Paul Jackson Pollock, was an influential American painter
and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement.
He had a volatile personality, and struggled with alcoholism for most of
his life. He died in an accident in the age of 44.
Pollock invented a kind of art he called action painting. Many of his paintings are really big, like this one which is about 8 feet tall and 13 feet wide... as big as an entire wall in your house. Pollock would lay this giant canvas down on the floor of an old barn that he used for his studio. Then he would dip sticks into cans of paint and move all around the canvas, swooping and flicking paint one way and another. He built up layers and layers of color, used his fingers to drip and splatter paint, even dumped paint right out of the can.
Pollock once said, "When I'm in my painting, I'm not even aware of what I'm doing. ...the painting has a life of its own." Some people thought Pollock's paintings were just a big mess, but others looked carefully and discovered beautiful patterns and feelings in the chaos of imxed colors
" Convergence "
* pieces of the text were taken from http://www.kidsart.com/IS/427.html
