Day 39: Smiley's Bad Day

I had drawn one of these years ago as a birthday gift for a friend. The wife wanted one, too. It only took 10 years. Where’s my Ritalin?

I love the smiley face. The story I heard is it was designed by Harvey Ball, a free-lance graphic designer for State Mutual Life Assurance Company in 1963, who received $45 for his work.

The symmetry and the simplicity are so elegant, yet it is extremely hard to execute well. Ball designed Smiley with hand tools -- computer graphic design was science fiction -- we hadn't even yet been on the moon! (and walking through the Apollo 11 module at NASM shows just how primitive our "computer systems" were back then).

Compasses, protractors and a French curve were all this guy had. I tried the same and it came out looking kinda lumpy. Of course, Ball used pen and ink; paint is a bit rougher.

Day 12: Smiley Slacker

Went to the beach with the wife and friends J&G. I had been up late the night before (painting) and had to get up early (6 or 8:30 or something. I’m not conscious at that point until noon most days) When we arrived, the wife and J’s wife stormed down to the beach; J and I collapsed in the hotel room with our dogs.

One thing I brought on the trip was some fruit juice that had fermented in our kitchen. Usually when this happens, it smells like sulphur and I can’t wait to pour it down the sink. Once in a while, some really fancy, high-falutin’ mix of yeast and bacteria settle in and make it happy juice. By taste test I’d say it’s 2-2.5% alcohol and a Mexican friend told me that this is a common drink in her native Mexico: they put cloth over (usually pineapple) juice overnight and the next day, it’s bubbly and tangy.

Well, by the time J and I woke up, the sun was heading down, the girls phoned and were on their way back from the beach, so I had a big cup of my happy juice and went out to walk the dog. I knew I didn’t want to spend the night painting because we were on holiday, and I was kinda tipsy. So I collected some dirt and and sand and lawn clippings to help my painting take shape.

So whereas the beach gave me less time to paint, there is a little bit of beach in this work.