I went to view a famous painting today. I live in a rather rural, rather small, rather common, small city. So it was rather significant to have something as significant (not to mention large) as the Jackson Pollock “Mural” in our hometown art center.
The painting is over 8 foot tall by nearly 20 foot long. “Seeing” it involves more than just walking up, standing a few feet from it, nodding your head and then moving on.
The sheer enormity of it compels you to look at it from this direction and that. To stand back and take in the full view, to move close, to shift from spot to spot, like an assembly line, working your way down the canvas. Stooping and standing as tall as you can, tilting and pondering, it was all I could do to restrain myself from wanting to go up and touch it.
Then I took a seat in the hall, and pondered it. Because you see, even though I know little to nothing about paintings, this one, with all of its stories and drama, its rumors and myths made me think about our lives.
We live day to day, sort of pressed up against the canvas, focused on that little portion of our life. Sometimes we step back a little to take in a bit more.
And rarely, we step way back to ponder the overall effect of everything coming together. How different it is then just looking at say a day or week or month of life or a square foot of this painting. And yet it all fits together when you see the big picture.
The thing that really surprised me about this painting that was “recognized as a turning point for American Art“, this painting that is described as a “Masterpiece,” was what you see when you get close and study the details.
You might expect a masterpiece to be very refined and controlled, with precision and perfection. But what you will see in this painting is drips and splatters, running paint, combinations of colors not expected, and what appears up close to be all kinds of random jabs and splotches.
Yes, this priceless painting has a jumble of layer upon layer of paint and haphazard drips. It looks like Pollock must have gone back over and over to add more paint to the canvas till he felt it was done.
Doesn’t it seem like that in our own lives? Don’t we fret about the imperfections, the “running paint,” the splotches we never intended (or maybe we did) that seemed to make up the days. And when we get to the end of the day/week/year, we fret over how our life is not going “according to plan” and wonder why others’ lives look so perfect when ours looks so rumpled?
Sometimes we feel like we have gone over and over areas again, adding layer upon layer of events but never getting it “right”? But like the “Mural” by Pollock, when you step back and see it all, there is a pattern to it. It does flow together.
What seemed to be mistakes and imperfections are what gives it its unique quality. Those layers bring depth and interest to a flat canvas. And it all fits together.
That reassured me that maybe I just can’t step back far enough yet to see how all of the pieces of my life fit together. Maybe I just have to trust the process.
And keep on painting the canvas of my life. The splotches give it character and life.
Maybe today is your day to fling, drip and splash some color in to your own life. Not trying to cover up yesterday’s layer but adding what you know today to the total picture.
One of the words used to describe this painting by Pollock was action. If you were to step back and look at the Mural of your life, what one word would describe it? Feel free to share it in the conversation over at my Facebook page – Click Here.