by Susan Couso
Jackson Pollock made a huge impression in the art world with his abstract impressionism style of painting. His unique work, which appears to most to be paint splashes and drips, earned him the nickname of ‘Jack the Dripper’, but he has won world acclaim, and his work, Number 17A, sold for $200 million at auction. He is, definitely, one of the world’s most famous abstract artists.
The Pollock family lived in Janesville for a short time, and some say that Jackson’s work was influenced by the “tumbling Susan River.” That may be true. It is certainly difficult to tell, but since his residence in this area was from the ages of 8 to 9 years, it is doubtful. He never drew or painted as a child.
Paul Jackson Pollock was born in Cody, Wyoming in 1912., and the family moved several places before settling in Phoenix, Arizona in 1913. His early life on a farm there was a happy one.
Then, in 1919, his father, LeRoy, and mother, Stella, purchased a citrus farm in Chico, and the family attempted a new life. Pollock had four older brothers; Charles, Frank, Sanford and Jay, and the boys were enrolled in school in Chico when the family, once again, decided to move on.
LeRoy Pollock was ‘fed up’ with citrus farming, something that he knew nothing about. He heard of a small-town inn for sale and decided that anything was better than the citrus business. In January of 1920, LeRoy Pollock purchased the Diamond Mountain Inn in Janesville. The older 3 boys, attending high school in Chico, stayed behind with friends.
The Diamond Mountain Inn was a 22-room establishment catering mainly to road surveyors who were working in the area, and LeRoy Pollock soon determined that catering to guests and cleaning rooms was not to his liking either. One morning he packed his bags and left with a group of road surveyors.
His devastated wife followed him around the west, trying to get him to reconcile, but to no avail. In September of 1921, she traded the Diamond Mountain Inn for a 20-acre dairy farm in Orland, California, hoping to lure Leroy back to the farm life that he had loved. He never did visit the Orland farm, but years later, the couple did get back together and returned to the Phoenix area.
The transient early years of Jackson Pollock’s life and the loss of his father’s closeness seemed to have affected his personality. While his paintings virtually scream with life, he, himself, became a reclusive alcoholic.
In 1945, he married fellow artist Lee Krasner, but his life was not a happy one. On August 11, 1956, he was killed in a roll-over car accident while driving his convertible. One other passenger was killed and one survived.
