Five Aspects of Shiva as Told With Smiley Faces by Snow Mack

"Five Aspects of Shiva as Told In Smiley Faces" by Snow Mack From right clockwise; Anger, Unknown, Royal, Indifferent, & Bliss center 2001, Oil on Canvas, five 16" round canvases, NFS

"Five Aspects of Shiva as Told In Smiley Faces" by Snow Mack - Anger

"Five Aspects of Shiva as Told In Smiley Faces" by Snow Mack - Unknown

"Five Aspects of Shiva as Told In Smiley Faces" by Snow Mack - Royal

"Five Aspects of Shiva as Told In Smiley Faces" by Snow Mack - Indifferent

"Five Aspects of Shiva as Told In Smiley Faces" by Snow Mack - Bliss

"Five Aspects of Shiva as Told In Smiley Faces" by Snow Mack
From right clockwise; Anger, Unknown, Royal, Indifferent, & Bliss center
2001, Oil on Canvas, five 16" round canvases, NFS
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In December 2000, I had a concept for a project, five paintings depicting different emotional aspects of the Hindu deity, Shiva. I wanted to design the five aspects of Shiva in the form of smiley faces. In 2000, we used the keyboard to make a limited range of smiley faces. At the time, they were not yet known as emoticons, at least I did not know the term. I have been a fan of the smiley face since the late 60's when the Smiley Face "Have a Nice Day" button was all the rage. I collected the buttons in all colors and especially the various fluorescent pinks. In the early 1970's, there was a store in New York City dedicated to pop culture and fad buttons like the Smiley Face and the Peace Sign.
During my research in 2001, I found an original Harvey Ball print. Harvey Ball had recently passed away and his son was selling the prints on eBay. Harvey Ball was an American commercial artist. In 1963, he created a design for a pin-back button that played a pivotal role in the adoption of the modern-day smiley face. Ball was approached by marketing director Joy Young of State Mutual Life Assurance Company in 1963, with the instructions to design "a little smile".
The State Mutual Life Assurance Company lapel pins later became a viral-success story, which had led to many calling Ball the creator of the Smiley face. He didn't trademark the design, and earned $45 for his efforts. Ball later founded the Harvey Ball World Smile Foundation in 1999, a non-profit charitable trust that supports children's causes.
The story of the origin of the Smiley Face is controversial. Who was the first to design the smiley face? It's important to the people who want to own it, but the Smiley Face Emoji phenomenon has evolved beyond what anyone could have imagined. There is an official organization that oversees the creation of new emojis for the World: Unicode, The World Standard For Text and Emoji. There is an annual call for submitting proposals for new emojis. Proposals are now being accepted until July 31, 2026. https://unicode.org/emoji/proposals.html 

Harvey Ball publicity photos from Wikipedia and my Harvey Ball print in my studio. Small print above Harvey's print is Artist Mollie Thonneson with her Smiley Face purse.

Pink Wink by Snow Mack - dimensions vary - Digital Illustration

In 2013, I created "Pink Wink" as my profile photo on Facebook, using the old school keyboard notation of semicolon and parenthesis, known as wink. ;) 

In 2024, I wanted to document every time I saw a Smiley Face or emoji in my daily life. Very quickly, I became overwhelmed with the frequency of emojis appearing in signage and pop culture.