TMAS2 - Tense Modern Art Settings 2

This collection, like its predecessor, groups together works that have an air of tenseness, anxiety, or other emotions in the same vein. Additionally, these works tend to focus on portraying an environment, rather than a particular subject. Starting off, Tense Enclosure is a bit on the nose for this collection. Its color palette is generally pretty washed-out and desaturated, and its composition emphasizes the smooth, empty space in the middle of the picture, surrounded on both sides by tightly-packed vertical lines which serve as barriers. Next, Stifled Oven has a somewhat claustrophobic feel to it. In part, this is due to the general dirtiness of the background - it seems generally cloudy, with flecks of dust closer to our viewpoint scattered randomly. Meanwhile, it is also a very warm work, giving itself to a deep orange and red color scheme, but it avoids being vibrant - the warm colors are still somewhat less saturated than they should be in a healthy environment. Intensity Grading is a work I would describe as feeling clinical. It is very sharp and very distinct, being divided into a few separate sections which are clearly differentiated based on their color an texture. Most notable is the contrast between the central section and the top-right section - in the center, the background is white, and lins are thin and desaturated, whereas in the top-right they stand out much more against a black background, are clumped more tightly together, and are generally more colorful. Coward's Jail is relatively straightforward, following the theme of its archetype with thin horizontal and vertical lines interspersed against either a colored or a black background to give structure and organization. The dark yellow of the background is what gives the work its name, from the emotion it evokes. But my personal favorite work this week is Decaying Haze, a work with a distinctive and nonstandard visual styling for its background. The color contrast works well here, highlighting that texture, but then darkening as it approaches the little object towards the middle of the image. Despite the contrast between that foreground and the background, it feels as though there is less tension than there should be between the two elments, making the work feel unique. Please enjoy!