Students experiment with abstract expressionism

(Updated: Thursday, January 07, 2010, 4:42 PM)

Minarets High School threw and dribbled paint just like the artist Jackson Pollock.

The 8-foot-by-4-foot unstretched canvas was placed on large plastic sheets and positioned on a dirt pad.

Art students first dipped their hands into two quart jars filled with acrylic mixed paints and then threw the paint across the canvas.

No artist left the site without paint splattered strategically all over their clothing and shoes.

To finish their works of art, a few hardy and carpentry-oriented students built a frame, called a canvas stretcher, out of 2-inch-by-2-foot pieces of lumber, then stretched the painted canvas using staples, to secure the finished painting.

The general consensus of the participants was that they not only experienced creating abstract expressionism but loved the freedom of throwing paint.