Dwelling places: Negative Space
Wondering, wandering, thinking on…
How do we participate with such a space “negative or white” or
more so “silence”?
Recently on my walk around my local park, I sat down to rest and ponder. While looking out noticing the wide open field here is where I began thinking of negative space. The grassy field feels energetically vacant. Something should be happening here! Something will, I know!
Why? Because I have seen this spacious place— treaded on by school PE classes, run on during soccer games, exercising dogs love it, occasional golfers working on their swing technique play on it, birds especially ducks and geese soak up the sun on it, and so much more.
But what about the space while it sits waiting- what’s going on?
I walk the perimeter through a small portion of slushy grass with a few puddles, the soil and grass seeds receive nourishment so new blades can grow and provide this wide green landscape.
My thoughts and imagination wander back to the concept of negative space. Why is this spacious field linking me to negative space—is it photography or my leanings towards silence, or both?
What is negative space?
It is often seen as blank space in an image, in a painting, or on a page of poetry, or even our thoughts. Even silence many times may feel like negative space.
But I wonder, is negative space really blank or silence?
Or is it space or time to just be?
Time or space to let all things that need to flow out in ways we can’t even see.
“Blank space” where there is something there.
This reminds me early on in my journey with spiritual direction, I would use the word “nothing” and my spiritual director said gently “wait!” Let’s pause and listen into “nothing” and we did.
And yes, she was right, God was there, and everything He was doing was going on. Over time, I’ve grown in paying attention to negative spaces, listening in silence, and waiting to see a glimpse of something God is in the midst of doing in my life. This is what we get to do in spiritual direction moments, it is helping others pause, it is a patient and slow path forward, keeping trust on the path with God. Yes, life has twists and turns like my Celtic bracelet where the eyes are drawn to the cross in the center to remind me “everything is going on.”
White Silence
More reflection.
I first came across the term negative space when learning about art composition and photography. I imagine you too are familiar with this phrase but here’s some meaning for us to set forth from.
Negative space:
In art, it is the empty space around and between the subject of an image
In page layout, illustration and sculpture, white space is often referred to as negative space
In photography, it emphasizes not just the subject but also the empty space around the subject
“Negative space refers to areas of a composition that are empty, bland, or otherwise uninteresting. That’s why negative space is also called white space; it’s where nothing is really happening.” (www.digitalphotographyschool.com)
Some questions to ponder before going on:
Why is *negative space, empty space, white space important?
Is *it important? To whom is it significant?
What does *it call us (the viewer, the participant) to do?
How do we participate with such a space “negative or white” or more so “silence”?
I’ve decided to throw in silence at this point. I’ve been reading, in a very unhurried way, the book The Incredible Embrace: Beauty by John O’Donohue. He invites various conversations around beauty, and one particular portion presented negative space by introducing the phrase “white silence” in relation to the color black and writing,
“Books are printed in black ink. There is again some irony here: the most colorful worlds, characters and adventures live inside lines of black narrative. In the contrast to prose, a poem leaves more room on the page for the white silence and space to intensify the black lines where the music is distilled.” (p.95)
Feel free to sit with this statement for a bit before reading on. What thoughts or wonderings come to surface.?
For me the question to stay with was, how do we participate with such a space “negative” or “white” or more so “silence”?
Some of the thoughts that came up:
-Silence whether space or sound invites creative imagination to be embraced, relinquished, in time gently filled not emptied.
-In the beauty of poetry, photography and other art mediums, we are okay with this for it seems we are more accepted as enjoying a moment.
-As poetry, photography, or even the posture of being still are inviting white silence; negative space, I wonder what then begins to happen?
I have decided to share this posting, in a way of negative space leaving wide open, open-ended thoughts or musings. At this point the intent isn’t to answer any particular question(s). But to invite wondering or maybe even wandering in wide open negative spaces, white silence —moments in our day. Could we then be able to hear our Creator, God’s voice more
over the distractions that sometimes positive space takes up.
Just wondering? —Selah
