and surrealism, beyond everything that had happened in art....his work expressed both action and contemplation." (Alfonso Ossorio)

The work of Pollock that I am interested in is his "action paintings", said to be influenced by Native American sand paintings where they would drip dyed sand onto a horizontal canvas. I appreciate how involved he got in these paintings, how energetic and physical it was to create one. He said he preferred to work on the floor because he felt, more at ease, I feel nearer, more a part of the painting, since this way I can walk around in it, work from the four sides and be literally `in' the painting. His involvement in his work, to me, suggests the man's mental issues. He literally immersed himself in these works, as he said to "feel nearer" to them. When you look at any one of his drip paintings you can only imagine what they depict. The mess he made on the canvas reflected his mental messiness, if you will.

Despite this, I love his work. The common claim of the common man that anybody could do what Pollock did only increases my admiration for him. Because they couldn't. He made something that looks so easy, but is in fact hard, look easy! What an incredible talent. Trust me, I saw on another blog, this website where you can attempt at creating your own Number 1. I spent hours trying to get a good compositional balance etc etc. It is impossible, as you can see for yourself...

As I have mentioned in earlier posts, I tend to favour more traditional art...but who needs tradition when you can paint with a spade! Although it seems Pollock wasn't having much fun when he did his painting, he created a totally new concept that makes sitting at an easel with a paintbrush seem mundane and even pointless.

Jackson Pollock, with fag in mouth, managed to upset the balance of art and open up a world of possibilities to artists after his sad and premature death. What a hero!