EoA: Space

This particular Element of Art refers to the emptiness or area between, around, above, below, or within objects.  Space can be both positive and negative.  If you're working with positive space, you're working with the actual forms that you intent your observer to engage with.  If you're working with negative space, you're working with the space around your main objects.

As an example, let's look at a capital letter O on a lavender background:

O

If your whole piece of art consisted of a big O, like this, on a lavender colored ATC, the black O would be positive space (or the thing you want people to look at first).  Behind and inside the O is the negative space - basically, everything that's lavender colored.

MC Escher has tons of work that's prime examples of utilizing space in inventive ways:

Resources:

http://www.williamsclass.com/ElectiveClassArt/ArtElementNotes.htm