Dialogue by Mark:

Busy ladybugs can cover a lot of ground as they leap through your garden. The painting in our Master's Gallery today looks to me like the trails left by a hundred ladybugs hard at work. It was painted by the artist Jackson Pollock in 1953, and is called "Convergence."

Pollock invented a kind of art he called action painting. Many of his paintings are really big, like this one which is about 8 feet tall and 13 feet wide... as big as an entire wall in your house. Pollock would lay this giant canvas down on the floor of an old barn that he used for his studio. Then he would dip sticks into cans of paint and move all around the canvas, swooping and flicking paint one way and another. He built up layers and layers of color, used his fingers to drip and splatter paint, even dumped paint right out of the can.

Pollock once said, "When I'm in my painting, I'm not even aware of what I'm doing. ...the painting has a life of its own." Some people thought Pollock's paintings were just a big mess, but others looked carefully and discovered beautiful patterns and feelings in the chaos of imxed colors. Jackson Pollock is known today as a great master of American art. Thanks to Kim at KidsArt, our expert of art history action...and to the Albright Knox Art Gallery for today's Master's Gallery.