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The movement of this one is appealing to me. What I would like to do is find more ways to show movement. Tensions create movement. The trick is how to add those tensions. I began a new drawing today that I am hoping to add the tensions by spatial relationships. We'll see how it works out!

Thursday in Visual Tensions

4 Today

I did four drawings today, I figure with a possible 50 percent success rate my average could increase with two more days at bat. I actually am beginning to reconnect with old school formalism, a much needed boost to my repetitive studio repertoire of the past several years. While it has been a bit like pulling teeth (tethered string included) my teeth were loosened by the end of day 1 and have begun falling out one by one with each passing day. While certainly painful at times I remain ever mindful of the potential choking hazard ... so while I have retired the tether, I have it neatly tucked into my tool box for safe keeping. So far so good.

melissa swift...so far, so good!

This class has been eye-opening, if for no other reason than I feel like my artistic vocabulary has grown beyond anything I thought possible.

Through several conversations with my peers, we have all commented that our previous work has elements of tension within the composition, but that we didn't consciously make the decision to put the points of tension where they were. We've all followed that observation with the question: Is that possible?

What I have come to think, is that the education of an artist has evolved, much like technology (I mean hello. This is a blog, for class!) I think that somewhere in our fine arts education, the term "tension" was dropped as a compositional quality. While creating a composition, we are constantly drawing and checking, and adding elements in order to create balance, contrast, movement, rhythm, and emphasis. However, when asked why we created the composition the way we did, our answers have grown more generic and typically suggest that we just found it "more interesting" that way.

This course has made me rethink how I compose my artwork. Each mark affects previous marks and the success of the composition is dependent upon the whole as opposed to just a part. While it is still important to let your drawing guide it's own direction, you have to make the decisions regarding the size of the paper, the way it handle the media, and when to stop. There is an exceptional amount of beauty within a contour line drawing and it should never be considered a "lesser drawing" because it doesn't have shading, collage, paint, and the kitchen sink in it.

I've also learned to rethink how I discuss artwork. It is certainly not easy to break from the widely accepted generalizations and describe the components as if they are alive. The visual tension within a piece, is the new response for an image that is "interesting."

In the end, my drawings are nothing like anything I have ever done. And I'm mentally exhausted. That must be a sign that it's been a good day.

Thursday

I feel like I made some incredible work today, I don't think JC feels that way and he is grading it right now. Wish us luck? Oh and I feel asleep on the table when everyone left for dinner.

Visual Tensions

My inspiration for the drawing with the curves came from a piece of jewelry that I made. It is an abstract eye in the sun. I did a watercolor of the painting a few years back and brought in a photo of the work. I used this photo to work from taking certain elements and really abstracting them and playing with the visual tension. I enjoy the flowing, rhythmic feeling of all of the curves.

The other two pieces I got inspiration from was a photo taken in Provincetown of an old building that had photographs of old Portuguese women on them. While I did not draw the woman, I did play with the various squares and rectagles within the photo. After a few studies and mini sketches, I turned one of the sketches vertical and drew a bigger version using different values. I think the drawing works, had great visual tension and I am really proud of it.