Pollock made this painting over a period of several months. He started with figurative imagery, and later superimposed a network of black lines in order "to veil the image." His "veil" is spread evenly across the canvas, preventing any center or focal point from emerging, although snakes, eyes, and facesclassic Pollock motifsflicker beneath the dense thicket of lines. This new compositional structure helped him to abandon his pursuit of a symbolic vocabulary and begin making progressively nonrepresentational works.