A spontaneous smile

Ruth Kaiser of Orinda can see a smile just about anywhere: a grin in the cracks of concrete while she's sitting in traffic, a smirk on top of a blueberry muffin at the grocery store, a smile in otherwise intimidating doctor's office equipment.

When she sees these smiles, she snaps away with her digital camera, taking 30 to 40 photos in hopes of getting a great one to share on her Facebook page and on her Web site, Spontaneous Smiley Face, (www.spontaneoussmiley.com).

It's an obsession that has brought joy to Kaiser for years, and it's catching on. Kaiser's Facebook group page, where users share their own smiles, has more than 2,000 members. And she gets notes almost every day from people who say they are profoundly affected by the Spontaneous Smiley Project.

"It's made them stop and think about what's important," she said. "Sometimes it has made them not so mad at their kids for spilling a bowl of Cheerios if a smiley face comes out of it. It's also given them something positive to do instead of focusing on the negative."

Kaiser, 50, fell in love with grins when she saw the iconic yellow smiley face popularized in the early 1970s. She then started looking for her own smiles in tree bark, leaves and even in machinery. She calls the smiles gifts of happiness from the universe.

"It's just something that I've noticed forever," she said. "I'd like to have a yellow smiley face tattoo if I wasn't such a chicken."

It's easy to find two dots for the eyes just about anywhere, she says. But the smile, grin or smirk can be a leaf with a wiggly edge, a crack in concrete or a smudge on the wall.

Digital push

An artist trained at the University of California, Berkeley, Kaiser says the advent of digital cameras, which practically make taking thousands of pictures almost free, prompted her to take photos of the smiles she has been seeing for decades. A smile in a bowl of pasta? Snap away. A smile in the suds of a bubble bath? Sure.

The project is a way for her to make and share art as well as spread a message that smiles are everywhere — if only you take the time to look for them. People from Alaska to Switzerland are starting to take that time, she says.

"Who would have thought my silly pictures of macaroni and cheese would become profoundly important to someone?" Kaiser asked. "There's something about that that is really great."

It seems like everything around Kaiser is designed for smiles. For example, she sprinkles the steps outside her hillside home with pennies so that anyone who visits can pick one up and, perhaps, have a lucky day.

"I am generally a really happy person," she said.

Her theory about life goes something like this: You can walk through life as Teflon, with all the world's happenings bouncing off you, or you can be porous and absorb every sight, smell and feeling.

"You are really happy when you are porous and appreciate all the beauty around you," she said.

She admits she can be a drag if you want her to get somewhere in a hurry because she stops to take photos of smiles on hikes, while shopping and around the Tot Drop preschool she teaches at and runs.

"But if you're going to be haunted by something, it's better than being haunted by something yucky," she said. "I guess I could find triangles or something, but — what the heck — smiley faces give me a chuckle."

People such as Jenny Mosley are drawn to Kaiser's project because it is cheerful, easy to do and slows the world down a little bit.

Mosley says she started looking at Kaiser's photos on Facebook, and she loves the bright, positive perspective. Soon, she says, she started seeing smiley faces everywhere, too.

"It just kind of gets in your blood," Mosley said.

'Smile Captain'

She takes a camera with her most of the time and takes pictures of smiles she sees then sends them to Kaiser, whom she met a couple of years ago when they both participated in a play. She is now a "Smile Captain," a name given to people who turn at least one photo into the Spontaneous Smiley Project.

Simply being a Smile Captain makes Mosley feel good.

"These are kind of dark times right now. The economy is bad, the schools are losing money and a lot of people are having a rough time," she said. "There are people all over the world that are seeing this, and it's kind of uplifting. Every little bit helps when you are dealing with your life."

Kaiser made a self-published book of her photos through a Web site, which has her favorite smiley faces grouped into categories. There are the guard rail smiley faces and plant life grins. There are cookie smiley faces and even bird poop smiley images.

She says she hopes one day everyone who needs a smile will join the Spontaneous Smiley Project and snap pictures of their own unintentional happy faces. She would also like to go on "Oprah" and tell the talk show host about her love of smiles, and how every day should be cherished. Two Bay Area gallery shows are in the works as well. No official dates have been set, but Kaiser will keep her project going in her life and online.

"I like the idea of it spreading and growing and growing," she said. "Smileys are there for the taking, and they're everywhere."