25. Positive and Negative Space
in Art & Business
Show Notes
Big 3 Ideas from this episode:
Negative and Positive Space help to define shapes and focus in art - and life.
The shape of your goals, career and business is created by the decisions you make - The constraints or freedoms you choose, and what you DO and DON’T DO.
Mostly we look at Positive Space - the shape we are creating. But … looking at the Negative Space gives us a new perspective on any situation, from art, to sales, to our vision for the future.
Rene Magritte, Decalomania, 1966
Images from the episode, and a few brilliant examples of
Negative / Positive Space in Art
And … adding more color
Try this Exercise - The Decision Pyramid
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Episode 25: Positive & Negative Space
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[00:00:00] The metaphor mindset is a podcast for artists and creative thinkers, entrepreneurs and leaders who want to explore ideas around creativity and commerce.
[00:00:09] Think like an artist work like a boss.
[00:00:12] And this is episode 25.
[00:00:28] Positive and negative space.
[00:00:30] Welcome to the year of the wood dragon. I'm a wood dragon. I was born in 1964 on new year's Eve. So this year is especially meaningful for me. Were the only mythological being on the Chinese Zodiac. And I've embraced this with my podcast. Yes. I focus on practical ways that artists can grow in art and commerce.
[00:00:50] But also I love to talk about the ideas and concepts of creativity. The metaphors and mythologies of art. And here in February the second month. The number two. Which for me is all about duality decisions, dualism, and non-dualism the yin and yang of life.
[00:01:10] I'm going to take some of this apart for you and look at it closely to help you as an artist. And in your career, business or goals to bring those things together. February. In the ancient Roman calendar was the last month of the year, the month of purification ceremonies, februarius mensis. The month of smoke burning vapors sacrifices. Just as January.
[00:01:37] Was named after the God Janus, the two faced God. One face looking back and one forward. Looking at endings and beginnings.
[00:01:46] January was about taking stock.
[00:01:48] Then February. Was the purification to end the old and start a new cycle. I see February. As just the depths of winter. But still, it feels like the calm before the storm of spring. And it can be a time of dreaming hibernation, symbolic slowness. And focusing on what matters.
[00:02:08] So as the number two. I see February as a time of awareness of decisions of the yin and yang of all life and processes. In your creative process, you may not be lighting any sacrificial fires of purification to the muses. But the idea of basing your decisions upon your values upon what you value. Is a type of purifying vapor that rises and infuses all of your decisions with calmness and purpose.
[00:02:39] This reminds me of the concept of negative space in art. The space around your subject and in between the shapes of your subject.
[00:02:48] The absence of something is the presence of something else. . I like to think of it as yang space and yin space.
[00:02:57] Of active space. And restful [00:03:00] space. What is InFocus and what is not in focus? The negative space around your art. Is what defines it.
[00:03:10] Constraint line and shape. Shape is defined by the constraint, the boundary, the line around it.
[00:03:18] Sometimes these constraints are placed upon us by the world. Humans can't fly without an innovation. We call a plane, a helicopter. Sometimes by law and social. Mores. Our decisions whether , to obey the laws or not such as paying taxes. Et cetera.
[00:03:36] And sometimes constraints are self-imposed.
[00:03:39] By our thoughts. Our emotions. And our actions.
[00:03:43] And we don't think about it very much. Mostly, we look at the positive space in our lives. The shape we are creating. The thing, we are drawing the figure.
[00:03:53] The still life.
[00:03:54] But as artists, we know it is helpful to train your eye. And your brain to look up the negative spaces around things. And I propose that it is helpful also. To look at the negative spaces around our ideas, around our thoughts. Around our businesses.
[00:04:11] For instance, the positive shape or space of your business. May be showing your work in galleries.
[00:04:19] And the negative space around that. Brings up the question. What is a gallery and what is not a gallery? So I think of christo and John Claude.
[00:04:28] They took. Art. Way out of the gallery.
[00:04:31] They created.
[00:04:32] Works that wrapped whole buildings in silk. And. Created.
[00:04:37] Installations along coastlines.
[00:04:40] Thinking out of the box, like this. Looking at what we do and then what we're not doing.
[00:04:46] Helps us grow in our own creative process.
[00:04:50] Still we continue to define and redefine our goals by finding out what we don't want. As much as what we do want.
[00:04:58] But instead of looking at that. What we don't want as something to be avoided, perhaps it can be something that can be understood and appreciated a little better.
[00:05:07] That helps define what you do want.
[00:05:09] I think of the white Swan in Hilma AF Klint painting swans. This white Swan. Is defined by the black Swan. And the black Swan is defined. By the white Swan. Or in Escher's prints
[00:05:26] At the top of the image, there's a black bird. And then other blackbirds below it. And as we go down the image, we realize the negative space around the birds are becoming fish. Are being transformed into white fish in black water.
[00:05:44] I love this image.
[00:05:45] It makes us realize that. We go back and forth between having the bird's eye view. And then going down into our own depths where sometimes we don't even realize. Don't even [00:06:00] see or feel the water that we're swimming in.
[00:06:03] So deciding what you value. What you want to do? And then comparing it to what you don't want helps you define your values. For instance, if you value freedom and sovereignty over your time.
[00:06:16] Then your decision to create your own business is aligned with that value. On the other hand, if you value, if you really want, if you really love. Teamwork. And learning through group effort. Then working in a company with others, maybe a better decision.
[00:06:33] When it comes to art-making the choices we have in comparison to our ancient forebears our artistic foremothers and forefathers is vast.
[00:06:43] In ancient, Greek and Roman art. All the way up to the medieval period into early modernism, the role of an artist was so different. The artist could be an apprentice at a very young age and then a journeymen. Learning a craft.
[00:06:57] Working in a workshop.
[00:06:58] And then perhaps eventually a master craftsman. It was a particular trajectory.
[00:07:04] People may have been locked into these. Roles. Subject matter was assigned whether by leaders of the church or by cultural norms for tomb building, for decorating public spaces and churches. And even in the Renaissance and into modern times, These rules were strong. But as time went on. With the industrial revolution.
[00:07:26] With changing ideas of individualism.
[00:07:30] The benefactors.
[00:07:31] Had a larger role in assigning and paying for artistic work. Like portraits, historical paintings
[00:07:39] showing the benefactors wealth or place in society.
[00:07:42] As society changed. The market changed, dictating what the artists make and how they get paid. In our times. Now the artists have so much more sovereignty over those decisions. And that's might be good or bad. Right. That's negative space or positive space.
[00:08:00] On one hand. Wouldn't it be great if someone just told you what to paint? What to make and paid you for it. On the other hand, you would have to do their bidding. You could only make what they approved of. But now we have to make these decisions for ourselves. We get to make these decisions for ourselves.
[00:08:18] There are many more artists in the world. As well as many more opportunities.
[00:08:23] And media to express ourselves. Whether it's a show in a gallery, a museum selling art online.
[00:08:29] Selling merchandise illustration. Applying for grants residencies, teaching in person. Creating online courses. Self-organized shows installations. Online shows murals and on and on.
[00:08:42] And that's all before we even get to the subject matter.
[00:08:46] Whether it is nature. The portrait landscape. History, figurative art. Non-objective art theater, the voice, body movement dance. Installations.
[00:08:57] And so on.
[00:08:58] There is an [00:09:00] embarrassment of riches in our arts. Still sometimes we have a scarcity mindset.
[00:09:05] And, and that can force us into decisions. We don't really love. I need to make money, so I will sell prints online because that's what everybody's doing. I need to get my name out there. So I will do social media.
[00:09:17] This all comes from a feeling of lack or competition between ourselves and our own mind. Between ourselves and a perceived other.
[00:09:27] Who is better than us, more accomplished than us.
[00:09:30] And yes, we have more choices than ever, and that can be overwhelming.
[00:09:34] But especially in the month of February. I want you to take a look at your values. These are those things that you decided on in January, as you looked back at what matters to you from last year and you looked forward to your goals.
[00:09:49] What is your core purpose in doing all of this? What is your happy place? What is your north star? Then build up your choices from there.
[00:09:57] This is what I feel really helps artists to make cleaner, more aligned decisions.
[00:10:03] Of course, it doesn't always work this way. Here are a couple of scenarios that I have experienced and I'm sure you have too.
[00:10:10] Number one. First I make a decision and then I changed my mind. Number two, I make a decision. And I fail. Well, So I abandon the project. Number three, I make a decision. I fail and completely shift directions.
[00:10:25] Number four, I make. Make a decision. And win. But. It's not what I thought it was, or I get bored or it doesn't interest me anymore.
[00:10:33] So even when our decisions seem easy, their outcomes are often complicated.
[00:10:38] I created a tool. I call the decision pyramid. And it really plays into this idea of February. The number two and the yin and yang of dualism. And non-dualism.
[00:10:50] The decision pyramid.
[00:10:51] Gives you. A little triangle. Each triangle. Then goes up. To the next step of the pyramid. So.
[00:10:58] The bottom of the triangle on the left. Is your first idea.
[00:11:02] And on the right. Is the opposite of that idea or your argument against that idea?
[00:11:08] So you can spend a little time at the bottom of that pyramid. Pros and cons. And so on. But then. But then make a decision and go to the top of the pyramid. I make the choice. Because at the top of that pyramid, suddenly you're going to have another choice to make. And that's life. That's how it works. But you can slowly make your way up. To the top of your own pyramid.
[00:11:34] The idea of dualism means the contrast of dark and light black and white. Good and bad.
[00:11:39] And how one shows off or highlights the other. The idea of non-duality takes dualism this black and white view of the world and adds a little twist. The idea that you may have dark and light, but together they create a whole.
[00:11:54] It's not just about the darker light or even the contrast between the two it's about what [00:12:00] dark and light do together.
[00:12:02] Yin and yang. Are not separate. There's a little yin in the yang and a little yang in the yin. And together they. Create.
[00:12:11] Energy and process.
[00:12:13] And holistic completeness.
[00:12:15] There will be more decisions to make.
[00:12:17] So the faster you can live in that 50 50. Go back and forth make a decision. And move on to the next level.
[00:12:25] The faster you will make progress.
[00:12:27] For instance with this podcast.
[00:12:29] Going to school. I knew I didn't have time. To do a weekly podcast. In my mind, I went back and forth. All the advice says, do a weekly podcast. You won't be succeeding if you're not doing a weekly podcast.
[00:12:42] But for me, my values. Our about finding balance in my life and not taking on too much, Doing what I do as well as I can.
[00:12:51] Making sure. I keep the wheels on the cart of my life, my business, and my art.
[00:12:56] So after going back and forth on that for a little. While. I made the decision to commit to. The schedule for a year. A year. Of doing one. Podcast a. A month. And I gave myself. The grace. To do. The podcast any week within that month.
[00:13:10] It allowed. Me to relax. To know that I had a plan that would work for me. So in an art career, in an art business. People say you should do things a certain way. Sell. Online. Or create a class. Or do social media. But something in, you says no. This is a chance to. to. examine and recognize if your reason. Is based on fear, an unwilling. Unwillingness to fail. Or is it a deeper value that you may not have recognized?
[00:13:42] And once you get to the bottom of it, then your choices can be fully yours. This is a way to help you see the negative spaces. In your business.
[00:13:54] And see the boundaries and possibilities as well.
[00:13:59] When I think of MC Escher is use of negative space.
[00:14:04] I think of those birds flying across the page. And transforming themselves into something new. Every piece, every part. The light and the dark is important in that transformation.
[00:14:24] Negative space allows us to see the edges of things. To see the boundaries to see what we might not have. To see what we might not have recognize before.
[00:14:38] I hope this is helpful.
[00:14:39] I hope you embrace in February decisions, duality and non-dualism to see the bigger picture, the whole and how positive and negative space work together.
[00:14:51] How constraint can be helpful. And how boundaries can help us grow.
[00:14:55] I hope you have a decisively creative month.
[00:14:59] [00:15:00] If you're an artist who wants to *sell and* market your work more effectively join us in the metaphor mindset studio an online program for
[00:15:10] artists who want to love their business as much as they love their art Metaphor Mindset Studio. Think like an artist work like a boss.
