Mary Krebs Smyth
"My Journey with Jackson Pollock"
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| (Photos by Patrick Fraser) |
My piece illustrates the paradigm shift that Jackson Pollock created in the world of art in the 1940’s. His use of non-traditional materials and tools plus the technique of pouring, dripping, and spattering paint on the canvas generated the term “action painting.” This energized the abstract expressionist movement creating a focus on American artists for the first time. Earlier work in primary colors found images referencing the unconscious or other cultures. Gradually his work became more abstracted focusing on color, movement, shape, and form. As this transition progressed, he gave up all traditional tools using instead hardened brushes, basting syringes, and found objects. He also squeezed liquid alkyd paint and thick tube paint directly on his work. Finally his work became mostly monochromatic and he worked with the canvas horizontal becoming totally involved in the action of the painting creating a free flow of multiple layers with equal stress on all parts of the piece.
Each side of my garment represents my interpretation of a stage of Pollock’s development. I used acrylic paint but no paint brushes. The primary colors here were all applied with unique tools that create movement or stamped with found objects. The monochromatic side is “action painting,” no tools, only dripping, pouring, splashing with the shift in a horizontal position! Thank you, Jackson Pollock, for helping me find and accept a new direction in my own work.