Negative Space

"Today we are going to draw the parts we don't see, the parts that are not the object we are drawing."
The kids looked confused. I have harped all year on drawing exactly what they see. What was this new confounding task?
I held up a picture of a dog.
"Here are his front legs. Don't draw his front legs. Draw the space between his front legs. Good. Now see this triangle shape created by his tail above his back. Don't draw his tail or his back, draw that space. That is called 'negative space'. It can be used to create a rather piece-meal abstract looking work, but it is very useful in correcting drawings. When you have reached a point where something in your drawing is wrong but you just don't know what it is, look at the negative space. It will point you to what you need to correct."

As the class progressed, when kids asked me to help them correct their work, I told them to look at the negative space. They began to figure out how to use what had been ignored, unseen , to shape and perfect their art.  Sometimes those things that are ignored and unseen become the most valuable aspect of taking the common to the sublime.

In a metaphorical sense, I think we all are at times, negative space, some more than others. Attention is given to the brightest, the loudest, the funniest, the cleverest, the most out-going, the most obnoxious....  Meanwhile, there are sometimes very quiet, very lovely 'negative space' types that have a beauty all their own, a subtle and unexplored depth that is often overlooked. They stand wedged between all the riveting objects of attention, unnoticed. There is perhaps nothing so sad as to have someone look through you as though you were not there or of no consequence.

I was definitely a 'negative space' kid. I found solace in animals. Animals have an uncanny ability to see negative space. They notice everything. As I grew older, I never totally shed that negative space mentality but I began to understand that the only way for negative space to become the main event is to seek it, find it, draw it. I discovered that by noticing and encouraging other negative space types, we began to come together, form a picture, and even at times, a masterpiece. Negative space types can feel very alone. But just like I told my art class,  across that dog leg was a triangle of negative space above the back and under the tail. A lot of negative space is around you. You are not alone.

It is ironic that the man who forever changed history was Himself a bit of a negative space guy. We are told there was nothing in Him to attract others. He was not handsome, or imposing, or powerful, or rich. In fact, He was gentle, submissive,  and silent when others felt He should speak. But when He allowed Himself to be used for the purpose God intended for Him, He became the champion for all mankind.

I just want to make a little shout out to all those negative space types. Hang in there. Sometimes your destiny is still gathering itself, and the lonely time waiting feels like exile. But it is negative space that gives shape to the object in art, and without it, the picture is one blob of formless color.

Isaiah 53

 ¹ Who has believed our message
   and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
² He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
   and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
   nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
³ He was despised and rejected by mankind,
   a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
   he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
 ⁴ Surely he took up our pain
   and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
   stricken by him, and afflicted.
⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions,
   he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
   and by his wounds we are healed.