April 27, 2011

Positive Signs #14 & 15

Positive Signs is a weekly series of interpretive diagrams, quotes, and speculations on creativity, optimism*, and the lives of artists, published every Wednesday through June.

3 dimensions of explanatory style: permanence, pervasiveness, personalization. Explanatory style is the manner in which you habitually explain to yourself why events happen. The skills of optimism do not consist in learning to say positive things to yourself. What is crucial is what you think when you fail."

Christine Wong Yap, Positive Sign #14 (Three Dimensions of Explanatory Style), 2011; glitter and neon pen on gridded vellum; 8.5 × 11 in./21.5 × 28 cm

Positive Signs 15: two reasons to have hope for optimism: 1, basic pessimism is not fixed and unchangeable; 2, you can learn a set of skills that free you from the tyranny of pessimism and allow you to use optimism when you choose.

Christine Wong Yap, Positive Sign #15 (Two Reasons to Have Hope for Optimism), 2011; glitter pen on gridded vellum; 8.5 × 11 in. 21.5 × 28 cm

*Notwithstanding brief forays into the nature of space, stuff, experience, and cognition.


Next Wednesday: Positive Signs #16, 17, & 18 on pervasiveness, permanence, and personalization.
See all Positive Signs to date.

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