Lesson 26 - Jackson Pollock Inspired Spaghetti Painting

 

The goal of this lesson, no matter what preconceptions you may have before you begin is to: (1) have lots of fun; and (2) get messy!

We concentrated our art lesson on the work of American painter Jackson Pollock. He was born in Wyoming in 1912. He grew up in Arizona and California, and he explored Native American culture while on surveying trips with his father.

Jackson Pollock became famous for his abstract paintings. His main method of painting was to splatter paint on canvas by swinging his paintbrush around. He also used unusual items to paint such as egg beaters, sticks, and sometimes he poured paint onto the canvas directly out of the can. He was a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. His best known style was his “drip painting”. Pollock’s technique of pouring and dripping paint is thought to be one of the origins of the term “action painting”, because he would use his whole body, either standing over the canvas on the floor, or standing on a ladder and dripping, splattering, and pouring paint onto the canvas. After his death in 1956, he was given a memorial exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York City. Other exhibitions followed in 1967, 1998 and 1999.

After learning about Jackson Pollock and looking at some of his paintings on the computer we made two canvases both inspired by Pollock’s work. We placed the canvases on the floor on a tarp. However, instead of throwing paint around (and on each other), we decided to put our own twist on the Pollock technique and paint with cooked spaghetti.

Painting with cooked spaghetti is fun and the results look very much like a Pollock painting. The children mixed cooked whole wheat spaghetti with different color paints in various bowls. This was by far their favorite activity. It was impressed upon the children not to taste the pasta,
as it would not taste very good. (Only non toxic paint was used). Then by using forks or chopsticks, the children dropped the spaghetti onto the canvas.  They swirled the pasta around, covering the canvas with multi-colored lines and “wormlike” patterns.

They also used a turkey baster to splatter paint around the canvas, as well as some fun funky brushes and a wire bottle washer to add the finishing touches to their paintings.

Everyone had fun mixing up their spaghetti and using their whole body in the creation of the inspired art. Jackson Pollock would have approved.