Comparisons between my work and that of Andy Warhol and Jackson Pollock

This current piece is the result of many experiments with paint. I first started using the ‘drip technique’ in my work when portraying dancers from my performing arts background. I wanted to show the movement that the dancers were making, rather than painting them in static positions. This is when I started dripping gloss paint, as the gestures I made from the dripping gave the feeling of movement within the figures. Shortly after this, I moved onto Landscapes; in particular I was interested in the Norfolk coast in which I lived. I still use the Norfolk coast as the basis for all my work, as I am particularly interested in the wave and wind patterns: I base my work mostly on the times that the weather is particularly bad and the sea is extremely rough. What draws me to the waves is the fact that it always moves: the same can be said for the wind. Unlike the wind though, the movement of water can be seen easily and I am drawn to the visual element of movement. I used the same dripping style of painting in my landscape pieces as I believe it is an appropriate way of showing movement within a painting.

I made these types of work over and over, until eventually my work became more abstract. It became more about the movement of the wind and the waves than the actual landscape itself: I became very interested in expressing only the movement of the wind and the waves, in such a way that the actual landscape has become lost. Because I was focusing less on the landscape, I started to experiment and explore the media that I was using. I paint using white and black emulsion and gloss paint. Gloss is a very interesting paint, as when it is dripped, it dries in such a way that it is still shiny. This gives the illusion of wet paint. Another interesting thing about gloss paint is that it sits on top of the rest of the piece, showing a defined layer of paint. This adds an interesting texture to the piece, which makes the viewer want to run their hands across the work. It was through exploring and using these paints that led me to my current piece.

My current piece has a Jackson Pollock feel. The white and black gestures dance and interweave throughout the piece. The many layers give the piece a very chaotic feel, as each layer has varying directions and momentum. Unlike Jackson Pollock’s pieces, in which you stand a fair distance to look at them, I decided to make my piece smaller. This was because I wanted the viewer to stand fairly close to the piece to see the many layers of the same coloured paints. In this way the viewer can also see the layering and textured effect of gloss paint. The colours of gloss that I used in this piece were black and white mostly, but I also used another single colour. I used blue gloss drips as my work was initially based on a seascape, and in my mind I am always thinking of the sea when I create my work.

I also made small pockets within this piece by using piles of sand to raise the level of the gloss paint, and then tipping the sand out after the paint had dried. This gives a very impressive raised paint effect, as the webs of paint are sitting a fair distance from the painting surface. I think this makes the piece more complex. I find this very interesting as the viewer can actually view the layers underneath these pockets, rather than the paint being consumed entirely by the top layer. The sand also makes these raised layers of gloss very gritting, unlike the rest of the smooth and shiny areas. As well as this, the sand combines with the gloss and makes a very strong layer, which cannot be broken or snapped easily.
Another aspect of this work is that the painting surface is made from flattened Diet Coke boxes. I collected these boxes by drinking all the cans inside them, and then flattening them when I was finished. By holding these cans the boxes were useful, and by emptying them I was making their use come to an end. By flattening them and making them into a painting surface, I am giving the boxes a new use. This also makes each box very personal to me, as I have personally drunk that amount of Diet Coke. I originally chose Diet Coke boxes as when I flattened one of the boxes, I thought the shape was very interesting as the edges weren’t straight, and envisioned a large version of that shape.

I was intrigued to make a piece that was very fragile. I didn’t want to stick the boxes together with glue, I wanted the sole material other than the boxes themselves to be paint; therefore I laid all of the boxes next to each other and dripped paint onto them. This means that the only things holding these boxes together are the gestures from the gloss paint. The idea that the structure of the piece is completely reliant on the paint itself is intriguing as it means the paint doesn’t just have its visual uses, but it is important in holding the piece together.
This piece can be thought of as double-sided, as on one side is an Abstract Expressionist style piece and on the other is the repeated Diet Coke logo. The commercial Diet Coke label in repetition on the back of the painting immediately makes me think of Andy Warhol’s ‘Brillo Boxes’. I have combined these factory made boxes with a painting that is self-made. This has given the effect of one side of the piece being Pop art, and the other being Abstract Expressionist. I find the idea that two entirely different art movements can be seen within my piece almost like a joke, considering that the two movements are quite opposite. Why would anyone combine these two styles?

I have mentioned references to two art movements within my piece, and specifically the work of Andy Warhol and Jackson Pollock. When you look at my piece from the front it immediately makes you think of Jackson Pollock’s work. The similarities lie within the fluid gestural marks, and the way that it is applied. Like me, Pollock applied his paint with a long stick, by dipping it into the buckets of paint and dripping it onto the canvas. He laid his canvas on the floor and painted from all four sides by what was almost like dancing around the piece. Pollock worked on a large canvas as he felt more at ease with a big area. Also like me, Pollock mainly uses black and white in quite a few of his pieces. I am quite interested in his play between the contrast of the black and the white. As the works are very chaotic, it would almost be sickly to use colour in the same way the black and white gestures are used.

It is quite clear that both my work and that of Jackson Pollock share a similar style, in the way that the paint is applied. What isn’t as clear is the back of my painting, which I believe has some importance to the piece as a whole. As I mentioned briefly earlier, the entire painting surface of my piece has been made up of Diet Coke boxes, and if my piece was to be turned over, the repeated Diet Coke logo would be seen. This reminds me very much of Andy Warhol’s ‘Brillo Boxes’ during the Pop art movement. The ‘Brillo Boxes’ are plywood boxes with the Brillo logo silk screened onto them. This work embraces American commercial culture by exhibiting ‘the familiar’. This machine-made look is a sharp contrast to the unique gestures of Pollock’s work.

If someone who had seen the work of Jackson Pollock’s work looked at my own, they would instantly recognise the dripping painting style, and this makes both sides of my work ‘the familiar’. Does this mean that the Pollock styled side is behaving in a Pop art manner? Both sides of the piece can also be linked together, using myself and my personal involvement with both sides as the link. When you look at each side the initial thought is that whereas I have an obvious physical involvement with the Pollock styled side, I have no personal involvement with the Diet Coke side. What many people don’t know is that I drink a lot of Diet Coke, and those boxes were collected after I had drank the contents. When you understand this, you could say that the two sides aren’t entirely contrasted after all, as I have had personal involvement with both sides of the piece.

My work initially started by trying to portray movement within dancers and landscapes by using the ‘drip technique’ found in the works of Jackson Pollock. As I began exploring the uses of different paints and the technique, my work began to get more abstract and the initial landscape became lost. As my work became more abstract, it started to gain more similarities to the work of Jackson Pollock, which is why I developed the raised areas of paint within my pieces. My work is double sided, and the painting surface is made up of Diet Coke boxes, which can be seen on the back of the work. By creating these two sides, I have compared the two elements from Clement Greenberg’s essay, “Avant-garde and Kitsch”. I think that it is almost like a joke to have these two elements within the same painting, as each side is reminiscent of two almost opposite art movements. I think it is a successful idea to portray these two styles back to back in my work, as the two movements happened very close to each other. I think that my work induces people to think about the two movements, and their relevance to each other.