Jackson Pollock

I'm not interested in composition. I'm interested in rhythm.

I'm not interested in subject. I'm interested in feeling.

I'm not interested in meaning. I'm interested in being.

I'm not interested in anything but painting.

I'm not interested in anything else.

I'm not interested in anything but the canvas.

I'm not interested in anything but the paint.

I'm not interested in anything but the act of painting.

I'm not interested in anything but the experience.

I'm not interested in anything but the moment.

I'm not interested in anything but the truth.

The painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come through. It is only when I lose contact with the painting that the struggle begins, and the relevant form is no longer there.

My painting does not come from the easel. I hardly ever stretch my canvas before painting.

I prefer to tack the unstretched canvas to the hard wall or the floor. I need the resistance of a hard surface.

On the floor I am more at ease. I feel nearer, more a part of the painting, since this way I can walk around it, work from the four sides and literally be in the painting.

This is akin to the method of the Indian sand painters of the West.

I continue to get further away from the usual painter’s tools such as easel, palette, brushes, etc.

I prefer sticks, trowels, knives and dripping fluid paint or a heavy impasto with sand, broken glass or other foreign matter added.

When I am in my painting, I’m not aware of what I’m doing.

It is only after a sort of ‘get acquainted’ period that I see what I have been about.