What you Talkin' About: Jackson Pollock

I am not really a huge fan of the work of Jackson Pollock. I appreciate the idea behind it, and the experimental nature of it... but basing an entire body of work around this idea seems unreal. I'm not here to bash on Mr Pollock though. I have a design related story to tell, and it involves him.I got in the mail the other day (by other day, I mean about two month ago...) a brochure for Pantone. There was a design on the back of it that I thought was really pretty cool, lot's of swoops, flourishes and spatters. At the end of the day, this is really just controlled chaos, which got me thinking about Jackson Pollock. Maybe I'm way off base here, and I can think of other artists/movements that also relate to this statement, but here we go. I told my wife that I don't know whether we'd have design quite like this if it weren't for Jackson Pollock.

I graduated from college with a studio art degree, and I remember feeling like it was just as useful as a philosophy degree. (By that I mean not really useful at all.) So much of "Fine art" is wrapped up in ideas, and like them or hate them they do affect the world we live in, and do become a part of our collective unconsious. Sometimes it gets so easy to be elitist about what is good or bad art and design which is a dangerous trap to fall into, simply because it closes your mind to the dialog of ideas. I'm starting to ramble, so I'm going to stop here. I hope you enjoy the design stuff I pulled off the interweb, and Jackson Pollock too.

Until next time, take care and be good.
Your friend
Jeffrey