Time Compresses...
Negative space is impacting our lives, even when we neglect to give it our attention.
Hi, Friends,
I’ve been thinking a lot about negative space lately. That is, the space that’s empty in a logo, an architectural design, or even a chef’s plate. Even though it’s empty that doesn’t mean the negative space is purposeless. The negative space can be used by the designer, the architect, and the chef to emphasize what’s happening in the positive space.
In my case, I’ve been receiving weekly cervical decompression treatments on my neck in an effort to alleviate chronic pain in my shoulder, neck, jaw, and face. The decompression machine gently pulls my vertebrae apart, and in the negative space that’s created, nourishing spinal fluid and other good stuff can flow in.
My life is positively full these days–not positive in that everything is hunky dory, but in the sense that a lot is happening in the foreground of my life. So much so that even looking for and paying attention to what’s happening in life’s negative space–the empty time slots and quiet spaces–is quite the task. I’m craving more negative space in my life, and maybe you are, too.
I created the above “painting” to mimic the artwork of Mark Rothko this week. (His paintings speak to the simplicity and negative space I wanted to illustrate, but his work is under copyright and unavailable for sharing here. So I “stole like an artist” and came up with something on my own.)
🧡 - Sarah Jo
Quote
Time compresses the older you get. Days turn to weeks turn to months turn to seasons turn to years, until your life resides in just one moment expanding forever, where each step and breath folds wrinkles into your face, carving minute, irreversible wounds between your joints. Pressing down the notches between your spine, driving your ankles and knees to ruin. I feel it now and it’ll only be worse in the future.”
― B.R. Yeager, Negative Space
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