Reflect/Emit functions in light and in darkness. It is a two-part print that depicts a minus sign subsumed within a plus sign. In Reflect/Emit, positivity and optimism are conflated with full-spectrum light, the illumination with which much of the visible world is known. The iridescent ink rewards the viewer’s repositioning with reflections of varying strengths. Negativity and pessimism are conflated with darkness, and the slow, temporary re-emission of light from phosphorescent ink. The fading glow represents the dissolution of energy, an analogy for the passivity of pessimism.

Rather than a simple dichotomy, Reflect/Emit is meant to make a case for the incomplete nature of pessimism (aligned with selective light and attention) and the holistic nature of optimism (which subsumes and exceeds pessimism’s narrow focus). The nature of the print is contextual; the artist is interested in the viewer’s lived experience of perception—his/her attitudes and responses to phenomenological events.

Great Great Great and OK OK OK is a diptych of drawings inspired by positive psychology, the study of maximizng happiness. Happiness requires both optimism and acceptance—in other words, the capacity to respond to situations with "Great!" or "Okay." Like the Cheap and Cheerful drawings and Pounds of Happiness (conveyor belt), this diptych is made with glitter and neon pens, to reference discount store culture and the immediacy of modest ambitions.

Images

• Reflect/Emit (lit & unlit views), 2009, screenprint with iridescent and phosphorescent inks, 10 x 10 inches / 25.4 x 25.4 cm.

• Great Great Great and OK OK OK, 2009, neon and glitter pen on paper, 16.75 x 24.5 inches / 42.5 x 62 cm.