I sometime wonder if there is no such thing as a random act. A sequence of random acts can begin to take on a pattern. I think it may be the subconscious revealing itself.
Jackson Pollock was known for his automatic painting process that involved dripping splatters of paint on large canvases without any excessive thinking. Looking back at his paintings patterns emerge that enable experts to detect an authentic Jackson Pollock from other painters. His work had three primary stages in which the frequency of fractal patterns were consistent enough as to reveal intention in the work.
I made this image in December of 2020 by photographing a small step stool that had been used in an art studio. It had lots of spilled paint on the step. I thought the abstract pattern was beautiful so I made a cell phone photograph and recomposed it as a vertical composition.
Random drips create a whole mythology complete with flying skeletons and wrestling creatures right out of Pan’s Labyrinth.
Perhaps our random behaviors are part of a larger organization within the cosmos. I think the job of the artist is to see the fractal patterns and organize them within the frame in a way that inspires the imagination.
