Jackson Pollock

Now years ago when I was working on my archaeology degree I recall during field school this one nasty guy telling me that it was easy to make it in art, all you have to do is dribble paint like Jackson Pollock.  No.  Jackson Pollock's work is not easy to produce, and is actually quite easily identified because his work contains fractal patterns.  Fractal patterns are the patterns found in nature, it is the patterns tree branches grow in, and the pattern the waves leave in the sand as they recede.  Normal adult humans cannot draw or paint fractally our hands just don't move that way.  The thought is that Pollock was a severe alcoholic, his medical records actually show that he drank himself to the point of damaging his ability to balance.  Now small children when they are learning to walk move their hands in fractal patterns in order to balance, as do tight rope walkers.  The thought is that when Pollock leaned out over his paintings to work it threw his damaged balance off even more, so his hands would move fractally.  Now that is not to say Pollock was just an alcoholic with a paint brush.  He had a lot of years studying painting under his belt, including under Thomas Hart Benton.