Preconceptions, Paint and Pollock

I'm often asked who my favorite artists are. This complex question came up again during a "Teacher Feature" interview I had for Diley Middle School's News. I'll usually tell people I like painters for the most part. Not to say I don't appreciate the three-dimensional arts, I love to plan and build works in the sculpture field as well, but painting is my favorite medium. Barring more contemporary artists and sticking strictly to the painting world, my top three (in chronological order) are; Caravaggio, Van Gogh, and Jackson Pollock. This list inevitably leads to the "eye squinting" reaction as the questioner sifts through mental files while they search for the name Caravaggio. After just a split second, I hear "I love Starry Night!" as those eyes become bright and excited (It's probably my favorite too!). Then there is the highly contagious smirk that arrives when we speak about Pollock. I get these reactions no matter the age of the person asking the question. The range of emotion that those three artistscan garner, even just in name, is just one example of why I love art.

As a follow up/mini lesson/reward for the students on Team Tiger Pride, I put together a Pollock project. Most students ask when they will be able to "splatter paint", to which I normally reply, "When the classes get smaller, or when you earn it". Trying to paint like Pollock gets very messy and without the proper lesson attached, it can be a disaster. For my first time doing the project here in Pickerington I thought this would be the perfect group. A smaller group of students who had completed their assigned core work and deserved an experimental and special painting lesson.

We started out by learning a little bit about Pollock himself, then with the use of YouTube we discussed HOW he did what he did, WHY he did what he did, WHAT was so important about paint that was seemingly tossed haphazardly onto a canvas. It just so happens that Pollock’s drips were highly controlled. He didn’t use a brush in the traditional sense. Pollock’s art was an expression of emotion, not of a specific figure. His art was more about what it did to you than what he did to it.

After the short lesson students were given a 12”x12” piece of cardboard and an assortment of thinned acrylic paint. They set to work dripping and flicking paint across their canvases, all the while keeping in mind to control their paint as to not get in on each other or each other’s paintings. As an added bonus I played music from Pollock’s hay-day…the 40s. After an initial confusion, the students bought into the music!

Here are pictures of te process and the final results!