Action Painting: Roosters, Maggots and Trees

 A maggot artist displays its artistry. (Kathy Keatley Garvey/UC Davis photo)

The Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849) is best known for his famous painting, The Great Wave off Kanagawa. During his lifetime Hokusai had a reputation as a bit of an eccentric. In 1806 the Japanese artist covered a long scroll with big blue loops of paint. He then dipped a rooster’s feet in red paint and made it walk across the scroll, triumphantly labeling the result: Maple Leaves Floating on the Tatsuta River.

Contemporary artists continue to use living paintbrushes to dribble, splash and smear paint onto canvas in a variation of the action painting made popular by Jackson Pollock. 

UC Davis forensic entomologist and doctoral student Rebecca O’Flaherty encourages students to dip squirming larvae into water-based paint, position them on paper, and watch them crawl, creating colorful works of art. The educational program entitled Voila! Maggot Art was developed and trademarked by O’Flaherty after launching the program in 2001 at the University of Hawaii.  

Learn more about creating art with maggots at NPR’s Arts and Culture column.  You can also visit the Maggot Art show. 

And then of course there is Jonathan Keats and his tree art.

I stumbled across an article about Keats in the March 2007 issue of Outside magazine.  Keats tied pencils to the branches of 50 Leyland cypresses, aligned the pencil tips onto pads of sketching paper, and let the wind do the rest.    You can view a slide showof Keats and the Leyland cypress trees at work. 

Learn more about the Agrifolk Art Movement.