Jackson Pollock Quotes

Painting is self-discovery. Every good artist paints what he is.

If people would just look at the paintings, I don't think they would have any trouble enjoying them. It's like looking at a bed of flowers, you don't tear your hair out over what it means.

Art is coming face to face with yourself.

The secret of success is… to be fully awake to everything about you.

Abstract painting is abstract. It confronts you. There was a reviewer a while back who wrote that my pictures didn't have any beginning or any end. He didn't mean it as a compliment, but it was.

It doesn't matter how the paint is put on, as long as something is said.

There is no accident, just as there is no beginning and no end.

When I am in a 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. I have no fears about making changes, destroying the image, etc, because 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 result is a mess. Otherwise there is pure harmony, an easy give and take, and the painting comes out well.

The modern artist is living in a mechanical age and we have a mechanical means of representing objects in nature such as the camera and photograph. The modern artist, it seems to me, is working and expressing an inner world - in other words - expressing the energy, the motion, and other inner forces.

A canvas is an arena in which to act.

The modern artist is working with space and time, and expressing his feelings rather than illustrating.

Painting is no problem. The problem is what to do when you're not painting.

I don't paint nature. I am nature.

A real friend is someone you say a sentence to and they know ten thousand words behind that sentence.

I want to express my feelings rather than illustrate them.

Energy and motion made visible – memories arrested in spaceTechnic is the result of a need new needs demand new technics total control denial of the accident States of order organic intensity energy and motion made visible memories arrested in space, human needs and motives acceptance.

The modern artist... is working and expressing an inner world - in other words - expressing the energy, the motion, and other inner forces.

You can't learn techniques and then try to become a painter. Techniques are a result.

I can control the flow of paint: there is no accident.

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

Something in me knows where I’m going, and - well, painting is a state of being. ... Painting is self-discovery. Every good artist paints what he is.

When I say artist I mean the man who is building things - creating molding the earth - whether it be the plains of the west - or the iron ore of Penn. It's all a big game of construction - some with a brush - some with a shovel - some choose a pen.

Painting is a state of being.

Love is friendship set to music.

People have always frightened and bored me consequently I have been within my own shell.