March 16, 2006
Figure-Ground Issues
I tried to write a poem about the synchronicity of finding these silhouettes on a porch the very same morning someone forwarded the profile vases to me, but it just didn't flow. I shall have to lecture instead, I guess. (Aside: I just stopped writing to look at an issue of Cote Est, which I have to return and found a six page spread entitled "Papiers, Decoupes, Exquis, Precis, Suisses" - the Swiss art of cutting complex paper silhouettes -- that's #3. )
The figure ground phenomenon is about "human ability to separate elements based upon contrast". The figure-ground image is a dramatic metaphor for our ability and inablility to focus attention. It's really hard, with all that contrast, to see both the profile and the vase at one time.
Esther Hicks, channeling Abraham, says that "contrast" (meaning something unwanted) is important because allows us to understand more clearly what we DO want. For example, the malignant and erosive policies of our current administration have provided a much stronger desire, in my little heart, at least, to live in a real democracy.
I can't remember what else I had to say about attention, light and shadow, etc. and I have no time for contemplation, because I'm meeting friends at Gargoyles (isn't that appropriate) momentarily. Abruptly......
Photo note: See the Victorian house, with the carved pillar? See the little girl with the startled eyes and the bushy hair? See the woman planting a kiss on her head? Of course you do, just not all at once. This would be a beginning of a series, but these little buggers are too hard to find.