Smiley Face

A happy face, smiling face, smiley, or :) is a stylized representation of a smiling humanoid face, commonly occurring in popular culture. It is... more

by Omaste Witkowski

Title

Smiley Face

Artist

Omaste Witkowski

Medium

Painting - Digital Photographs

Description

"A happy face, smiling face, smiley, or :) is a stylized representation of a smiling humanoid face, commonly occurring in popular culture. It is commonly represented as a yellow (many other colors are also used) circle (or sphere) with two black dots representing eyes and a black arc representing the mouth. "Smiley" is also sometimes used as a generic term for any emoticon."
The happy face was first introduced to popular culture as part of a promotion by New York radio station WMCA beginning in 1962. Listeners who answered their phone "WMCA Good Guys!" were rewarded with a "WMCA good guys" sweatshirt that incorporated a happy face into its design. Thousands of these sweatshirts were given away. The WMCA smiley was yellow with black dots as eyes, but it had a slightly crooked smile instead of a full smile, and no creases in the mouth.

In 1963, Harvey Ball, an American commercial artist, was employed by State Mutual Life Assurance Company of Worcester, Massachusetts (now known as Hanover Insurance) to create a happy face to raise the morale of the employees. Ball created the design in ten minutes and was paid $45 (equivalent to $330 USD in 2012 currency). His rendition, with bright yellow background, dark oval eyes, full smile and creases at the sides of the mouth, was imprinted on more than fifty million buttons and was familiar around the world. The design is so simple that it is certain that similar versions were produced before 1963, but Ball�s rendition as described here became the most iconic version. " -Wikipedia

This painting started as a photograph of a piece of glass artwork created by Garth Mudge of Glassworks in Winthrop, Wa. It was taken with a Macro lens and is a very small section of the overall object. The colors are vivid and alive due to the way that I am illuminating the glass art as I am taking the picture. In a way I am photographing the light as it passes through the object.
In this particular photograph I have gone in by hand and painted over the original image. Adding my own textures and visions to the shapes and colors I started with.
I have been a professional photographer for many years but it is only recently that I have been photographing glass at any level. It is such an exciting experience to discover these images. I almost feel like an archeologist as I explore a small hidden word and reveal the treasures within.

Uploaded

March 1st, 2013