The Jackson Pollock lesson

(This is one of my own abstracts. I've painted other action paintings similar to Pollock's style - but they all sold a long time ago and I didn't take photos.)

Over 20 years ago I worked with a small child who had low-toned cerebral palsy. He loved art but had no control over his hands. It was a challenge to create assignments every week that he could do and feel a sense of accomplishment at the end of art class. One week I decided to teach a lesson in action painting.

Jackson Pollock left a legacy to America and then the world. With his loose brushstrokes that evolved into extreme slashes of paint slung on a canvas, he re-worded the meaning of art. Over fifty years after his death, performance artists are still creating in front of audiences to this action-painting style. We owe all the abstract expressionists a huge debt of gratitude for seizing the title of art capital of the world. Under these artists, America became known for a unique style in modern art.

Above all that, action painting is just down-right fun! Who wouldn't enjoy slinging paint on a canvas in a spontaneous fashion? I knew my 5-year-old art student would love doing this so I packed a lot of butcher paper, cheap latex paint (Pollock's favorite media) and a lot of towels.

When I arrived at my young student's house, I could tell that his parents were very nervous. My student had a friend stay over the night before and they asked him to stay for art class. Since my student was so severely handicapped, he didn't have a lot of close friends. In fact, this was the first friend he had made that was willing to stay overnight. The parents were spending a lot of energy trying to make sure the two young boys had fun so the friend would want to come back.

I explained to the parents what I had planned for the art lesson and then set up the canvas in their driveway. I didn't want any paint to splatter in their home so I believed this was the best setting for this particular art lesson. Jackson Pollock actually purchased a barn to create his works so we were actually painting more like the way he would have done this assignment.

The two boys became so enthusiastic about the assignment;  they began diving into the canvas. Soon, the three of us were covered in bright colors. (And some of this paint made it to the canvas as well!) I got the inspiration to stick my art student in the middle of the canvas and have him crawl around on it. His friend laughed and then pushed him over to me like my student was a huge paint brush. I pushed him back to his friend. We laughed and continued playing this strange game of catch and my little art student really enjoyed being the brush.

When the parents came out to let us know that the friend's parents were on the way to pick him up, they noticed the mess. I felt a little guilty. We were covered in paint. The driveway was covered in paint. Even some of the bushes and trees were covered in paint. The painting looked great and they could see our collective effort. Much to my surprise, they were not upset. In fact, the father insisted that I take the painting home and frame it. He wanted to put it in his office at work. The parents then took the two young boys in the back yard and hosed them down. I packed up, went home and took a shower.

The next week the parents told me that the two boys had a fit in their kindergarten art class because they wanted to create another Jackson Pollock. I felt a little sorry for their art teacher. She didn't have a driveway to use. Imagine doing this assignment with 30 kids and then having to clean up for your next class?