Early Life and Influences – A Pittsburgh Boy’s Artistic Awakening Paul Jackson Pollock, born on January 28, 1912, in Cody, Wyoming, was the youngest of five children within a family rooted in Iowa. His parents, LeRoy and Stella May Pollock, were of Irish and Scots-Irish descent, hailing from Tingley, Iowa, where they had established themselves as farmers. This rural upbringing, steeped in the values of hard work and community, would s…