Gone but not forgotten

Perspectival Forms Series. Carved vessel with painted interior. Black Cherry, acrylic paint. 4.25″d x 4.5″h. (Private collection)

Working at the lathe is usually thought of as a subtractive process – material is removed from a block of wood to reveal a form which was there all along. In this piece, as with the others in this series, a second subtraction is carried out – carving away parts of the completed vessel. This does not merely reveal a hidden form that was there all along but rather creates a new figure out of layered negative space. Does the distinction between additive/subtractive processes depend in part on whether negative space is the figure or the ground?