Response to Annemarie's Blog

From Wednesday's class, I realized how difficult it can be to discuss secular religion...or religion in general I guess, in reference to art because art by itself is so interpretive. Discussion is especially hard when the item up for grabs is a work by Jackson Pollock. A few people seemed to think that Pollock's work has nothing to do with religion, secular or nonsecular but I beg to differ.
I really like what Annemarie had to say about symbols. One hard thing about discussing Pollock's work in a religious context was that people were trying to find a disintguishable picture in the chaos, which works at times but I think there's a different way to go about it and that's through symbols. Annemarie stated that art is the greatest symbol of all because it invokes a visual stimulation followed by a visual response in the individual. I completely aggree with this notion. While looking at Pollock's work it is not the title that matters or what one can decipher from mass of drips...but it is what the painting as a whole provides for viewers emotionally. For example, a viewer might not be able to distinguish one of Pollock's drip paintings but may be drawn to it becuase it may provide him/her relief from what is going on in the world at that moment. For example, when I look at Pollock's "No. IA" I get lost in it and feel as though I'm inside my brain instead of in reality. This provides a relief for me from the stress of life on earth and I get a sense of transcending reality...which is what religion provides for people.
So, to sum up I think an important thing to consider when looking at Pollock's paintings is to not expect something definit but to just focus on what it does for an individual's emotions and mental state.