terminologies and personal interpretation
Fri, July 4, 2008 at 7:51PM Do you think about what you are doing in your art, in the sense that you sit down and say, "Okay today we are going to do an a la poupee mixed with some Dada-ist leanings, heightening the dynamic tension with a little radial imbalance, hoping to precipitate a Stendhal's Syndrome in my audience? Oh and i'd like to use chartreuse with chocolate." How about thinking about your diagonals in a field of wheat? Your juxtaposition of hard against soft? Do you?
I don't. Usually. Unless it's maybe on a subconscious level, i rarely think about preplanning that much. Do most artists? Am i out in the cold on this one, with the bad girls behind the barn? Light up, my dears, light up. I'm going and blowing my own way.
I'm NOT an expert, and the only reason i'm thinking and wondering about terminologies is because someone asked me to "define" tension in a fiber art sense. Am i less "serious" about my art because i don't know (all) the "correct" words, their definitions and how to apply them? Do i HAVE to apply them?
My first Opinion:
"Tension: a balance maintained in an artistic work (such as a poem, painting,
or musical composition), and i'm adding: Textile arts between opposing forces or elements;
a controlled dramatic or dynamic quality. "
HMMMM. i'd say personally, this is a subjective term. If i slash a calm blue sky with a jag of blood red, that would be tension. The red against the blue is tension. The slash of the line across or down or diagonally (classic!) is tension. If i think tiny black dots in circled spirals are corruscating against a field of cream, is that tension? Who says i'm wrong?
To me "tension" can be juxtaposition as well. A lacy fine thread against stone work or a menacing rock in the middle of a spiderweb piece of lace. It's also a balance element, not taking over or hiding either. Obvious but not always in your face.
Tension can be a personal or well known icon out of place as well. I think if you are wanting to apply the premise to your own design/work, you need to do it intuitively. Think big, even if the piece is small, kind of a "one of these things does not belong, one of these things is not the same" I don't mean big in a scale sense but a pow sense--and pow can be soft colours/elements too if it jars against the rest.
And what is "controlled"??????? I deliberately dripped the paint a certain way? I measured the points the lines should meet? I suppose if it becomes a mess of tension, then it's a snarl and ya can't see the stitch for the stitiching.
This is all my PERSONAL interpretation of Tension. I could find little on-line myself that served to illustrate clearly! If anyone would like to "correct" me or "educate", go ahead: i'm open to it! Visual examples would be appreciated as well, right Sarah???? 
JULY/08 
Reader Comments (6)
EEEERRRrrr No!
Why does there need to be tension in any work but knitting? I sew to relieve tension. If there's a bit in the design its totally intuitive. I rarely plan.I want my work to give pleasure not jangle nerves.
Don't worry about it.
It'll make you tense.
Personally I think "a la poupee" would best describe my method of arting. LOL
k
Congratulations on four years blogging. It is interesting to be able to look back on oneself through ones writing. Change is inevitable but generally slow moving. Peeking in on early blog entries really does capture the transition...the growth! I can truly relate to the odd and seemingly contradictory feelings you wrote about having four years ago!
I really enjoyed the post to which I'm attaching this message. Art terminology is one of those "scary" areas for me. Without a proper art background, I feel very self conscious about in depth conversations that seem to require in depth knowledge and a large vocabulary.
Yet, I try to remember a MFA show that was once in the gallery outside my studio door. The young artist included a lengthy statement about her highly abstracted work....in a palette of mostly brown. I didn't understand it at all. I felt stupid.
I read it three or four times. I read it again the next day and the day after that. I studied each sentence....."there's a verb....okay....that word is the "subject"for that verb.....that phrase describes that direct object....that pronoun refers to the first noun...etc." No matter how I analyzed it, I still hadn't a clue what was being said.
Then, my friend Jeff arrived. He stood with me and read the statement too. He said, "Do you have any idea what this means?" My only response was, "I think it could be summarized as 'I paint'." He thought for a moment and then agreed with me.
I swear, the work in this MFA show didn't look "planned" and the statement had to have been written well after the paintings had all dried. There was little in the statement that could add to the work. There was little in the words that made sense. If there was "tension", it was found in trying to understand the $5 words inserted into run-on sentences.
While I don't have the "proper" background, Jeff does. Neither of us "got it"....because sometimes there's nothing to "get"!
I like your definition. It works. Like you, I rarely "plan" in advance and I certainly can't approach art making with lofty goals generally expressed by critics and writers!
Susan