When I create something new, I get excited. I feel like an explorer.
I research my new creation. I look up whatever I can that’s relevant, like a patent search, similar products, and who might manufacture it for me. I write about it. I name it, and research names. I check for website availability, and so on. It usually makes me feel great because it usually assembles and solves several passions at once. That’s when I know it’s worth working on.
After I explore my new creation for a long time, I am very satisfied. Nevertheless, I challenge myself to try again and see if I can look at it from a new perspective. The result is always a new discovery! The cycle begins all over again.
No matter how many times I look at the same thing, I always come up with a new way of looking at it! This is the part that really fascinates me. I can reinvent the wheel, in a sense. I am not unhappy with the previous product. I am just compelled to look again, just to see if I can reinvent it once again. (At least in my case, these curiosities don’t cost much. They are mostly confined to my mind, doodles, the computer, and sometimes some paper and scissors.)
When I invented the heart hand gesture, which I named the HeartMark, it seemed to capture absolutely everything that I care about. It couldn’t be more perfect. It made sense for what I wanted to accomplish with a world made of hearts, with my wishes to empower children and girls and to inspire everyone to want to be healthy and to make great choices for themselves. (I define it fully in many other blog entries.) Within a few short years, I had all the Heartlings, the patent, plans to trademark and license the entire line for a great many products. I had written rap songs, dance choreography, invented entire new ways to dance with hearts, designed room décor and bedding, toys and games, slogans, stories, concepts, and so on.
However, despite having looked at the heart hands for many years, it didn’t occur to me that hearts can be taken out of products until 2004. Until then, my room décor had (trademark style) arm-like extensions, or “heart projections”—for book ends, mirrors, and so on. Even chairs and bracelets had cute little half hearts. But somehow, in 2004, in the middle of the night, through a dream, I suddenly realized that bites of hearts can be taken out, and that this was still defined by my patent.
This new insight led me to design an endless amount of more products like games, toys, room décor, jewelry, and of course more cartoon characters. (Although many of the original characters used whatever body part they could to HeartMark, so it sometimes did look like heartbites.(TM) ) I would observe the HeartBites from multiple directions in 3D to see many new ways that items can connect!
Several more years of this, and I saw the entire project in a whole new light: shadows! I began experimenting with HeartMark shadows. I wanted furniture to create shadows of half hearts so as to complete the half hearts of the furniture. This was part of my plan to create positive energy in the room. I am still waiting to license this and all the other lines.
Fast forward even more to this Christmas: it only then dawned on me that the same main 6 pieces that I had been playing with could also form the 6 sides of a cube… I reinvented my own HeartMark yet again. I came out with a great looking die, multiple dice games, and then of course dominoes, jewelry, and even more related concepts that grew from that.
The HeartMark is the concept of two or more products coming together to create a heart between them. It is not the typical friendship bracelet in which the heart is broken in half and the heart is formed by its broken pieces. It is not an act of one that’s divided into two, or formed by two halves. Instead, in the HeartMark the connection of a heart is a third entity, an identifiable new creation that results from the joining of two (or more) things.
The idea that it takes more than one to make a heart is powerful. It means a lot to those who seek world peace as well as to the environmentalists who know that we are connected to all that’s around us. In addition to reflecting harmony between all, the HeartMark frames a space of love. We can use that space to send out positive aura, or to bring in positive energy. We can see what we love™ through the HeartMark. We can seek out all that makes us feel good, like a lens that lets us see only what’s good for us. (I published several series of See What You Love™ stories and used this slogan in every single public performance of teaching the HeartMark Yogalates and HeartMark Health.)
I am amazed by the amount that the HeartMark can inspire just one artist alone. It is no longer just a heart hand gesture. It is a deep concept, a lifestyle brand of connectivity. It means that we are all connected and that our environment should reflect that. It means that we can unite through love.
I think that it is time for such an empowering concept to unite everyone to do something really meaningful to help the world. I have some very big ideas. It is not an empty gesture. It has value. I hope that I can join everyone to HeartMark for a really great cause.
I am passionate about many important causes. For example, I ache for suffering parents and children in nations that have a drought but that it is tough to help. I am passionate about cleaning up the environment. I am not sure how I can unite so many people to help when I am just one person.
I would be willing to share my trademark and patented HeartMark heart hand if someone could pitch to me a great project. I would love for many people to come together, HeartMark, and join for a cause!
My slogan in 2003 was “HeartMarkers of the World Unite!” I had a huge banner calling everyone to HeartMark! I exhibited it in tradeshows. But in a world of greedy gigantic corporations, it is difficult for an artist like me to have a voice. The deep HeartMark heart hand concept can be raped by pop culture just to make a quick buck for selfish agents.
If you care about a real cause, something deeper than selling make up to children, please HeartMark for the cause! Write to me. Let’s see if we can unite for a cause that’s full of value.
I HeartMark You!
Tali
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