Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!

Sign In Register
Examples: Monday, today, last week, Mar 26, 3/26/04
Welcome home! Please contact lincoln@icrontic.com if you have any difficulty logging in or using the site. New registrations must be manually approved which may take several days. Can't log in? Try clearing your browser's cookies.

Negative Space

MarmaladeMarmalade
edited March 2010 in Buddhism Basics
Hey guys, I've lately been thinking a lot about negative space, and I'm not sure if it's related to buddhism, but I thought I'd get your guys opinion.

I'm not exactly sure how to explain what I mean by negative space.
In the picture below, the black would be considered the negative space.

lily-flower-in-black-and-white-kimxa-stark.jpg

See what I mean?

Anyways, I've been thinking about the negative space of myself, or my mind. Sometimes when I think about it, I feel like I'm watching myself, or I have a different perspective. Like, instead of me and my environment/reality, I'm watching myself from the viewpoint of my environment. But I'm also watching from my own point of view, because it's impossible for me to view something if I'm not MY point of view. It's like I'm both at the same time?

I'm probably making no sense at all right now. Forgive me.

Anyways, there's a sensation of nonduality, as if my mind is the line that separates me from my environment, and it temporarily is letting me peek at both at the same time.

Have any of you guys had a similar experience? What happens when you think about the negative space of your mind/experience?

Comments

  • JeffreyJeffrey Veteran
    edited March 2010
    The only boundaries on space are mentally and artificially imposed. Sometimes it feels like there isn't much space. Sometimes it feels limitless. All mental notions.
  • ValtielValtiel Veteran
    edited March 2010
    I used to go to a little art studio in my town each week when I was 13. The woman there taught me two things that, amongst all the art crap you learn in school, really stuck with me, and this was one of them. Normally, people focus on drawing the subject itself. The negative space isn't even part of the picture. She told me one day to start drawing from a different perspective, to start "drawing the negative space," and suddenly the proportional flaws began to stand out and I saw things I couldn't have before, and I saw the picture as a whole. Nonduality experienced on a :dunce: level. :D
  • MarmaladeMarmalade
    edited March 2010
    o0Mundus-Vult-Decipi0o wrote: »
    I used to go to a little art studio in my town each week when I was 13. The woman there taught me two things that, amongst all the art crap you learn in school, really stuck with me, and this was one of them. Normally, people focus on drawing the subject itself. The negative space isn't even part of the picture. She told me one day to start drawing from a different perspective, to start "drawing the negative space," and suddenly the proportional flaws began to stand out and I saw things I couldn't have before, and I saw the picture as a whole. Nonduality experienced on a :dunce: level. :D

    Hahahha, I'm actually taking a figure drawing class this semester and the proportions of the human body are often captured more easily when drawing the negative space. It's pretty cool, I get to stand around and draw naked people all day :p.

    And the homework is all doodling! What more could I ask for?
  • RichardHRichardH Veteran
    edited March 2010
    Marmalade wrote: »
    Hey guys, I've lately been thinking a lot about negative space

    Yes Marmalade, there is something very special there. Negative Space /Positive Form, you can't have one without the other. Negative Space is not other than the extensivity of Positive Form, Positive Form is not other than the receptivity of Negative Space. They co-arise, one is not primary to the other, one is not generative of the other. Negative Space and Positive Form correspond to the Subjective an Objective poles of awareness. Negative Space, receptivity, is the Subjective pole. Positive Form, extensivity, is the Objective pole. They are two sides of one occasion , like pulling and pushing. This can come clear in the form and process of art making. Isnt art wonderful?
Sign In or Register to comment.