This year’s Music Throu’ The Eye is an exploration of the popularity and historical importance of maverick American painter Jackson Pollock (1912-1956). The story of Pollock’s artistic journey is not simply the tale of one man and his vision; rather it is the story of America’s cultural coming-of-age, of a conscious effort to break with European traditions and explore new, challenging, and uniquely American artistic frontiers. We will explore the Pollock "mystique"--what is it about this particular painter and his work that continues to captivate us? What makes Pollock’s work uniquely "American", and why is he so inexorably tied to American artistic identity to this day? Using projected paintings, photographs, and musical examples from several of Pollock’s contemporaries including John Cage and Charlie Parker, we will attempt to answer these questions.