Corporate Mascots are magic too.

Scrubbing Bubble. . . I've loved this guy as long as I can remember.   I like to do cute doodles when I am between the somewhat psychologically draining "vision quest" pieces.

Most people seem to like the cute doodles a lot more.  Someone saw Scrubbing Bubble, and asked me to make a gift. . . of Hamburger Helper's Helping Hand.

It's been really cool this year to have had a number of "special requests," and I haven't even put myself out there for that yet.  I find doing things that I wouldn't think to do on my own really pushes me to work in new ways.  I hope Helping Hand makes his recipient really happy:

I find it surprising and unexpected to have done two corporate mascots nearly back to back.  It was also odd to have found that even these cute, innocuous mascots yielded relatively enlightening creative experiences.

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When I've talked about "magic" in my process, it has been mostly related to states of consciousness evoked during both the initial vision and then the "hypnosis-like" state during the often epic creative process. Also, synchronicity has been recurrent, as well as archetypal symbolism's effect on the unconscious.   The pieces that have "taken me the deepest" were very old icons, like the Egyptian Bastet.

Working on these corporate mascots reminded me of a discussion on "sigil magic" in Grant Morrison's essay "Pop Magic."  It's available free online if you wish to read it.  The basic idea regarding sigils is that they are powerfully charged symbols designed to lead to a particular outcome.  A sigil is classically more simple, like the Holy Cross, or the Golden Arches.  But simple Iconic images like Mouse Ears--and Scrubbing Bubble and Helping Hand--are symbols with a lot of power to affect and effect.

I just find this interesting to ponder. The Magicians of Madison Avenue know exactly what they are doing.

But my pedantic over-analyzing doesn't change the fact that Scrubbing Bubble and Helping Hand are also just really cute and fun.  They represent positive concepts. . . and I am thrilled to send them out into the world