Wanda comes up with some great exercises. Recently she introduced us to a concept called "Notan". From http://www.wikipedia.com/: Nōtan (濃淡) is a Japanese design concept involving the play and placement of light and dark next to the other in art and imagery. This use of light and dark translates shape and form into flat shapes on a two-dimensional surface. Nōtan is traditionally presented in paint, ink, or cut paper, but it is relevant to a host of modern day image-making techniques, such as lithography in printmaking, and rotoscoping in animation.
Here is my first try - this is cut from a 6X6 piece of black paper...all I can see when I look at it is a woman dancing, dressed as a gift box!
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Next I did just a couple of little things which I think would be great in a hooked rug border...wonderful reminder to look for the light/dark in my rugs and other projects.
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As I worked on this process, my brain grappled with the idea of positive/negative space and the play of light against dark. Sometimes as I was cutting, it was hard to remember what I was looking at - is this a black part? Or is it the edge of a white space?
Reminds me of life...sometimes I get so focused on the "dark" parts that seem to have so much more weight and form than the white spaces. Troubling situations, stresses, circumstances are all that I can see. But if I train my eye to see the "negative space" - the white/light parts - as well, I realize there is always peace at the center, a calm that underlies all that is happening on my palette of life. This blank page is mine to create the shapes I wish to see manifest in my life and in the world. It has been said that the imagination is the scissors of the mind - let me cut those shapes wisely, ever remembering the peace that is the foundation of my heart, mind, and soul.
thanks that helped me alot
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