Thesis I: Words
As an artist statement writing exercise for my BFA Seminar class my professor instructed us to come up with a list of 10-15 words that describe our work. After compiling the list of key words we had to look up each word in the thesaurus and come up with a subsequent list of synonyms. Below is my list of words as well as some comparative words that have helped me to better understand my work.
Craft: feminine craft, trade, skill, workmanship, ability
Tactile: touchable, material, palpable, physical, solid, tangible
Tangible: concrete, real, actual, discernible
Cross-Disciplinary: Discipline: field of study, specialty, area, subject of interest
Material/Materiality: matter, substance, medium, element, component
Geometric
Jewelry: adornment, ornamentation
Material Exploration: experimentation, investigation, inquiry, enquiry, research, study, analysis, inspection, test, study
Garment: clothing, apparel, attire, garb, appearance, clothe
Textile/Fiber: cloth, fabric, material,
Wear: attire vs. Ware: pottery
Fabricate: assemble construct, model, produce, formulate, shape, compose
Handmade vs. Machine Fabrication
Handmade: handcrafted, handicraft, homemade, homespun
Machine Fabrication: mass produced, machine made, manufactured
Homely vs. Clean
Homely: handedness
Clean: crisp, edited, neat, orderly, well groomed
Pattern vs. Plainness
Pattern: tessellation, motif, marking, ornament, decoration, mosaic, montage, patchwork
Plainness: unadorned, homely, homespun, pure, matter of fact
Function vs. Frivolity
Function: utility, purpose, role, duty, goal, usefulness
Frivolity: superficiality, shallowness, pointless,trivial, unimportant
Maker vs. Wearer
Maker: creator, constructor, artisan, fabricator, producer, craftsperson, skilled worker, designer, couturier
Biomorphic vs. Static
Biomorphic: amorphic,baggy, irregular, unshaped, asymmetrical
Static: stationary, motionless, at rest, lifeless
Fragile vs. Strong
Fragile: breakable, dainty, delicate, brittle [Cleave: divide, fragment, break, shatter]…antonym = pliable or bendable
Strong: durable, hardwearing, heavy-duty, we made, long lasting
alexistellefsen 
Hi Alexis! Your list of synonyms are great.. I didn’t try this exercise with my themes, but I think I will… somebody has a thesis show to name and this actually could be fun!
I’m totally into the way you have formulated these ideas by pitting them against one another. The whole “this versus that” format is an interesting way to determine form. Maybe you could create a mind map that connects all of them somehow, that way you can discover new connections and develop these concepts further! Exciting stuff.
The idea of creating a situation that plays with the dichotomy of these tensions is interesting. By identifying themes that you want to work with, you can seek to find the overlap of two polarities, use them in a juxtapositional manner to emphasize their differences, or simply shed light on the continuum itself to make a bigger conceptual statement. Binaries are excellent opportunities to create metaphor in your work, so I question how pervasive you want such themes to be. If you are looking to create work with design-oriented tensions, maybe such things are irrelevant. From a purely aesthetic perspective, how could you create opposing tensions that are formally, not content, based?