Figure/Ground Relationships

Figure and ground are used in an image to denote the foreground and background. The figure is the main subject within the foreground, creating a positive shape and is typically dark. The ground is the rest of the image, or background, surrounding the figure, creating a negative shape and is typically light.

Brainstorming + Planning Collage

When planning my collage, I wanted to use different densities of text to create many tones and positive and negative shapes. In my newspaper collage, I used the direction of text, white space, and white text on black to solidify the intentional image.

Collage: Creating the figure I imagined out of newspaper text

Visiting David Wojnarowicz’s exhibit made me observe how his themes carry through his body of work cohesively through the repetition of figures, colours, or dynamic compositions. I was inspired by his abstracted figures representing larger issues at hand.

Sketching David Wojnarowicz 1

Sketching David Wojnarowicz 2

Symbolism and Metaphors are used in Wojnarowicz’s work very often to express profound thoughts on larger societal issues. A symbol is typically used to represent an object or a larger concept through an object or imagery. A metaphor is a figure of speech or a rhetorical device to attribute traits of one thing to something else. In my life, I tried to find symbols of greater concepts or rules I follow or things I aspire to be or am drawn to. These signs and wonders are below.

Sketching my Signs + Wonders

Collage using Paths to create Shapes

After creating paths and shapes for each piece of my collage, I moved on to using my symbols of a bee, a person observing, the moon, and pills in order to create the following three compositions.

Black on White Collage

White on Black Collage

Ambiguous Collage

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