Anthony Margulies
Prof. Judith Jablonka
MHC 100
12/20/10
Final Paper
Methods to Madness
Over the course of the semester we have learned a lot about art and what it means. One of the biggest insights that I gained was learning just how much art comes from within. It isn’t something that just happens. It has to come from within in order to truly be art and express something to the world around you. As such, when given the chance to impersonate one of my favorite painters, Jackson Pollock, I didn’t hesitate to find out just how exactly he was able to summon what was within him, and put it on canvas. My partner Matt, seemed just as eager to express himself in a way that didn’t conform to the rules and action painting seemed like the best way to do it.
Overall Matt and I hoped to learn about what goes into an action painting’s, like those of Pollock. Only by actually painting like him were we able to really understand how he might have come up with his ideas. The biggest thing we noticed was just how easy it was to express emotion using the painting techniques that Pollock used. By not conforming to any natural image, it allowed us to really just let the paint dictate what we were feeling. Sharp actions represented violence or anger; soft curves were a sign of our hearts in action. I actually really loved being able to express myself the way I did by using this style of painting. Not only did I not have to conform to the rules that I normally feel isolates me from art, but I also didn’t have to just repeat what someone else did. While I might have imitated Pollock’s style, all of my works are unique. This helped to teach me about just how personal art can be, and how much it truly relies on what’s within to be great art.
Not all of the process was so easy. The hardest problem was learning how to control the paint. Even by our last canvas Matt and I were only just beginning to understand and appreciate how much technique it takes to control paint the way Pollock did. While we did eventually come up with some minor techniques that allowed us control, we never once reached the level of Pollock in terms of control and that was our greatest challenge. It’s one thing to visualize your emotions and how you want them to be on the canvas, it’s another thing, though, to actually make it happen and using Pollock’s technique for painting made it nearly impossible. In the end though, by using some of what we learned at the MoMA about how paint appears on canvas, Matt and I were able to compensate for our lack of skill and managed to produce some really wonderful pieces for our series.
The final part of our project involved the actual classroom presentation and I must say I was quite nervous. It wasn’t because I thought our paintings were bad or that Matt and I hadn’t worked hard, instead it was the exact opposite. Matt and I worked extremely hard on this and we both thought our work looked great, but the fear that the audience would reject it was absolutely unnerving. After all, I am the only one who envisioned my paintings the way I wanted them to appear; anyone else could have thought they were garbage. Not knowing how the audience was going to react was really terrifying in a sense because my work was open to their interpretations, not just my own, and losing that sense of control was scary. Luckily for Matt and I though, the audience loved our work and I knew we had done as good job.
In all this semester has really served to open my eyes about art and has possibly donated a new hobby for me. Action painting really impacted me in a way few things have before and I will definitely consider pursuing it as a personal hobby. Despite the challenges it presents, action painting and art in general definitely serve as an important medium of expression and I have learned to respect and appreciate this form of communication much more. There’s no better place to learn about art than New York City, and I now plan on taking full advantage of that now that my eyes have been fully opened up to all of the possibilities that art presents.
