www.bitsandpeaces.com

Temagami and Me

2012-03-06T13:59:00.005-08:00

(An Artist Should I Learn To Be)
Part III

Earthangel
Coloured Ink on Drawing Board
16” x 28”
November 2006

I left the Temagami information session in Toronto with a smile on my face and determination in my heart. “We will save this ancient forest!” I thought to myself, “We will!!” though I had no idea HOW.

One month later a curious event took place… It was my day off work and I was enjoying the sunshine as I walked along the Thames River Bike Path, here in London, Ontario. Along came this beautiful Husky dog, bounding my way, and close behind was her owner. I bent over to scratch Mia behind her ears and Alan and I exchanged friendly words.

Soon we were talking about the architecture of the future and being done with the subdivision sprawls that are overtaking this city. Alan was a recent graduate in the field of Aquaculture and he shared ideas about using this education to build a clean water existence in homes and communities that would benefit Nature. We both knew that these ideas would take decades to achieve. We both agreed that it was hard enough trying to encourage people to recycle and be nice to each other and here we were dreaming about PEACE ON EARTH and which ideas would lead us there. We both wanted to do something positive.

I told Alan of my most recent educational experience where I learned about the Temagami forestland, located in Northern Ontario and how this unique species of forest is being threatened with extinction by the hand of man. He listened intently as I explained how a natural forest breathes and lives. I asked him to join me and my ambitions to raise awareness about these issues with others.

I told of my most recent ideas inspired by peaceful warriors of the past. I wanted to create a walk, similar to other great walks that colour Canada’s history. This walk would be a tool to share the story of Temagami’s struggle for survival and to share a vision for peaceful understandings leading to positive action for future generations. Alan smiled. THE TEMAGAMI TRAIL TRIBUTE was about to be realized…

(to be continued...)

+ + +

To create my ‘Reflections of Temagami: A Group of Seven’ artworks for my then upcoming 2007 art tour, I was using the colour slide photos I had taken – while in the Temagami region - as my inspiration. But, I had to be very selective as to which photos I would use. In keeping with my idea, any image that I selected had to have a reflection in it.

This is the photo that inspired ‘Earthangel’. You can clearly see that the majority of this photo is of the water, with the forest being reflected on it. My main focus while taking this photo was to capture the reflection of the shoreline, with all the wonderful textures of the rocks. The reflected blues of the sky were an added bonus.

As with ‘Forest Breathing’, I felt compelled to rotate this photo 90 degrees. I spent many moments enjoying how this rotated photo filled my imagination with delightful thoughts and impressions. Within the rocky shoreline I saw head, chest and belly of an organic beast. The tree trucks were arms held aloft and covered with the greens of the trees to become wings for my rock being. This creature looked like it was flying through a sky filled with the deepest of blues.

Since this creature was flying, I thought that it was an angel soaring over the Temagami forestlands, filled with my prayers of hope for its salvation. Since its body was made of the rocks, soil, bushes and trees of the Earth I thought that the final artwork should be called ‘Earthangel’… my personal prayer.

So… I had my inspiration. Now I needed to figure out what medium and which style of rendering I was going to use.

I woke up one morning, and as I was rousing around I was wistfully enjoying a quilt that my wife had made and hung in our bedroom. This quilt is quite a delight for the eyes – it’s one of my favourite art peaces that adorns our walls. I became taken in by the colour shifts throughout the quilt – colours beginning in a mixture of purples, slowly shifting into dark blues.

The background of this quilt was made using squares. Each square was made using five different angular shapes. A lightbulb lit up over my waking head!!!!!

I used the same idea – just arranged slightly differently. This square – made up of five different angled shapes became the blueprint for the texture used to create ‘Earthangel’.

I allowed myself to be able to rotate this design to look like this…

… and this…

… and this, to allow me to have four possible ways to use this one design. This proved to be very helpful when designing the most intricate part of ‘Earthangel’ – the tree trunks/wings.

I decided to use coloured inks for this artwork. By adding small drops of water to my inks I was able to create the many different tones of blue used to create the sky. When looking at the above detail you may think that I used three or four different tones of green, but that is not the case. Only one tone of green was used.

One thing that I learned about painting with coloured inks is that deeper and richer colours can be created by painting an area more than once using the same colour. There is a limit though – at the limit an area can be painted only four times and then it becomes saturated. Any attempt to paint an area five or six times will see the drawing board being worked on, fall apart in little clumps of soaking paper.

By using this technique I was able to quadruple the number of coloured tones to be presented in the final artwork.

+ + +

As all of the seven artworks were being completed, I began to wonder what I should do with them. Should I put them up for sale? Should I donate them to a charity after the art tour was finished?

I finally decided to give them away to my friends, who I know would respect and cherish them. The first in this series of seven ‘Fallen Comrade’ was given to my parents. ‘Forest Breathing’ was given to my friend Jim Mikol – he appears in the above newspaper article. ‘Earthangel’ ended up being my favourite of the seven and so I decided to keep this one for myself. In a future blog I’ll continue to mention who the other artworks were given to.

Here’s ‘Earthangel’ as it appears on my dining room wall. This photo was taken just two hours ago.

But wait!!!! What’s this???? Who’s this bald guy???

Yup! It’s me, but what’s with the sporty bald look?

Indeed… that’s another story!

Jim

Temagami and Me

2012-02-29T06:30:00.006-08:00

(An Artist Should I Learn To Be)

Part II

Forest Breathing
Acrylic paint on canvas
24” x 36”
2006

I was spending a bit of time at a local book store, searching for books that would explain why our environment was in such peril, when I spotted a small folded flyer that told the story of Temagami.

The Temagami brochure was filled with lots of information that peeked my desire to learn more. There was a phone number available for those who wanted to attend an upcoming meeting. After a few phone calls I found myself on a train bound for Toronto.

I was glad to attend a gathering of wonderful people, curious to find ways to become involved. I listened as slides were shown, to tales that explained the uniqueness of this forest. I learned about ‘species of environments’ and that Temagami was an OLD GROWTH RED AND WHITE PINE species of forest. I was shocked to learn that only 1% of this species remains on our Earth.

Temagami is the largest of the last few remaining stands. I had a difficult time understanding how this situation came to this critical point. It seemed obvious, to me, that under such conditions all actions should focus on the preservation and expansion of such life reservoirs. I learned that once an area has been clear-cut and the roots dug up and burned in lines of fire that stretch across the horizon that heavy rains wash much soil away leaving exposed rock where nothing will grow.

The moment when I became hooked by desire to find positive ways to protect this ancient history was when I learned how a forest breathes. The speaker began talking about all the animals, birds and insects that work in unison within a natural environment. She told how old decaying trees feed the roots of new saplings as they reach for the sky through the hole in the forest canopy that was created by the fallen tree from over twenty years previous. I thought about the forests that I’ve hiked through in Southern Ontario and then I understood the vast differences between a naturally balanced habitat and a managed tree plantation.

I still had a lot more to learn, but now I felt that it was time to do something… before it was too late!

To be continued…..

+ + +

‘Forest Breathing’ was inspired by a photo that I took while adventuring through the Temagami region. The photo was a bit overexposed and that gave it a washed out look – making it look almost monochromatic (one colour). When I turned the photo on its side, my imagination saw a variety of animal faces – almost like a totem pole. I found this inspiring and soon my paintbrushes became rather busy.

I decided to make the painting monochromatic, using only two tones of one hue. Those of you with a sharp eye will notice that a blue and a magenta hue also grace this canvas. These colours were added, in small doses, to make the painting just a little more interesting.

I painted ‘Forest Breathing’ in a style that I have called ‘contour’ painting – referring to contour lines that you can find on any topographical map. First I apply one strip of paint around a shape that I’ve traced onto the canvas – as my guidelines. Once that wiggley line of paint has dried I paint another line right beside it… and so on, until the entire shape has been filled it.

Jim

Temagami and Me

2012-02-23T13:50:00.003-08:00

(An Artist Should I Learn To Be)
Part I

Reflections of Temagami I: Fallen Comrade
Black ink on drawing board
36” x 24”
1996

I am not a gambling man, and, even so, I would wager that there exists no person over the age of twelve who has not heard of, or seen on T.V. a disastrous environmental story. At age twenty-five I had, indeed, heard my fair share of frightening events and yet my growing concerns only confused me.

I became curious to understand the history of these problems…

I read books about the rise of our Industrial culture and global populations. I watched a television show about rising sea levels and the spread of disease and wondered about a picture of a baby whale dying in a fisherman's net. I heard about rivers on fire caused by water pollution. I flipped through a book with pictures of garbage trucks loading ocean barges with thousands of tones of North American waste to be exported to poorer countries. I sighed as I read an essay that explained the reasons for world hunger. I cried as I rode my bike home from work past another subdivision that had recently been a small wood lot and farmer's field. I felt a sense of desperation as I saw a photograph depicting 'Adam and Eve' in the year 2047...realizing that the image was (at that time) already five years old.

I picked up a pamphlet that told the story of TEMAGAMI.

I smiled to my girlfriend and whispered that everything was going to be all right. I learned that many people were taking action to raise awareness about a sacred forestland on the brink of extinction caused by clear cutting and I wanted to learn more.

To be continued…

+ + + +

You may notice that this first of a seven-part story is rather short! Actually, all seven parts are about this length. I didn’t want my story to take away from the artworks that were on display during my ‘Reflections of Temagami’ art tour, so I did a lot of editing to make sure that my story fit neatly onto just seven pages – one page was displayed beneath each of the seven artworks.

I have always considered ‘Fallen Comrade’ to be my first ever artwork. Yes – many of my school friends remind me that my youth was filled with lots of drawings and sketches and Yes – I spent my years in college creating many drawings and sketches for my architectural and interior design programs…. but all of that was schoolwork or just a bit of fun.

‘Fallen Comrade’ represents to me, the first time that I had focussed and bent my creativity towards an inspirational cause.

While in the Temagami region – this seven-part story will soon take us there – I took a lot of photographs. I really wanted to capture the variety of landscapes that unfolded and revealed themselves during my journey to this very special place.

Upon my return, I waited very impatiently as my slides were developed. Yes – I was shooting with colour slide film! Joanne and I packed a small lunch into a knapsack and took the developed slides to a park area, here in London, Ontario, to see the final results. We made an afternoon of it realizing that each photo would start a long conversation.

I was very happy with most of them… and a bit devastated that a few of my hopeful favourites didn’t turn out at all – oops! Wrong setting on the camera!!

When we got to the photo of the image that inspired ‘Fallen Comrade’ my breath was taken away. I felt tingles crawling down my spine. I heard a whispering voice from within the photo telling me to draw! And, so, I did!

One month later, I wondered what I would do with this completed ink drawing. I thought about making copies, selling them and using part of the profits to benefit other groups who were also involved in raising awareness about the Temagami forestland. But I didn’t know how to do this.

I ended up speaking with Diny O’Dell at Artisans Alley (she is still there and I still visit her about twice a year) and I showed her my drawing. A more encouraging person I have never met!! I still believe that had I not met Diny that I may not have continued to pursue my newfound talents!

Her advice was that I shouldn’t think about making prints and trying to sell them at this point. It would be best if I just continued drawing…“and don’t ever stop!” And, so, I did!

The next decade and a half, presented many unique and life-changing adventures for my wife and myself. As ‘Fallen Comrade’ was so large and I didn’t want to see it damaged during our many moves, I decided to give it to my parents. Soon, this drawing was delicately matted and put behind glass and hung in my parents’ living room, where I am still able to enjoy it when I go to visit.

I’m sure that this drawing will be a part of my family for many generations to come.

Jim

Temagami and Me

2012-02-21T09:32:00.000-08:00

(An Artist Should I Learn To Be)

The Introduction…

For the last several years, I have been enjoying sharing stories about my art adventures, gardening experiences and thoughts designed to inspire a world to realize our responsibility to act in positive ways to ensure a peaceful future for all life forms that inhabit this Earth. The one thing that I have yet to do, though, is share the story about how I became the artist, the gardener, the teacher, the musician… the activist and architect for peace. This story dates back to 1996, but before I get into that I want to briefly describe how this story first came into being, so that you’ll understand my reasons for writing it in seven small parts…

So… it should be obvious that this story revolves around a thing called Temagami – after all, this word is in the title – eh! Temagami is the name of a place where a unique species of forest exists.

This forest species was (and still is…) threatened with extinction and I decided to do something about it.

After this adventure, I discovered that I had been blessed with a gift for expression… I was becoming an artist. I had thoughts about creating a series of artworks to share the beauty of this region so that more people would become involved in the efforts to preserve these lands.

The artworks created by Canada’s most noted talents ‘The Group of Seven’ were my inspiration. I wanted to create a series of seven Temagami landscapes and I was going to call it ‘A Group of Seven’. I thought a bit more deeply and came up with the idea that each landscape would have a reflection in it. The concept of reflections (thoughts reproduced to the eye of the mind) is very important as this allows one the ability to regard the past so as to improve the future.

Soon, the first artwork in this series was completed. I had named it ‘Reflections of Temagami I: Fallen Comrade’. You’ll see this artwork in my next blog.

Although I was very pleased with this art peace – it still graces the walls in my parents’ living room – I found that my mind could not gather the strength to continue with this series…

I became rather depressed. Although my adventures in the Temagami forestland were filled with many enlightening experiences – in one instance my body became a tuning fork and I vibrated with the energies of ten thousand years of life – I felt that this series of artworks would be seen as Temagami’s epitaph instead of its resurrection.

How could I bring inspiration to the world if the subject matter delved into the ‘Fallen’? Was Temagami to die so that I may live?

To battle this depression, I focussed my mind on new and different thoughts… shedding the past to rebuild my future. Temagami had become the most important chapter in my life (to this date), but a chapter that I had to put back onto my shelf – not to be forgotten, but not to be trapped within.

Two years later, I was embracing a new art project that would fill the next five years of my life. “Canada: Glorious To Be” took my wife and I across our great nation – from Manitoba to British Columbia to Nova Scotia and way up north to Nunavut.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rp3iPj_Kefc&context=C3b9718aADOEgsToPDskIVdT29cDE5N2t8pgPcKs72

During these adventures I expanded my art training to a variety of different mediums – needlepoint, paper collage, acrylic paints, even rocks! Many community organizations were thrilled to have me create workshops for the local youths and soon I was learning how to be a teacher.

I shared ideals about how important it is for individuals to act in positive ways to benefit their community - “Think globally… Act locally!” - and after five years I began to find it ironic that I was not living according to these ideals for I had no community to call my own. Joanne and I moved back to Ontario to create a life for ourselves.

Soon, I had established myself as a freelance environmental art teacher and life was moving along smoothly.

The topic for most of my classes was… you guessed it… Temagami!!! To help in my teaching, I had to revisit many of my early photos, drawings and books on the subject. Since most of this material was over a decade old, I did a little investigating to see how this forest was doing now.

I was elated to learn that although many problems still exist – the pressures by the large logging corporations – many new laws and programs had been created to set the foundation for the preservation of these old growth forest stands!!! I was filled with a renewed sense of hope!

The story of Temagami was not over. In fact, I felt that it was just beginning. My doubts and hesitations from a decade before were eroding and my fires of inspiration began to smolder until a new flame awoke within me. A new audience had evolved during this time and I felt the urge to create a new chapter in the world book of Temagami.

Yes – Temagami was my ‘Fallen Comrade’, but ‘Fallen’ implies that it can be picked up again.

As I continued with this ‘A Group of Seven’ titles like ‘Three Soldiers Standing’, ‘Earthangel’ and ‘Forest Breathing’ began to emerge at the ends of my nimble fingertips – filling the viewer with a sense of great struggle and the will to overcome adversary. I used this opportunity to showcase both the beauty of the Temagami forestland as well as the evolution of my artistic abilities. Each of the seven artworks were created using the artforms that I had been experimenting with over the last decade.

While I was completing these artworks – which took me a little over two years – I was organizing my first art tour. Yes – I had had many art displays here and there throughout London (and the rest of Canada) - but this was to be my first tour showcasing a completed body of work. The tour went through many libraries and it also expanded to many of the communities that were involved in my initial adventures a decade before.

The launch of ‘Reflections of Temagami: A Group of Seven’ was mere weeks away and I was making my final preparations when I had a gut feeling that I was missing something. The artworks were finished and framed. I had built the easels that would be needed for a few of the venues. My accompanying photos were mounted and ready. And then it dawned on me… I had created this new chapter filled with images but I had no words. It was then when I realized that I had to share the intimate details about how I heard of Temagami, what this meant to me, how it inspired me, what I did and what the results were.

Since I had seven artworks to showcase, I thought that it would be a great idea to share my story in seven equal parts. One part of the story would hang beside each of the artworks. Simple!

This is the story that I am going to share with you over the next few weeks. Each story will be accompanied by one of the artworks in this series as well as some additional photos and sketches that were created during this time.

Please enjoy!

Jim

A Peacebus Valentine’s Gift…

2012-02-09T14:34:00.000-08:00

… To Planet Earth!

The last fun art competition that we had on the Peacebus was way back in October – when the students created a kazillion peaceful drawings inspired by thoughts of turtles.
http://bitsandpeaces08.blogspot.com/2011/11/t-is-for-turtle.html

With Valentine’s Day soon approaching, I thought that it would be fun to have another art competition inspired by thoughts like “I Love My Planet”. The students also thought that this was a great idea and soon pencil crayons and markers were put to work.

I found this really cool image on the internet and I thought that it would help to inspire the students. I added a few words to the image and after visiting my local print shop I had made a series of stickers to give to every student who created an artwork for this competition.

The next morning, three students handed in their creative artworks! I was very impressed with their use of colours and I complimented the students for their designs.

Jade’s design really blew me away! I could tell that she had used a few tools to help her with her drawing and that shows that a lot of thought went into her creation. Think about how much planning went into laying out the words ‘Happy Valentine’s’ as the letters circle the sun – with the word ‘Day’ finding a nice home in the middle.

I found Ava’s drawing to be a true delight and inspiration! Notice how the continents on her planet are shaped like hearts. The letters are brilliantly constructed – see all the textures that are used in each letter…blue and purple flowers in the ‘E’ and Valentine’s hearts in the ‘C’.

I really love Jane’s colourful design! It’s like a ‘love’ party!!!! There’s a huge heart filling the background, with an Earth near the middle surrounded by hearts and peace symbols while streamers cascade throughout the rest of the space. I followed the length of one of these streamers and was very impressed to witness that it changed colours as it wiggled around the page. Very nice!

It wasn’t just Peacebus students who participated in this competition. Word quickly spread through the school about what we were doing on the Peacebus and on several occasions friends of the Peacebus would visit me to hand in their drawings!!!! This made Mr. Jim (that’s me) very happy indeed!!!!

When we were getting near the end of the competition, I had to think of what I was going to create as a special gift for the winners.

In the past, I had taken one of the many designs and created additional stickers or posters to give away as prizes. This time I wanted to do something a bit different.

I did decide to create a poster as the final prize, but instead of using just one of the artworks I decided to use as many as I could fit onto a page. This worked out to be 24 images – a good number for sure! That’s a lot of art!!!

As the poster neared completion I realized that I needed just a few more artworks to fill the final spaces. I told the students about the poster. I told them that I had only three spaces left. I told them that if I received more artwork than would fit on the poster that the students shouldn’t be upset if their artwork wasn’t used, “There are only three spaces left, so the next three artworks will make it on the poster and after that I just won’t have any more room.”

Well, this worked like a super charm… later that afternoon when I arrived at the school to take the students home there was a line of students waiting for me. In the next three minutes 10 drawings were handed in!!!! Now I had more than enough to finish the poster prize!

I love it when I can say to the students, “Ya know… I had a really hard time choosing just a few winners for this art competition so I’ve decided to give a special prize to every single person who participated.” The Peacebus rocked with joyous cheers!!!!!

This is the poster that I created for the students. I didn’t want to wait until Valentine’s Day (next week) to hand out the prizes. I figured the students would be having a lot of other events happening on that day already, so I started handing out the posters last night. An early Valentine’s Day present for the students…

… and this blog entry is my early Valentine’s Day present to you – my readers!!!

May this Valentine’s Day fill your hearts with love, your minds with joy and your souls with peace.

Mr. Jim

Artist United!!!!

2012-01-31T14:23:00.000-08:00

…Against the Mega-Quarry!

Over the last year, I’ve shared four stories about an issue of great concern for me and for tens of thousands of other Ontarians…

An American company stole into the beautiful hills of Melancthon Township, lied to farmers as they gobbled up precious agricultural land. Their intent – build North America’s second largest open-pit mine!

This mine could be deeper than Niagara Falls is high and it could achieve a size equivalent to 1/3 the size of the GTA (Greater Toronto Area – including Mississauga, Scarborough, North York, Brampton…).

Five major rivers that traverse the landscapes from this region to Lake Ontario are in jeopardy of being polluted with heavy waters created by the residual left behind from daily blasting of nearly 20 tonnes of explosives.

300 heavy hauler trucks an hour (!!!!) are expected to be destroying all the roadways in this region as limestone and gravel is exported south of our border.

Boy! I’ll bet that the Highlands Co. is sure surprised that in less than one year we stupid red-neck hicks have been able to organize in all levels of government to protest their desires!

To read in more detail about this issue please link to this story – http://bitsandpeaces08.blogspot.com/2011/06/dufferin-county-jobs-and-destruction.html

To read about how people have come together to petition this irresponsible aggression – http://bitsandpeaces08.blogspot.com/2011/10/foodstock.html

Today, I simply wanted to let you know about another event that is scheduled to happen in just a few days…

This flyer may be a little difficult to read so here are the points of interest…

Where – Studio 5 – 1362 Bathurst Street – just south of St. Clair West – Toronto

When – Opening Friday February 3rd – 6:00-9:00pm and Saturday February 4th – 11:00am – 5:00pm

Sandi Wong is the artist responsible (in part she always reminds us) for organizing this wonderful display of colourful landscapes, created by many concerned artists and I want to thank her for this amazing effort! Although I will not be able to attend this event, I am busying myself and my paints to create some new originals that I will be showcasing at other upcoming events.

But that’s another story….

Jim

PS – If you attend, please have a great time and return to this blog and post a comment sharing your experiences at this unique and noteworthy event! Thanks!!!

Sunny Days

2012-01-19T14:10:00.000-08:00

Brrrr… a wee bit on the chilly side, here in London, Ontario. We’ve finally got a bit of the white stuff on the ground and I’m sure that many skiers and snowboarders are happy!

Although I always enjoy the winter season – ha! for the most part – one thing that I like to do, to keep warm, is reminisce about the summer season. I’ve been saving these gardening photos to share with you now so that you can also enjoy reliving the sunny days of summer…

In 2010 I had a major restoration job to do on the foundation wall at the back of my house. After the work was done, I had a bit of fun painting a silly image on the wall before the whole thing got filled in with soil.

Last spring, I more than doubled the size of this garden area, adding a nice curve to finish it off.

For the most part, I planted yellow beans along the whole front of this space, with Gladiolas planted closer to the house. I added a few small hostas around the garden hose and nearest the corner of the house I planted some baby blue Morning Glories.

I added small round cages around the beans to give them a bit of stability as they grew higher. Since so much soil was exposed to the air – while everything was filling in – I added lots of grass clippings to hold the moisture in the soil. The Morning Glories were growing very quickly and soon I had to add metal poles with string strung between their lengths so that the flowers would have somewhere to grow.

Here you can see that the green grass clippings have turned brown, as they continue to hold moisture in the soil while they decompose to add nutrients to the soil. You can see a few yellow beans peaking out and the Morning Glories continue to grow and grow!

My idea for the Morning Glories was simple… I wanted to grow a wall of flowers. But you can see that my idea was getting out of control. Already the plants have grown as tall as the metal poles and they are reaching to grow higher still! What am I going to do?

It’s a little hard to see, but I ended up using a heavy-duty rope to run lines from the tops of the metal poles all the way to the window awning.

Morning Glories are a plant that needs continuous maintenance – if you are trying to grow a wall of flowers. Daily, I would weave the vines up and down and around the ropes. Left unattended the vines would simply grow upwards for a foot or two, become heavy from the weight of its own self and then fall towards the ground. They don’t naturally twist and weave themselves around the support ropes I put in place.

I would spend close to half an hour, each day, redirecting and maneuvering these vines. It was lots of fun and I learned a lot about how this plant grows… but soon I had a wild jungle on my hands and I saw my control slipping away.

These plants didn’t seem like they were ever going to stop growing… and they never did, until the Autumn frost finally killed the plants and flowers. You can see how far the vines stretched.

Yeah!!!! After patiently watching and tending to these vines for almost two months, it was now time to for the flowers to start blooming!

This particular species of Morning Glory produced flowers in baby-blue hues. What a delight! The flower lasted for just one day and then they died… but not before turning an interesting shade of fuscia. As the flowering season continued my jungle of green sparkled with two different colours at the same time.

To get these photos I actually had to climb onto my garage roof!!! My neighbours must have thought I was a bit nuts cuz I climbed up there quite often. I’m just showing you a few of my favourite ones.

I love macro photography! Getting in nice and close to one flower, while the ones in the distance loose their focus to add interesting textures to the composition.

This photo actually took me a while to compose. It was rather difficult cuz I had to climb up a shaky ladder. I was trying to compose an image that delved into the ideals of structured balance between light and dark. I had to think of the shadows in the foreground and balance them using the light on my neighbour’s garage wall in the background . I also spent time placing the loose, curvy vines in such a way as to compliment the rigid lines of the architectural structures in this photo. By fiddling with different applications on my computer an interesting final composition emerges for you to enjoy!!!

This image was also created using a computer application. As an artist who takes a long time to create just one painted image, I find it rewarding to use a computer to create an image that could well resemble my style of painting in less than an hour.

This final image that I have to share with you, was also created using my computer. I just love the wet metallic feel of this organic lifeform, stretching and yawning in its expanse to grow and evolve!

I’ve added a poem that I wrote over a decade ago – inspired by thoughts of Morning Glories (of course) – to complete this image. I know that many of you like to steal (er – I mean share) many of the images that I use in my blogs, so I made this image just for you. An inspirational poem and image to decorate your office wall, to remind us of the summer’s sun as we continue our way through the winter.

Jim

Tallying The Scorecard

2012-01-03T14:20:00.000-08:00

I began my 2011 blog posts with a story entitled “I Resolve”.

http://www.bitsandpeaces08.blogspot.com/2011/01/i-resolve.html

In this story I listed over 30 resolutions that I hoped to accomplish over the year that has just past. Let’s take a look and see how I did…

I began my list stating that… “In 2011 I resolve to continue to find ways to make this world a better place for future generations.”

The best way - that I can think of - to make this world a better place is by sharing positive inspiration that leads to positive actions. In April, I shared the inspirational artworks of The Peacebus at an Earthday event and during the day I planted several trees.
http://www.bitsandpeaces08.blogspot.com/2011/04/earthday-2011.html

Next on my list was this statement… “I resolve to understand where my food comes from so that I can make choices that will protect endangered forestlands.”

I was referring mostly to the horrors of McDonalds and my goal was to inspire others to boycott this evil franchise. Imagine my surprise when, last summer, I noticed that several of my old Peacebus students had created a Facebook group entitled “McCruelty – We’re Hating It!” and I was invited to join!!! Now, I’m sending this invitation to you to join our group…
http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/119151744775630/

In this group, we share stories about how to maintain a healthy diet by not eating fast foods and links are shared to news stories about how the McDonalds industry is beginning to crumble in other parts of the world!!!!

My next resolution had to do with maintaining my home to make it a better place…

… and I spent most of the summer doing just that! Now I have a garage roof that doesn’t leak.
http://www.bitsandpeaces08.blogspot.com/2011/08/roof-repair.html

Further down on my list I resolved to… “inspire children to be artful and creative.”

I think that I have accomplished this in more than just one way! For 3 months the students of The Peacebus and I worked together to create a total of 63 artworks inspired by thoughts of peace, animals and monochromatic colour schemes. The end result was this beautiful collage of the Earth in space surrounded by the Sun and the Universe.

Jeanne Sauve elementary school allowed me to have an artful celebration in their gymnasium and afterwards the students and I donated this artwork to the London Children’s Health Foundation.
http://www.bitsandpeaces08.blogspot.com/2011/07/their-home-too.html

Next, I resolved to… “share inspiration with the friends I have made on Facebook.”

I do this all the time, so I have easily accomplished this resolution. My Facebook highlight happened in September, when I started a new, fun, artful and educational group entitled, “Turtle Book Ink”. Again, I’m extending an invitation for all of you to join…
http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/turtlebookink/

People from around the world are sharing pictures and stories about the turtles that they love! We’ve had a few fun contests with really cool prizes. People have been posting petitions to save turtles from harm. I even asked the students who ride The Peacebus to share their artistic talents and one young girl was so inspired that she created over 25 turtle drawings. These drawings, in turn, inspired me to create a special story about one courageous turtle who went on a great adventure. You can read the whole story and see the many beautiful artworks by following this link…
http://www.bitsandpeaces08.blogspot.com/2011/10/turtles-great-adventure.html

On my resolution list I also stated that I would… “attend community events that celebrate the diversities of my homeland.”

Last spring, I became aware of an American company who came to the part of Southern Ontario – where I grew up – to lie to all the farmers in the area. This company bought out many of the farms and soon became the largest potato producer in Canada! That wasn’t the lie. This spring, the company announced their plans to stop farming potatoes so that they could create North America’s 2nd largest open pit mine!!!

This story is so detailed that I will insist that you learn more by reading this story…
http://www.bitsandpeaces08.blogspot.com/2011/06/dufferin-county-jobs-and-destruction.html

In July, the community of Orangeville, Ontario hosted an information event in the downtown core, to further raise awareness about this critical issue and to raise funds to fight the Highlands Corporation. I was in attendance!

This debate is still in process and I will invite you all to learn more and to support this cause by joining our Facebook group…
http://www.facebook.com/#!/no.mega.quarry

One of the easiest resolutions for me to keep was to… “appreciate the beauty of Nature.”

I do this every single day!!!! This is just one of the many arted photos that I took to capture the elegance, fury and majesty of our Earth and its ever changing weather patterns.

Next on my list was… “I resolve to maintain my sense of humour in response to environmental issues.”

To accomplish this, I continued to post many environmental cartoons in my Facebook album entitled, “The Lighter Side of Doomsday!”

One of my favourite resolutions was to… “grow more flowers in my gardens.”

Just look at all the flowers filling this photograph!!!! This is my front garden and it is dedicated to flowers. I dug this garden two years ago and last year I had a bumper crop!

“I resolve to appreciate and celebrate the accomplishments of others,” was also on my list. A noble resolution indeed!

I can think of many instances when I accomplished this goal, but none stand out on my mind more than when my lovely wife of 17 years gave birth to our son, Devon James Kogelheide!!!!
http://www.bitsandpeaces08.blogspot.com/2011/11/let-me-introduce-to-you.html

Now, I’ll easily be able to accomplish this resolution every single day, as I watch my beautiful boy, grow to wiggle and giggle his way through life!!!!

I love music! Especially music that bangs the beat for universal peace!! So, it is fitting that I made this resolution to… “attend great Rock’N’Roll concerts that fill my heart with waves of electric light.”

What better way of keeping my resolution than by going on a 3-day mini-holiday - for my birthday present - to Toronto to see my favourite band U2!!!!
http://www.bitsandpeaces08.blogspot.com/2011/08/our-summer-vacation.html

I like to make my resolutions fun to accomplish. Like… “I resolve to drink locally manufactured beer with old high school friends around a bon-fire.”

Well… this resolution fell a little short. Yes, I was able to drink locally manufactured beer with old high school friends, but this year our gathering was at home where we couldn’t have a bon-fire. Almost got this one! Better luck this summer!

Also on my list was… “I resolve to take a picture of you taking a picture of me taking a picture of you.”

Again… I fell a little short of accomplishing this goal, but I almost got it! In the end I got a picture of my dad looking into my camera as I got ready to take a photo…

… of my whole family sitting by the Christmas tree!

Well… that about covers most of the resolutions from my 2011 list and you can see that I was able to accomplish almost all of my goals. Although many of my resolutions were created in fun and were quite easy to realize, I’m most proud of the ones that were hard to define, yet were the most satisfying to be a small part of… even when that small part was a lot of hard work!!!

All in all, it would be hard for me not to say that 2011 was the greatest year of my life… and even though that is a very bold statement I am confident that the best is still to come!

Yeah!!!!! It’s here!!!! Bring on 2012!!!!

Jim

Happy New Year!!!!!!

2011-12-30T12:22:00.000-08:00

Wishing all my readers and supporters a peaceful and joyous 2012!!!!!

Jim

Creations for History

2011-12-16T09:25:00.000-08:00

Over the last several months, my Peacebus art files have been spilling over the brim with bright colours and inspirational designs. I thought that it would be fun to share these art creations by placing them throughout a poem I wrote over 12 years ago…

Creation For History… With The Eyes Of Tomorrow

Now that this peace has been done,

I pause and reflect on how it had begun.

The hours spent labouring vanish away

And I’m back in time on that fateful day

When an idea, a flash, an inspiration was

Ignited in my mind

And the wheels of imagination churned to find

The ways, the means, the tools to be used

And random thoughts were congealed and fused

To structure this creation.

A blueprint was made to capture the essence

And through this process I felt the final presence,

But exactly what it was to be

Was still not yet made clear to me

Or you

So the work began unhindered.

There was nothing stopping us from seeing this through.

First the materials needed were all place together

And the beginning peaces were laid down,

Each made to measure.

Then one by one we united as a team

And this creation, steady and sure, came into being.

Do you remember the expression that we shared

When we realized that we shared the same dream?

To bring forth this creation for history

Was not as difficult as, at first, it seemed!

Jim

A Stitch In Time

2011-12-05T06:45:00.000-08:00

Wow! It’s hard to believe that it was over a decade ago when Joanne and I were living in beautiful Nelson, British Columbia, as I worked to complete the artwork needed for the project entitled ‘Canada: Glorious To Be’.
http://www.youtube.com/user/jimkogelheide#p/u/4/rp3iPj_Kefc

I was exploring many new mediums during this stage of my art endeavours and while we were in BC my methodus operandus was needlepoint!

It was a lot of fun working with needle and thread. I didn’t stick to any of the normal stitching patterns like cross-stitch – I liked creating my own unique stitching patterns.

I also did a lot of my own thread colour blending and this technique really added a lot to all of the art peaces that I created, during this time of my life.

I was working as the Night Auditor/ Security Dude for one of Nelson’s downtown hotels – The New Grand Hotel. During the night I had a bit of time, between work duties, to fiddle around with my artworks. My boss didn’t mind. In fact, Danny rather enjoyed watching my progress each morning when he arrived to his office.

I created several needlepoint artworks for the staff of the hotel. Every once in while I think about them and wonder if they still have my artworks hanging in their homes.

Carol was one of my fellow ‘Front Deskers’. She usually worked the evening shift and so I saw her almost every night, as I was her relief. She loved things with smiley faces. She was a smiley face freak!!!!

In fact, she sent us a letter – after Jo’ and I had moved to Nova Scotia – and the envelope was filled with many smiley face stickers. I shared them with my friends and kept a few for myself.

I stuck one of them onto the side of my microwave and I see it every single day cuz I still have that microwave! It always casts my mind into many wonderful memories. Thanks, Carol!

Because of her passion for smiley faces, I became inspired to create a special smiley face needlepoint artwork just for her!

Whenever I teach a class, or simply talk about the world of art, I will always talk about the importance of texture. To me – texture is art!

Now, a smiley face is a very simple design. You’ve got a big circle, for the head, a couple of smaller circles, for the eyes, and a nice big curve, for the smile. So, when I was designing my smiley face needlepoint, I had to think of a way that I could make these four simple shapes more interesting, by creating a unique texture.

I thought that it would be very interesting to create the design using one continuous line of black thread. This one line wiggled this way and that way across the fabric canvas and many, many times it would cross over on itself.

When the black thread crossed over or looped around on itself a shape was created inside of each loop.

Once a loop was created, I would use coloured threads to fill in this space. Simple idea, yet I found myself getting dizzy and lost in this design all the time!!!

The colour scheme was rather simple: the background, the eyes and the mouth would be purple and the face would be yellow.

I decided to make this a little more interesting, as well. I used four different colours of yellow threads to create five different colours. Some of the shapes were filled in using only one colour of thread and other shapes were filled in using a mixture of yellow threads.

This colour blending is easier to see when viewing the purple shapes, especially if you look closely at the lightest blue shapes. You can see that the light blue threads were mixed with a dark purple thread.

I think that these colour blends kinda make the whole thing sparkle in a way!

It took me about two months to create this artwork and since it was to be a surprise present for Carol, you can imagine some of the trouble I had hiding it from her until it was completed!!! She absolutely loved it!

About a week ago, I was rummaging through one of my older art boxes when I came across this design. It’s always nice to find things that you’ve kinda forgotten about or misplaced. I smiled while remembering the history of this artwork and then an idea resurfaced in my mind. The idea was born during the creation of this art but I didn’t have the tools or technology at that time to bring the idea to life. I have those tools now…

I remember thinking that it would be really cool to create an animation film showing the adventures of that one continuous black thread line as it wiggled its way throughout the canvas… and that is just what I’ve done. To do this, tho’, I had to work backwards. I used an ‘erase’ tool on my computer to do this. I erased a few threads and then saved that image. I erased a few more and then saved that image and after close to 400 erases I had created all the images that will go into making this short animation film. I’m hoping to have this video ready to upload to my youtube account by this coming spring. I’ll be sure to post a link to the video when it’s completed.

I certainly did not want to post all of the images that were created, so I’ve posted every 30th frame for this story. I’m sure that your imagination can fill in the rest.

I hope that this story and these images have lifted your spirits and have put a smile on your face.

Until again… be smiley… it’s contagious ya know!!!!

Jim

T is for Turtle!!

2011-11-22T14:27:00.000-08:00

I love the fact that the students who ride the Peacebus are being filled with artful inspirations every day! Continuously I’m being gifted with colourful peace art designs that I use to decorate our bus. Occasionally, I create fun art competitions to focus their talents on specific topics… like turtles!!!

I’ve mentioned before that I’ve created a fun and educational group on Facebook revolving around the subject of turtles (http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/turtlebookink/
- please feel free to join our group) and so, I thought that it would be fun to add some creative artworks to the growing library of turtle images!

In the past, whenever I’ve created an art competition, I’ve usually prepared a sheet of paper with information about the art topic to hand out to the students who want to participate.

This time I didn’t. I simple told the students about the competition and then let them have complete control over their own creativity. I’m so glad that I did!

Most of the drawings that were handing in to me where created on regular sized peaces of paper…

… but one student really blew me away when she handed in this rather large turtle poster!!!! Melanie’s artwork is almost three feet long and it is filled with so many wonderful turtle activities. There are turtles swimming with peace fish, rowing boats and rock climbing. It reminds me of a turtle peace resort!

I just rolled with laughter when I noticed this fun character screaming ‘Rock and Roll!’ while he was parachuting to the Earth!

My wife especially liked these turtles playing on a peace rock with one turtle playing with a turtle balloon!!!! Way tew kewt!!!!

Well… after I showed the rest of the student’s this art poster I’m sure that you can imagine what happened. Yup! More art posters!!!

This art poster is so long that I was only able to capture a portion of it to share with you. You can see that Kira has a parade of colourful turtles marching along peacefully, surrounded by a peace sun and peaceful butterflies. You can see that she’s numbered each of the turtles. The poster ended when she reached 15!!

There must be something about turtles that makes people think about relaxing. Here’s another drawing of a group of turtles relaxing at a resort…

… while Sydney shows just one turtle relaxing under the sun!!! I’m looking out my window, as I write this, and I’m seeing drops of rain and fallen leaves being blown by a bitterly cold wind and then I look at this drawing and I’m reminded of summer again!

A few of these drawings ended up on the windows of the Peacebus, so that more people could see and enjoy them!

I love it when a student hands in a drawing for the very first time. This amazing artwork was created by Nikos in grade 3. Just look at all the detail. - two turtles drawn using nothing but peace symbols, swimming in an ocean of peace! Being a bit of an artist myself, I’m completely aware of the dedication to detail that this kind of creation demands.

And talking about detail… just check out Dalia’s artwork, here!!!! My eyes popped out of my head and my jaw dropped when she handed in this creation. I asked her how long this took to complete and I was not surprised when Dalia told me that it took her a little over four hours!!

Really, all the artworks impressed me greatly. The many varieties of colours, textures and environments that the turtles found themselves in, shows a mountain range of imagination. This is one reason why I love my job!!!

Jasmine is one of my great art talents! She has also joined my Facebook group called ‘Turtle Book Ink’ (http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/turtlebookink/)and she visits this page quite often. I love how she included a turtle book into her drawing. The turtle sliding down the peace rainbow really makes me smile, too!!!!

This is Zarek’s first drawing for the Peacebus, and what a delight it is! When I was first talking about this competition, I told the students that they should think about what kind of environment their turtle would be in. Zarek really blew me away with this creation, complete with an ocean lapping up to a peace beach with some peace trees and shrubs in the distance leading to a peaceful and spouting volcano!! Tres cool!

Now, Andor here went in a different direction, creating a very abstract and psychedelic world filled with gumdrop peace turtles. I think that John Lennon would have been inspired to write about this artwork in one of his songs!

Because the students hand in so much artwork, I sometimes – more like all the time – find myself getting behind in putting their drawings up on the bus. I’ve had some students ask me why their art isn’t on the bus and so I’ve had to tell them all that they have to be patient, “… and because the window decorations don’t last very long during the wet winter months, I’m even saving some until next spring.”

Like Rachel’s two peace turtle designs. It’ll be fun to see the students’ expressions after they have forgotten about their artworks and then suddenly, there they are filling the windows with bright colours to match the colours of springtime!

Mira is a student who rode on the Peacebus last year. She is friends with several of the students who are now riding my bus and she hears about all of our adventures. She also heard that Mr. Jim and his wife had a baby and I was delighted when she came to visit me and to give me this amazing artwork!!!! My wife loves this drawing and she said that Mira did a great job putting her in the most styling of high-heeled shoes!

Melanie handed in another turtle artwork, just a few days ago. She told me that she knew the art competition was over, “but now I just love turtles and I had to draw another one!” In the past, many drawings were addressed to ‘Mr. Jim’. Lately, I’ve noticed that they are now being addressed to ‘Daddy Mr. Jim’ or just ‘Daddy Jim’!!!! This makes my whole soul smile.

When anyone hands a drawing in to me, I always give them one of my black and white peace Stik-ers. This fact remained the same for this turtle art competition.

I told the students that there would be a several winners who would receive an additional prize. As is often the case, I couldn’t figure out who the winners should be – all the artworks were exceptionally creative and well executed. So, I decided to give all participants a small prize to show my appreciation.

I had shown the drawings of the turtle mural I had painted for Devon’s bedroom and I heard many ‘ooohs’ and ‘ahhhhs’ throughout the bus. So, I decided that since everyone seemed to like the turtle mural image that I would make some large stickers using this image and that these would be the prizes for all the participating artists.

I don’t like doing anything that doesn’t include all the students on the bus, so I made an additional present to share with each Peacebus student. I used Ava’s peace turtle design to create a whole bunch of smaller stickers to share! Everyone loved them!! Ava was absolutely surprised, a bit shocked and overwhelmed with gratitude that I had chosen to use her design to share with the whole bus!

Well, we are at the end of this story, but rest assured that this is not the end of the Peacebus art adventures that I will delight in sharing with you in the future!

Until then, be peaceful and be turtley!!!!

Mr. Jim

Let Me Introduce To You…

2011-11-09T14:06:00.000-08:00

It was Sunday, October 23rd just around 7:00pm. I had spent the last few hours working outside, doing my Autumn gardening chores. The sun had just set for the evening and I was enjoying a nice cold beer by the fire. I was burning my collection of sticks that I had collected over the summer, in a burn barrel placed in the middle of my garden. The ashes help to add nitrogen to the soil and this is a good thing, for my veggies next year.

I heard Joanne’s footsteps as they crinkled on the dried leaves, scattered over the ground underneath our Maple tree. I thought that she had come to spend some time with me and to get some fresh air. Jo’ had been complaining about headaches over the last two days and I thought that a little night air would do her good.

Well… her visit didn’t last for more than a minute, in which time she told me that she thought it would be best to go to the hospital to make sure she was okay. Her headache had gotten worse.

While she loaded a few bags into the car, I finished putting out the fire and soon we were off to the hospital.

A short while later, Jo’ was laying in a bed with all sorts of monitors taped to her belly that were hooked up to that machine that goes ‘Bing!’ A doctor told us that we would not be leaving the hospital that evening and that we should be expecting to be moved to the ‘Baby Delivery Room’ very shortly!!!!

Everything was a rapid blur after that point. Nurses fussed about. Doctor’s came for periodic visits. Other specialists prepared the ‘baby warmer’ that would later be used to make sure our baby was cooked thoroughly before dinner!!! Okay – that was indeed a silly and bad joke!

I won’t get into any more detail than that – simply because I want to make sure that some of the memories from this night of all nights remain forever ours – but what seemed like a very short time later, Joanne and I were resting and thinking about this miraculous gift that had just come into our lives!

I will share this, tho’… when I saw our son being born I felt very odd. I was holding Joanne in my arms, she was quite exhausted, the moment of delivery had just past and I was whispering words of comfort into her ear. She looked up at me and my heart began to expand so that my insides hurt. As I looked back at her, my vision blurred and a tear ran out of my eye. Joanne had also cried and my tear dropped to her face and joined hers. I never knew that LOVE could ever feel as joyous as it did at that moment!

A short while later, our son was washed, swaddled and in mommy’s arms for the very first time. We had a small choice of names for him and seconds after he was in Joanne’s embrace she told me that he looked like a Devon. Devon James Kogelheide was born on Monday, October 24th at 7:38am, weighing in at 6 pounds 9.3 ounces.

Like most new parents, our first day was a bit of a blur. Joanne’s parents lived the closest and they were the first to arrive to meet their grandson.

My parents and sister had to travel a 3 hour drive and they arrived in the early afternoon.

My sister is a very love filled person and I could see that she was working hard to hold back most of her tears of joy! I’m sure that Devon will be spoiled with the many wonderful treats that Sandra enjoys baking.

Soon, everyone was in agreement that mommy needed some sleep and for the next few hours I kept watch…

… but I couldn’t contain myself for too long and soon Devon was in my arms again!

With our world turned completely around, there was little time for much thinking over the next few days. We slept when we could and we took care of our little son as he needed.

Since then, it’s been all about building a healthy routine into his life. The first topic of discussion being to teach Devon about this thing called night and day.

Every evening at around 8:00pm “It’s Bath-time, It’s Bath-time, It’s Buh-Buh-Buh-Buh-Bath-time!” Then he feeds, gets changed and double swaddled for the night.

To bring in the day, he feeds, gets changed and then spends time dancing around the living room in daddy’s arms while listening to some good ‘ol Rock’N’Roll – something with a deep bass rhythm! The curtains are opened to let in the light and if the weather permits, he gets a stroller ride.

Every day, we would get new ideas about how we can do the things that we need to do for him. Every day, we’ve been getting better and better. Joanne and I have never been happier and we both know that Devon will have a happy life filled with lots and lots of love!!!!

Now… even though Devon spends much of his time sleeping and growing and will have no memories of this time in his life, that doesn’t mean that daddy isn’t having fun with him!!!

Halloween was my first day back to work and I thought that it would be fun for my Peacebus students to see me all decorated up. When I got home, Jo’ helped me to take a few photos so that I could have a new profile picture for Facebook.

It seems that I’ve now become addicted… addicted to writing funny thought bubbles for Devon!!! Did you notice how I used the lyrics ‘monkey fingers’ from the Beatles song “Come Together” in this pic.

Ha! Now I’ve gotten carried away!!

So… I thought that it would be cool to highlight some of the other worldly things that happened on Devon’s birthday, to finish this story…

The first news story that I heard on the radio, after Devon’s birth was on CBC radio. They announced that new figures show that the violent crime rate has decreased dramatically. They are at the lowest levels in almost 40 years!!! One reason is that today’s youths are better educated about how to handle aggression and peer pressure and that tolerance for these sorts of crimes has decreased.

One of my hopes for the future is that education will also decrease today’s youths’ tolerance for greed and environmental degradation!

In 1978 The Rolling Stones released the album ‘Some Girls’. Over 30 years later, the song ‘No Spare Parts’ – that was recorded during this time – is found and dusted off. On Devon’s birthday, this song is released to the world.

have a listen….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=mkZ2CCVlXuE

Our world’s history is also filled with many other peaceful events that happened on this same day…

2002 – Police arrest spree killers John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo, ending the Beltway sniper attacks in the area around Washington, DC.

1986 – Nezar Hindawi is sentenced to 45 years in prison, the longest sentence handed down by a British court, for the attempted bombing on an El Al flight at Heathrow.

1973 – Yom Kippur War ends

1964 – Northern Rhodesia gains independence from the United Kingdom and becomes the Republic of Zambia

1949 – The cornerstone of the United Nations Headquarters is laid.

1946 – A camera on board the V-2 No. 13 rocket takes the first photograph of earth from outer space.

1911 – Orville Wright remains in the air 9 minutes and 45 seconds in a Wright Glider at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina.

1861 – The First Transcontinental Telegraph line across the United States is completed.

1648 – The Peace of Westphalia is signed, marking the end of the Thirty Years' War.

1360 – The Treaty of Brétigny is ratified at Calais, marking the end of the first phase of the Hundred Years' War.

Hmmmm… I’m beginning to see a pattern - huge leaps in technological advances, human unifications and social justices!

Maybe, just maybe, Devon’s generation will accomplish what humanities existance has always sought after – Peace On Earth!!! I may not be able to predict the future for our world but I do know that I will always stand by my son to support and guide him as humanities journey continues…

Jim

Epoch

2011-11-01T06:50:00.000-07:00

In the fields of chronology and periodization, an epoch (from Greek Εποχή epohi meaning "era") means an instance in time chosen as the origin of a particular era. The "epoch" then serves as a reference point from which time is measured.

Over the last few months, my wife and I have been preparing for the arrival of our son. One of the tasks that Joanne gave to me was filling this empty wall, in the baby’s room, with a nice wall mural.

My first idea was to create a fun image with rolling hills and silly dinosaurs. I thought that it would tew kewt to have a dinosaur head poking through the clouds, with the dino’s head bent down while he took a bite of a rainbow!

Jo’ wanted me to paint a mural design filled with lions, hippos and banana trees with monkeys.

After a few weeks of chit-chat, we were no further ahead with an agreement. One day, I was working on a different art project and I found myself ‘googling’ for images of turtles… and then I became inspired!

http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/turtlebookink/

I found a great image and after I had used my computer to flip it around, change colours and do a few other things that I do, I had the beginnings of a plan. Jo’ thought that my ideas were great and soon the paint started flying around the room.

While all of this was going on, Joanne was preparing to have her baby shower. What a wonderful event that was! The family, friends and neighbours that filled our house that day made us realize that we would never be alone when facing the challenges that parenthood will bring.

The atmosphere reminded me of ‘the days of old’ where people and communities busied themselves with making gifts with splendid decorations. Hand knitted blankets, booties, toques and sweaters were unwrapped with a smile. My sister, knowing how passionate Jo’ and I are about recycling and reusing, presented us with many educational children’s storybooks and DVD’s that she had purchased second-hand!

Of course, some items were new purchases, but the environment was always the inspiration behind them. We received books about how to raise a ‘green’ baby, with helpful hints about healthy eating, safe cleaning products and more.

One day, I was surprised to find a large package that had been delivered to our door. It was from my best friend and his wife. They have recently had two sons and so this box was filled with many hand-me-down clothes. Ken’s wife Laura, is now a stay at home mom and she is building a business creating baby products using recycled fabrics. Many samples of her creations filled this box, as well.

Ken and I have a history of sharing music. One of his contributions to this package were a few music CD’s that he had organized, with songs ‘not just for kids’ by Johnny Cash, Jerry Garcia and John Grisham.

Even the students from my Peacebus have surprised me with fun gifts for our child. Jo’ had to put up an extra shelf (and yes – I did tell her that she should have left that task to me… but Joanne loves doing stuff like this) above the baby’s crib, to hold the toy dogs and blue bears, decorated with scarves filled with peace symbols.

So… I’m sending out a huge THANK YOU!! to everyone for their kindness, thoughtfulness and love! Joanne and I are full of appreciation!!!!

Now, I just have to get that wall mural finished…

… and there we go!

Here’s a shot of the whole wall so you can see the full image that our son will soon be enjoying.

Here’s mommy enjoying the mural. Now we just need our son to be born!

WHAT’S THIS?!!!!!!!!! Hmmmmm… something tells me that this is the beginning of another story…

Jim

A Turtle’s Great Adventure

2011-10-21T06:42:00.000-07:00

I love turtles! They are a most beautiful and unique animal and they bring joy to so many people’s lives. I will be sharing a few ‘turtley’ blogs over the next little while and I’m very excited to jump right into this one…

The Peacebus just finished its first art competition of the year and it was a great success. I had a lot of fun and I know that the students did too!

The subject of this competition was… turtles!!!! All of the artworks were amazing, but I’m going to focus on just one group of art creations for this story.

Ava is a student in grade 4. She has been one of my star artists since the beginning of the school year. During this competition she became a ‘Turtle Art Monster’ – LOL – creating close to 25 unique artworks!!! Way to go, Ava!

Yesterday, after I had arrived home after my morning bus runs, Joanne and I spent the morning looking at all of Ava’s drawings. As we were enjoying them, I began to shuffle the drawings around, organizing them in a way. While I was doing this a story began forming in my mind. It was a spontaneous moment of inspiration.

Three hours later, I had completed writing my first ever book, using Ava’s drawings as my inspiration.

Later that evening, I went to a local printing centre and one hour later ‘A Turtle’s Great Adventure’ was complete. I made three copies: 1 copy for me to read to my soon to be born son, 1 copy for Ava and 1 copy for Ava’s school.

Just an hour ago, I went to visit Ava’s principal, to show her our book. I asked the principal to visit Ava’s classroom to present this book to her teacher. This will be such a delightful surprise because Ava does not know – yet – what I have done with her artworks. I can’t wait to see her smiling face at the end of today!!!!

So… with no further adieu… I am honoured to share with all of you….

Wasn’t that a great read?!!!

I’ll be sharing this book with my son many many times over the next few years and I’m sure that he will enjoy this story too!

If you would like to find out what other kind of ‘turtley’ adventures I’m involved in then I will ask you to join my first Facebook group – Turtle Book Ink!
http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/turtlebookink/

Until next time… have a turtley day y’all!!!!

Mr. Jim

My Own Foodstock!

2011-10-18T07:06:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday’s Foodstock event in Honeywood, Ontario was a great success! Over the last couple of days, people have been sending me photos from their experience at this event cuz they knew that I was unable to attend.

My sister joined in the fun and had a plate of food for me! Thanks Sandra!!!!!

CBC radio had been promoting this affair and I’m sure that they were there to get some first hand interviews from the many who were there to enjoy all the great food as well as to learn more about what can be done to halt the destructive plans to turn my homeland into North America’s second largest open-pit mine!

Here’s a story from the Toronto Star newspaper – http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1070839--foodies-unite-en-masse-to-oppose-land-excavation#article

The struggle to halt this quarry will be continuing over the next year or so, I would suspect, and be assured that I will do my best to keep you updated.

Foodstock was a celebration of the land and the food that this land provides. Since Joanne and I had to stay close to home cuz our son could be born at any time now, we decided to have a Foodstock of our very own! A celebration of our own small peace of land and the food that we grew this year…

… like this pumpkin! This was just one of the eight pumpkins that we grew this year and the best thing about this is that if was free!! In the spring, I emptied our composter onto one small patch of our garden and all sorts of free food started growing from it.

The first thing to do with your pumpkin is to cut away the top centre stock. Make sure your knife is very sharp.

Using the same knife, cut your pumpkin in half, lengthwise. I find that an ice cream scoop is the perfect tool for scooping out all the seeds and innards of the pumpkin. Later, these seeds will be towel dried and sprinkled with a dash of salt and a drop of oil and using cookie sheets, we’ll bake them until golden. What a great little snack!!!

But, before we do that, the pumpkin halves are placed onto the cookie sheets and baked at 350 degrees for a little over an hour. When we first started learning how to cook squashes, we would steam the squash instead of baking it. We learned that a baked squash is much more flavourful and that it retains a lot more nutrients.

We let the baked pumpkin sit and cool for a couple of hours and then I use the ice cream scoop, again, to separate the pumpkin meat from the skin.

You can do quite a lot with just one pumpkin. As I mentioned, we grew eight of them this year, so you can imagine how much of this yummy stuff we’ve got in our freezer to enjoy over the cold winter to come.

I read that a baby’s first solid foods should be vegetables that are coloured orange and yellow. So, along with the many bags of pumpkin that we’ve stored in our freezer, we’ve got yellow beans and carrots that also grew in our garden, ready to be mashed into baby food.

To prepare a creamy pumpkin soup that will warm your house as well as your spirit, begin by sautéing 3 large onions and lots of garlic. We used a super tasty wild garlic that I stole from my mom’s garden several years ago and transplanted into my garden.

Once the onions become translucent – just before they brown – add 900 ml of vegetable soup stock and let simmer for 30 minutes. Then you add 4 cups of the baked pumpkin and simmer for another 30 minutes. Toss in several generous tablespoons of Rosemary during the last few minutes of this process.

I find that the Rosemary really seals to deal for this soup recipe. I’ll have to add this herb to my veggie garden next year cuz I love it so much!

We use a hand-held blender to create a nice even texture for our soup.

Now you remove the soup pot from the heat, add 2 cups of a light cream, stirring thoroughly and you are ready to enjoy!!!!

I love it when Jo’ makes this soup even better by baking a loaf of Beer Cheese Bread to go along with it!!!! Super Yum!

Our freezer now has many a container filled with this simple yet delightful soup and we’ll be enjoying these flavours throughout the coming winter!

I’m glad to share this recipe with you and I hope that I’ve inspired you to think about planting your own vegetable garden next spring.

As our societies begin to understand that humanity must undergo many profound changes over the years to come to ensure a habitable planet for future generations, the first questions that we all ask is, “What can I do?” The simplest step is learning how fulfilling it is to take care of our most primal need – food! After that, most other actions for change seem to just fall into place.

Jim

Foodstock

2011-10-11T09:02:00.000-07:00

Wow! What a view!! Considering how flat the land looks in this photo, one may think that this image was taken from a plane or a hot air balloon, but that’s not the case. This photo was taken somewhere along the edges of The Niagara Escarpment.

This natural phenomenon was created during the last ice age and it stretches from the southern portion of Ontario to very far north. While the surrounding lands remain hollowed out by the receding glaciers, the escarpment reaches up to some extreme heights.

Just a few minutes from where I grew up, in the valleys and hills of the escarpment, there is an area where one can see the night lights of Barrie and Toronto at the same time! This peak is thought to be the second highest landmark in Southern Ontario. This is my backyard!

But, lately the views and vistas have been filled with images of a different concern…

Ahhh – yes… the mega-quarry! Many of you may have read my detailed blog about this issue earlier this summer -http://bitsandpeaces08.blogspot.com/2011/06/dufferin-county-jobs-and-destruction.html . I’m not going repeat myself with all of the reasons why this proposed quarry will be the demise of this region, affecting six major rivers that flow through the Toronto and Niagara region of Ontario, cuz I already did that. I’m going to continue this story sharing the many things that the citizens of Southern Ontario are doing to preserve these lands for future generations…

It was mid July, in Orangeville, Ontario and I was going to a rally to support the halting of the mega-quarry. It didn’t take me long until I saw the first signs…

… telling me I was in the right area!!!

Just behind the town hall, groups of people were gathering to learn more about this issue and to find ways to help local organizations gather strength to challenge the American Industrialists who want to reap profit from Canadian soil.

It was a hot day, and many people found a small corner of shade to stand in while speakers took the stage to share with us.

I was extremely impressed with the caliber of all the speakers. We listened to farmers retell the stories of how they were tricked into selling their farmland. We listened to environmentalists detail the impact that this quarry will have on this land as well as neighbouring areas. We listened to local government officials as they encouraged us to continue fighting to preserve these unique lands.

I was most impressed with one of the speakers who told us that his goal was not to put a halt to just this quarry, but to set legislative precedence so that future proposals of this nature will require the environmental assessments that are now non existent. That’s right! This proposal to create North America’s second largest open-pit mine does NOT have to prepare an environmental assessment! That’s just wrong!!

There were booths where one could purchase signs of opposition to post onto front lawns, to help spread awareness. There were booths filled with petitions that were signed by all attendees. And there were booths filled with local chefs who had simple foods available for the crowds, to highlight the crop diversity from this region that would become spoiled if the plans for the mega-quarry cannot be halted.

I liked how the chefs had arranged a unique way to get the hungry people involved in making their own food. This is a bike-powered flourmill! If you wanted a homemade soft-shell taco for lunch you had to dedicate a few minutes of your time to grind the flour that would be used to make your taco shell!! Everyone thought that this was great!

It sure would have been a boring event if all we did was stand around and listen to people talk all day, so a variety of local musicians took to the stage between speakers. Coming from an area that has annual fiddling events, we were entertained with a few fiddlers, and a short while later these drummers entertained us.

Another event that happened this summer was the ‘Paint In’, which was hosted by The Artists United Against The Mega-Quarry.

30 artists had gathered to create a unique series of paintings depicting the beauty that these landscapes have to offer. Now that this issue had been building so much positive publicity, many people came to view these dedicated craftsmen in action!

Sandi Wong is the person who I’ve been in contact with to learn more about these art events. This is one of her creations. Absolutely gorgeous!

Just two weeks ago, Sandi organized the first of several art exhibits that will be taking place over the next year. Her paintings highlight both the rolling hills of the area and the ‘big sky’ that fills our heart while strolling along these country sideroads. I’m hoping to create another original landscape over this winter so that I can personally support this cause.

Sandi is compiling a large email list to keep interested people up to speed with these events, so if you would like to learn more please visit her website - www.sandiwongartist.com

Over the years, I have created many landscape paintings inspired this region of Southern Ontario. This painting was also the inspiration for a song that I wrote about a walk through the hills during a Thanksgiving visit to my parents’ - who still live in this area.

This region has always been an inspiration to me – it is the most beautiful region in all of Southern Ontario. I grew up here. This is the place that I call home! It will be interesting to see how my ambition to save my homeland affects my future art creations depicting this area.

So… these are some of the events that have happened in our recent history.

Now… I want to share one event that is going to be happening this coming weekend. I would love to learn that this blog inspired some people to visit this area and attend this event.

The following has been edited from an article appearing in the Toronto Star newspaper…

Chef Michael Stadtlander is the driving force behind Foodstock, an Oct. 16 fundraiser in support of the movement to Stop The Mega Quarry. He's in the potato field of Dave Vanderzaag, who is one of four farmers who didn't sell to an American-backed company that wants to develop one of Canada's biggest rock quarries. JASON VAN BRUGGEN PHOTO (from Toronto Star)
Activist chef Michael Stadtländer is spearheading a farm-based food protest and hopes 20,000 people will join him.

The Oct. 16 event is called Foodstock and it’s a pay-what-you-can culinary and musical rally against a proposed limestone mega quarry on prime agricultural land next to the Niagara Escarpment. The project’s opponents fear for the region’s water, farming and quality of life.

“We have to protect land that can grow food,” Stadtländer said Thursday. “We’re just at the dawn of localism, and after seeing the drought, hurricanes and floods that have happened in the United States, I think we had better secure where our food comes from.”

Most of the chefs are from southern Ontario, but at least three are coming from Nunavut, Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia. Each will create a dish using locally grown or procured items like potatoes, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, apples, smoked lake trout, beef and pork.

“In a way, you will taste the land that is in jeopardy,” promised Stadtländer, a longtime supporter of organic food and localism.

The article continues to mention that some prominent Canadian musicians will also be in attendance. Wouldn’t it be the coolest thing to spend the day winding your way through these hills at the height of the Autumn colours before settling down to the greatest meal you’ll ever have and while your on your way to the donation jar you shake hands with Jim Cuddy or Sarah Harmer!!!!?

Last Friday, I was at a library, researching news articles, and checking my emails for more information for this very blog, when a ‘chat’ bubble popped up on my Facebook page. It was from someone who used to be my neighbour. Jeremy Taggart asked me if I was going to be attending this event. I told him that I would love to go but since my wife is due to give birth to our son near that date, I just couldn’t take the risk.

Later, my wife joked and said that if we did go, and she did have our baby that it would be like Woodstock!!!

By this time, I figured that Jeremy was going to be there and I asked him about his plans for the day. He told me that he was to be the host for this event. Very cool, indeed!

I haven’t seen Jeremy since we were teenagers, right about the time when he decided to go out into the world to become the drummer for Our Lady Peace! It would have been great to see him again, so I could give him some of my peace Stik-ers to share with the band!!!

So… there ya go! One day! 20, 000 people! 70 Canadian chefs! And a handful of Canada’s finest musicians! Let’s make the Canadian government witness our united effort as we make a glorious stand to preserve our food and our land for our children and theirs!!!!!

‘Nuf said! I’m hungry… where does the food line start?

Jim

Can’t make it to Foodstock – then keep up to date on the ‘No Mega-Quarry’ Facebook page - http://www.facebook.com/no.mega.quarry?sk=wall

Great Things Come in Threes

2011-09-29T15:06:00.001-07:00

Great things come in threes…

Like the great tasting Reeses Peanut Butter Cups. Yum! Yum!

Like the Peacebus rules.

And the following three interesting photos…

Explanation: What's that below the Milky Way? Historic kilns. Built in the 1870s in rural Nevada, USA to process local wood into charcoal, the kilns were soon abandoned due to a town fire and flooding, but remain in good condition even today. The above panorama is a digital conglomerate of five separate images taken in early June from the same location. Visible above the unusual kilns is a colorful star field, highlighted by the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy appearing along a diagonal toward the lower right. Many famous sites in our Galaxy are visible, including the Pipe Nebula and the Dark River to Antares, seen to the right of the Milky Way. The origin of the green mist on the lower left, however, is currently unexplained.

Explanation: The scene might have been considered serene if it weren't for the tornado. During 2004 in Kansas, storm chaser Eric Nguyen photographed this budding twister in a different light -- the light of a rainbow. Pictured above, a white tornado cloud descends from a dark storm cloud. The Sun, peeking through a clear patch of sky to the left, illuminates some buildings in the foreground. Sunlight reflects off raindrops to form a rainbow. By coincidence, the tornado appears to end right over the rainbow. Streaks in the image are hail being swept about by the high swirling winds. Over 1,000 tornadoes, the most violent type of storm known, occur on Earth every year, many in tornado alley. If you see a tornado while driving, do not try to outrun it -- park your car safely, go to a storm cellar, or crouch under steps in a basement.

Explanation: What is that on the horizon? No, it's not an alien starship battling distant Earthlings, but rather a sun pillar. When driving across Ontario, Canada in early June 2011, the photographer was surprised to encounter such an "eerie and beautiful" vista, and immediately took pictures. When the atmosphere is cold, ice sometimes forms flat six-sided crystals as it falls from high-level clouds. Air resistance then causes these crystals to lie nearly flat much of the time as they flutter to the ground. If viewed toward a rising or setting Sun, these flat crystals will reflect sunlight and create an unusual column of light -- a sun pillar as seen above.

I just love all the amazing wonders that exist on our incredible planet!!!!

These photos and their stories were taken from a NASA website. This site showcases a different interesting photo every day. I like to peruse their archives to see all that they have to show - http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html . Please enjoy!

So! I’ve filled you with inspiration to realize that our Earth is a magical place. But my job is not yet finished, for today. Before I end this blog, I feel I need to share with you a concern of great importance….

Yes – our world is full of wonder! But – we humans have created many, many problems that could destroy this world for future generations!

Yes – our world will never die! But – do we really want to create a situation that will cause the Earth to have to heal itself for other life forms, knowing that this healing process could take a few million years?

The future depends on what we do now! Let’s all do our part to raise awareness and instigate positive actions that will lead us to our glorious future!

Jim

Happy Peace On Earth Day!!!!

2011-09-21T08:09:00.000-07:00

Since today is International Peace Day, I thought that it would be most fitting to share some of the artworks that the students of The Peacebus have created since the beginning of the school year.

It doesn’t bother me that some of the artworks have spelling mistakes or that some of the peace symbols aren’t drawn perfectly. What really matters is the thought and creativity that goes into all of these expressions.

I’m a really lucky guy! I think that the students who ride on my bus are the most friendly, kind and peaceful people I have ever met. And I mean all of them!!!

In the past, the older students used to sit only at the back of the bus while the younger students sat at the front. I was very surprised and delighted to see that there is a lot of mingling going on throughout the entire bus. I had nothing to do with this – it’s just the way they are… and I’m glad!

Some of the older students have younger brothers or sisters and they often times sit together. The older students will share stories and play silly games with the friends of their younger sibling, who are sitting nearby.

Sometimes a young student will have trouble finding a place to sit and there is always an older student nearby to offer assistance.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen this type of behaviour before and I’m so glad that this is happening. Students of all ages working together is a very positive thing!

I got to work a little earlier than usual, on the first day of this school year, because I wanted to put up a few peace artworks so that my new students would be happy with the bus.

I greeted each student, as they boarded The Peacebus, in my usual silly way and by the time we arrived at the school I could see many smiling faces. I knew that this was going to be a great year!

Because I will soon be very busy with my wife and our newborn son (… and the countdown begins…) I knew that I would not have the time to work with my students on crazy and great art projects, as I have in the past. I decided to tame me down a bit, this year.

This fact has not stopped my students from – already – overwhelming me with their cheery inspiration! On the second day of school, in the morning, one young girl handed to me The Peacebus’ first artwork of the school year!!

That afternoon, two other students also presented me with their artful expressions! Day 2 and already three artworks for the bus!!!

By the end of the first week, fifteen artworks had been given to me to decorate the bus. I was in delighted shock! See what I mean when I say that I’m a really lucky guy?!

Last week, I asked the students if they knew why September 21st is one of my favourite days. The first few answers that were shouted out were, “It’s your birthday!” and “It’s your anniversary!”

I quickly told them that this day was not a special day because of something happening specifically in my life, “September 21st is a special day of celebration for ‘something’ that happens all the way around the world! It is a special Earth event.”

The students scratched their heads, thinking. I told them that they should ask their teachers and parents if they knew the answer. The next day, several of the students had the answer and soon everyone was talking about what they would do on International Peace Day!

This morning, I was blinded by the light at each of my bus stops. Almost all the students were wearing peace T-shirts, earrings, bracelets, shoes, handbags or hair-bands. I had a ‘Peace-Crew’ riding the bus! If the student didn’t have anything with a peace symbol on it, then they were wearing T-shirts with ‘Earth’ images on them – like trees, flowers, birds and animals!

I told the students that we could do other things to celebrate Peace On Earth Day and soon I was teaching them one of my favourite ‘repeat-after-me’ songs! We pulled into the schoolyard, singing very loudly and teachers and other students began to smile as our song filled the air!

HAPPY PEACE ON EARTH DAY, EVERYONE! May we be continuously inspired to realize that we can change the world, we can make a difference and we can build a future where we all work together to add a richness of colour to our planet that has never been seen before!

Mr. Jim

Peace-Fire

2011-09-13T09:52:00.001-07:00

(Thoughts For The New Millenium)

In June of 1999, Joanne and I began our Cross-Canada art tour to work on the project entitled “Canada: Glorious To Be”.
http://www.youtube.com/user/jimkogelheide#p/u/4/rp3iPj_Kefc

Our first stop was Neepawa, Manitoba. During the first two weeks, we were busy looking for work and a place to live – at this point we were still sleeping in our van and cooking over fires at local campgrounds. We spent a lot of our time checking out all the local newspapers to aid us in our tasks.

It was Jo’ who spotted an advertisement posted by The Poetry Institute of Canada looking for submissions for a special collection of Canadian poems to usher in the new millenium. This gave me an idea.

Since my artwork and poetry is always filled with thoughts of understanding our past as we forge a brighter future for the world, I thought that this ‘Millenium’ concept was right up my alley. And, so, I began to jot down a few new ideas and a short while later my poem entitled ‘Peace-Fire (Thoughts For The New Millenium)” was ready to send off as my submission.

A few months later, I received a letter from the PIof C, telling me that my poem was in the running for some prize money! I was ecstatic!!! In the envelope, there were also a few order forms so that authors could purchase a leather-bound copy of the collection of poems that was being put together. There were also order forms for other items to purchase, as well.

Of course, I mailed in a cheque to receive my copy.

A few months later, I received my copy of the poetry book. Inside there were letters of thanks and all of that kind of stuff and a list of the finalists who had won a small prize. I was not one of the winners, but I was very happy to have been a part of something really unique and truly Canadian!

The next year, I received by mail, another offer by the PIofC to participate in another poetry contest. I submitted another poem and soon after received the same letter telling me that my poem was being considered for a prize. Enclosed were more order forms.

It was at this point when I didn’t feel so special. I began to realize this letter was probably being sent out to all contestants in a ploy to get them excited so that they would purchase products. Jo’ and I sat down with a calculator and using very conservative figures, we estimated how much money was being made off of poor artists by this national company. The estimated profits for the PIofC were staggeringly high.

I haven’t participated in any poetry contest conducted by the Poetry Institute of Canada since! :(

In February of this year, Joanne and I went on our first resort vacation to Mexico.
http://bitsandpeaces08.blogspot.com/2011/03/city-of-dawn.html

We both knew that this could be our only visit to this country, so I wanted to do something interesting and unique while we were there. I decided to do some filming – using my digital camera – so that I could bring my ‘Peace-Fire’ poem to life.

The poem takes the reader on a journey through the Earth’s history with thoughts about responsibility while considering the present so that the future of the world will be a joyous place. I thought that the landscapes surrounding Talum – an historical site filled with buildings and temples constructed by the Mayan civilization – would help me to capture images reflecting the world’s history. While in Playa del Carmen, I filmed some scenes to capture images of the present day world.

When we returned home, I started setting aside a few dollars every paycheck so that I could pay for professional editing services. A few months ago, I had saved up enough money and it was time to bring my ideas to life.

I contacted my friend Melissa Parrott – http://www.melissaparrott.com/services.htm – to help me.

We got together at her recording studio so that I could record – using my guitar – the music that I wanted to hear in the background of this video. After that, we recorded me reciting the poem.

Notes and email letters flew back and forth between us over the next while as we discussed edits and storyboard layouts. Overjoyed may be a great word to use when, last Friday, I received an email from Melissa with a link to the finished video!!!!

And, now, ladies and gentlemen from around the world, it is my humble privilege to present to you…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxowqHJ6sGM

I’m very confident that you will enjoy this video presentation! I’m really happy to have been able to share this with you.

Although I have asked – a few times in the past – my blog readers to participate in some of my fun peace-art initiatives, I have never asked anyone to help me promote anything… until now!

I would like to ask everyone to help me to share this video so that more people can enjoy it. You can share a link on your Facebook wall or on Twitter. If you have created a ‘group’ on Facebook, you can send this - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxowqHJ6sGM - link to everyone in that group or send an email to all of your friends.

Your comments and support are always appreciated and I thank you in advance,

Jim

My Veggie Patch

2011-09-07T09:38:00.000-07:00

Last year, I shared many a blog about my adventures in my veggie patch. I wrote about how to make a garden from a lawn, how to add leaves and grass clippings into the soil, how to make raised beds and how to harvest the yummy vegetables. Since I don’t like repeating myself, too often, I thought that I’d just share some of the highlights from this year’s garden…

In the early spring, my first chore was to expand the length of my garden – you can see that I’m building it into a long snake-like shape. I turned the soil over and buried all the composting plants from last year’s garden. I thought I’d try to grow some onions and I learned that they need to be planted very early and you can see that I created a raised bed for them.

The rest of the garden that is visible in this photo has been covered with the compost that I made from last year’s table scraps and yard waste. It looks like it is also covered in snow, but what you are seeing is a layer of crushed eggshells. Whenever I cook or bake using eggs, I put the empty shells into a container to dry and then I use a potato masher to crush them into tiny bits, before I sprinkle them onto my garden.

In the eggshell area you can see very small plants growing. Let’s take a closer look…

The entire area that I covered with compost started filling in with many of these small plants. That’s the benefit of putting compost into your garden – free food! You just don’t know what you’re going to get, though!!!

Many free plants started growing in this area and I built mini ‘volcanoes’ around each plant so that they would have more water to drink to grow. I was thinking that these plants could be pumpkin, acorn squash, butternut squash, zucchini, watermelon or cantaloupe. I also knew that the plants would take up a lot of space and that I would soon be choosing which three plants I would let continue to grow in this area. For now, I encouraged each plant to grow until I could determine the shape of the plants leaves – which would tell me how many different species of plants I had growing.

After a few more weeks I noted that I had three species and so I chose the healthiest of each species to continue to grow. At this point, I still had no idea what I was growing!

After the volcanoes were built, I covered the entire area with leaf mulch. In the autumn, instead of bagging my leaves, setting them on the curb and leaving them for someone else to deal with, I keep them, shred them and add their nutrients to all my gardens.

Then it was time to get the rest of the veggie patch ready. Before I could plant my tomatoes and beans, I first had to have my spring fire in the metal tirewall you see here. During the year, I collect all the twigs and branches that fall from my trees and every spring and fall I burn them in my garden. After the fire is reduced to glowing embers I rake them over my garden. The hot embers burn any weeds growing in the top layer of soil and the ash from the fire adds nitrogen to the soil.

Since my lawn grows so quickly in the spring, I also add these clipping to my garden, on top of the leaf mulch. The grass and the leaves will compost adding more nutrients to the soil and while they are composting they are also keeping the soil moist.

Hmmmmm…. all the photos in this story are filled with different shades of brown – a little boring. To brighten things up a bit, here are a few photos of the spring flowers that bloomed at the one end of this garden…

This is one of the tulips that bloomed. In the background you can see the colours of the blue forget-me-nots and a yellow daffodil.

Here are some allums just bursting to bloom.

Almost in full bloom.

In full bloom.

And now seeding after its bloom.

There – a splash of colour! Now back to the dirt…

… which can’t be seen anymore, cuz the entire area is filled with vegetable plants!!!!

The unknown plants, which grew from my compost, have taken over my entire garden! They’ve grown up into my juniper bush. They’ve grown all the way to my back hedge. They’ve taken over my back lawn. Yikes!!! Just three plants. Could you imagine what would have happened if I had let all the free plants grow?!!

Those of you with keen eyes have probably already realized that one to the three plant species is…

… a pumpkin plant!

Another of the three plants turned out to also be a pumpkin plant – a different kind of pumpkin plant tho’. The final plant grew up to be an acorn squash and in another week or so I’ll be harvesting these.

Having a garden and being able to provide at least some of the food that ends up on your dinner plate is very important – in my eyes – for creating a future for the world. What better way is there to establish a bond between yourself and our planet than by touching the Earth and tending to her flowers and vegetables? Think of all the chemicals that were not produced in factories because your garden didn’t consume any. Think of all the fuel that was not used in transporting food to your table. Think of the health of the food that you grow, realizing it is fresher than any other product you can find in the stores – tomatoes were not picked while they were green, to turn red during the transportation to your local store. The list of benefits goes on and on…

I hope that you have enjoyed watching my garden evolve through the last few seasons and I hope that I’ve inspired all of you to consider doing a little growing of your own!

Jim

More… ‘Lighter Side of Doomsday’

2011-08-30T07:47:00.001-07:00

Yup! We sure do live in a crazy mixed up world. I can remember back to the days when I was first becoming aware of the world’s troubles. Topics like ‘The Amazon Rainforest Desertification’, ‘35, 000 Children Starving Every Single Day’, ‘Holes in the Ozone Layer’, ‘Rising Sea Levels’ and so many related others made me shudder with confusion. I just couldn’t believe that the ‘state of humanity’ and the Natural world was/is in such a terrible crisis.

In the beginning, I felt a mixed feeling of hatred for past generations for being so blind while the troubles left for my generation grew and grew. I quickly came to realize that blaming others only distracted me from focusing on practical solutions – like inspiring others to wake up to our true reality and destiny as a human race.

I found comfort in the music that I listened to as I realized that these musicians were storytellers, filling our hearts with truths and inspiration to be strong and courageous as we question ‘standards’ and build better ones for future generations.

I found comfort in the comedy shows on television as I realized that these jokers were storytellers, filling our minds with truths and inspiration as we question the consequences of our actions so that we can change for the sake of future generations.

I find comfort when I share some of these ideas with you…

I’m going to end this blog entry with a short poem that I wrote a few years ago, while I was living in Nova Scotia. Since the ‘meat’ of this entry is mostly constructed using other people’s ideas, I thought that it would be fitting to add a few of my own…

Embracing

We’ve now become conscious of our evolution
We can judge for ourselves
Right from wrong

We can see the difference between
Pollution and solution
We’re embracing our future
With more than just song

April, 2004

Jim

Our Summer Vacation

2011-08-24T09:32:00.001-07:00

Usually, Joanne and I have several camping and hiking get-a-ways during the summer, but usually Jo’s not pregnant! So, this year, our summer was rather tame. Instead of overnight stays in a tent, we simply packed our cooler for afternoon trips to the nearby beaches. We did, however, plan a 3 day, 2 night ‘mini’ vacation trip to Toronto to enjoy the city and some good ‘ol Rock’N’Roll!!!

I managed to get a really good rate at a hotel right in the downtown core of Toronto. We took the 401 freeway until we hit the world famous Yonge Street and soon we were passing Dundas Street and the Eaton’s Centre.

The location of our hotel was great. We were so close to many attractions, restaurants and transit vehicles, so we could walk or go for a ride. This triangular shaped building was just two blocks away from our hotel, as we set off in search of cold beer! You will see this building in many of the Toronto travel commercials on TV. The ‘Y’ intersection that it creates is interesting, as well as…

… this fun mural, found on the backside of the building. Only the middle windows are real. The others are a part of the mural’s design.

Steps away, is another famous Toronto attraction, the St. Lawrence Market. Vendors bring in fresh fruits and vegetables from local Ontario farmers, fresh baked treats, meats and fish, along with many other tasty yummies. After a stroll through the market, it was time to rest and enjoy…

… the cold beer that I was looking for. Ahhhh! Beer! I wonder if the Jupiler Beer Company will send me some money for this advertisement on my blog?!!!

Again, within walking distance, we strolled to the shore of Lake Ontario. We did a lot of walking, sitting, walking, sitting, during this trip. Joanne was using a lot of her energy making a baby and I didn’t want to tire her out so she wouldn’t be able to enjoy our time. So, for a while we relaxed and watched the boats in the harbour. Had we a bit a more time, we might have taken a fairy boat ride to the Toronto Island that you can see in the background of this photo.

As we made our way back to the hotel we spied this view of the CN Tower and the Rogers Centre – formerly known as the Skydome. The Rogers Centre is the turtle shaped building at the base of the Tower. We got excited cuz we knew that the next evening we would be sitting inside listening to the world’s greatest Rock’N’Roll band!

After a short rest and a change of clothing I took Jo’ on a fun ride on the Queen Street streetcar. You guessed it – to ‘the beaches’ we went for a stroll along the boardwalk and then an amazingly yummy dinner!

I lived in Toronto for three years while I was studying Architecture, half a lifetime ago, so I got to know the city really well. During this trip, I was able to make decisions about where we were to go and how we were to get there so we could see all the interesting areas in fun ways.

The next day, we decided to journey on the underground subway to visit the ROM – Royal Ontario Museum. We started our tour in the south wing of the museum that is dedicated to the North American Natives, including the Inuit and the Haida Natives who created this monstrous totem pole.

I’ve always respected and admired the indigenous lifestyles of the Earth’s people. In many instances their philosophies have influenced my own art creations and I strongly believe that the future of humankind will aided by adopting these reverences for Nature.

Next, we visited the displays depicting the history of the Asian continent. It took a little convincing to get Joanne to pose with her Buddha belly alongside these other Buddha bellies, but eventually she thought that it would be funny, too! Ohhhhmmmmmmm…

Of course, it would be impossible to learn about the history of humanity without learning about a thing called ‘WAR’. Many people believe that violence is in our nature, an inherent characteristic, a human quality… the way we will always be. I disagree!

As humanity treads upon its path into the future, I can see that we have only two very distinct choices… continued greed and violence leading to the fall of our life sustaining ecosystems and all of the Earth’s life forces or, humbled respect and love leading to the Earth’s first ever unified peaceful global civilization.

Seems like a simple choice!

Yes, the world’s history is marked with many acts of violence and suffering, but humanities capacity to learn, grow and love is also evident in many of histories artifacts… like this – the world’s first ever Peacebus!!!!

Next up on our visit was the Dinosaur display! I don’t know what was more enjoyable, seeing all the amazing displays or watching all the children’s reactions to these displays!!

We wound our way from these ancient creatures, through bat caves and into the present, with displays of North American animals and birds. All the exhibits were great, with interactive teaching tools, but I fumbled for words when I saw…

… this depiction of the common raccoon! Somehow I don’t think that the raccoon’s natural habit is a cottage porch, littered with Campbell soup cans!!

As we walked through these displays – of present day animals – I noticed that more and more signs were stating facts that, “habitat loss, agricultural runoff and excess harvesting,” are the reasons for so many issues threatening the survival of so many important creatures. Boy! We sure do have a lot of changing to do in order to create that utopian global civilization. Recognition of a problem is the first step, though, so let’s all be conscious of our present day situations!

Lunch with a cold beer and then a shower got us ready for an evening at the Rogers Centre and U2! This is ‘The Claw’ and as you can see, it looks like something that you’d find in a kid’s Lego set! Banks of speakers spill downwards and I must say, the sound was the loudest and crispest I’ve ever heard.

Usually after a concert, people’s ears are ringing for days. But, during this show you were engulfed in sound with now side effects.

This guy became very well known in my part of the arena… the Beerman! There was always a crowd around him!!

As I sipped on the most expensive beverage I’ve ever bought, stretched out on the turf lawn, watching the crowds fill the stadium, a natural light display caught everyone’s attention. The roof hatch was opened at just the right angle at the same time as the sun was at just the right height at just the right time of day and “Voila!” A ladder of light appeared to usher in all the angels of Rock’N’Roll!!!!

The day’s forecast was for afternoon rain followed by clear skies. All we got were the clear skies, so soon a decision was made to open the retractable roof. Very cool to watch that happen!

Later, in the evening, the CN Tower put on a little light show of its own and this added to the overall atmosphere for this event! What a great night!!

Bono and the boys really had the crowds jumping with excitement as they deftly pounded out ‘Even Better Than The Real Thing’ as the opening song. The Edge’s guitar rift in ‘The Fly’ had my brain bouncing around inside my skull as the crowd got into high gear. These songs were followed by ‘Mysterious Ways’ and then ‘Until The End of The World’ and then I told Jo’ that maybe we had traveled back in time to the early 90’s. All four of these songs were from their album ‘Achtung Baby!’ I thought we were here to listen to their most recent tunes.

Bono said something about ‘why’ this album was being highlighted on this evening but I missed this cuz I was busy lookin’ for the Beerman again!

Usually, U2 goes on tour to promote their most recently released album and most of the songs performed are from that album. Last year, they started their tour to promote ‘No Line On The Horizon’ and the last leg of the tour was postponed due to Bono’s back surgery. I’m thinking that once they got the tour going again that they simply decided to play all their favourite songs cuz ‘NLOTH’ was old news by then.

Here is the rest of the set list from this evening…

I Will Follow
Get On Your Boots
Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
Stay (Faraway, So Close)
Beautiful Day w Major Tom
Elevation
Pride
Miss Sarejevo
Zooropa
City of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
Crazy Tonight/Discotheque
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Scarlet w Amnesty International Speech
Walk On

Encore:
One
Where The Streets Have No Names
Kiss Me, Thrill Me
With or Without You
Moment of Surrender

Joanne and I had a great time! We ended our night on a restaurant patio, enjoying a cold beer as we chatted about the concert. I was pleasantly surprised to hear ‘Zooropa’ and ‘Miss Sarejevo’. I thought it was really cool how U2 dug into the vault to bring ‘Scarlet’ to life as a subtle backdrop for Bono’s little speech promoting Amnesty International. I was a little disappointed that none of the songs broke into a heavy jam session, as many of their songs often do in a concert… like ‘Last Night On Earth’. I had a hard time getting into their new version of ‘Crazy Tonight’ but I thought that it was really cool the way they delved into ‘Discotheque’ from that song. I listed off a few tunes that I would have loved to have heard, like ‘Love & Peace… Or Else!’, ‘All Because of You’ or ‘Like A Song’ which I’ve never heard live - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_wMNNySCZk - but it’s one of my favourite tunes! Joanne told me to quit complaining and she suggested that next time I should send Bono a list of songs that they should play for me, next time they’re in town!!!

Hey! A true fan is a bit of a critic, but that’s just because we want only the best of the best!!! If they had played the songs that I listed above I would probably turn around and complain that they didn’t play ‘Elevation’ or ‘Stay (Faraway So Close)’!!!

Maybe I should have simply complained that the concert wasn’t long enough. If it was longer, then they’d have been able to play every song off of every album, making everyone happy!!!!

Hmmmm…. there’s an idea!

Jim

Let’s Take Care of The Earth!

2011-08-19T08:59:00.000-07:00

I love the libraries, here in London, Ontario! They are very supportive of the arts, they don’t charge a fee to display and they don’t take a commission if an art peace happens to sell. That’s why I display my artworks at the libraries, as often as I can – I’m actually working towards a one year art tour throughout many of the city libraries, starting next summer!

Whenever I’m at a library, to use the internet or to do research, I always take a few moments to enjoy the colourful displays that have been put up by other London artists.

Just last week, I was in the Central Library – downtown – when this large and beautiful painting caught my eye. It reminded me of the many ‘peace-earth’ drawings that students have created for me and The Peacebus, over the last few years!

I took a closer look and saw many names printed around the outside of the image and I realized that this was a collaborative effort. I took a closer look and then I saw the name of an artist who I’ve been wanting to work with for a while, now.

Vanessa and I have shared many emails over the last few years and we’ve enjoying each other’s art adventures. She loves that fact that I’ve had a few successes in organizing children’s art classes and we spoke about doing something together. Unfortunately, to date, we haven’t been able to further these ideas, but that has not stopped either of us from continuing with our own plans.

This art display wall is known in the community as ‘The Red Wall’, for obvious reasons. As you can see, over 20 original canvases are now on display for people to enjoy.

These artworks are the result of a class that Vanessa created for children in the community. Some of the children are refugees to Canada, or come from a broken family and are living with great challenges that children should not have to be burdened with. Vanessa designed her classes to teach these children about the healing power of art and creation! “Art heals. Art is life and faith!”

I was really delighted to witness all of this creativity and I emailed Vanessa to ask if I could showcase a few of these artworks to help her promote this art show. Of course, she said, “Yes!” She told me that it is time to tell the community and to tell the world that we must, “… start loving our planet!”

Since I want to encourage London readers to go to the Central Library to see these artworks for themselves, I chose to only showcase my favourite five…

Manuela is just 4 years old and already she has mastered many techniques. The background is beautifully textured and the colours used to create the butterflies and hearts are very complimentary. I would like to see if there is a person on this planet who wouldn’t smile when seeing this painting. It is such a joy!

Wow! Juan David is truly a great storyteller. I wonder if he realizes this fact, himself?! The variety of details that he uses in this painting, captures the essence of an arctic landscape with so much accuracy. You can feel the weight of the starry heavens. You can feel the slipperiness of the ice. You can feel the abundance and variety of life that flourishes underneath the waves.

I don't think that this is the same Manuela as the artist from the first painting that I showed you… but if it is, then Manuela made my ‘Top 5’ list twice!!!! I absolutely love this! A happier monkey and elephant would be hard to find. Notice all the shades of colour that are used to bring this creation to life. The elephant isn’t just one boring shade of grey, but many shades, created using a variety of texture techniques.

Ahhhh! One of my favourite topics… turtles!! Look at the variety of colours and how they were applied to create such a flowing, watery background. The outlining, again using complimentary colours, of the turtles along with the variety of shades and textures really make these animals animate as they swim through this painting. Great job, Vanesa!

I’m going to have to find out what school Jorgito attends so that I can see if I can be his bus driver, next year!!! I would love to have his talent of The Peacebus. His message to the world is very loud and clear. I just hope that people are listening!

So, there ya go!!! Just a few of the wonderful artworks that you and your family and friends can enjoy, for the rest of this month, down at the Central Library.

If you would like to know more about Vanessa and her artistic efforts, you can find her on Facebook. Just search ‘Vanessa-Garcia Artist’.

It’s such a breath of fresh air - in this world dominated by corporate greed and deceit – to know that a generation is growing up learning about the true values of life and love.

Jim

Critical Mass Bike Rally

2011-08-16T10:38:00.000-07:00

Brrrr! Looking at the pictures I’ve prepared for this story sends a cool, rainy chill down my spine.

It was the last Friday in the month of April – one of the coolest and wettest Aprils I’ve ever experienced – and a group of bike enthusiasts/environmentalists was gathering at the Victoria Park bandshell. Our purpose – to make a stand (errrr – ride would be more appropriate) against Global Climate Change!

We wanted to demonstrate a simple alternative to using fossil fuel powered vehicles – bicycles!!

This gathering happens every single month, in downtown London, Ontario. We meet between 6-6:30pm on the last Friday of each month – rain, snow or shine – before we set off on an hour-long bike ride through the streets of our city. This month, Bill Paul, our city’s ‘town crier’/social activist/radio show host was there to clang his bell as we began our journey.

There were close to 80 of us present for this day’s bike rally, as we set off from the park…

… to hit the streets of London!

We journeyed along many of the main roads and along some smaller residential streets. Small chants could be heard throughout this group, “Who’s streets?” – “Our streets!” “We’re not stopping the traffic – we are the traffic!”

During events such as this, I’m always looking for an opportunity to share one of my own ‘repeat after me songs’. At this point in our journey, I did start a song… but it didn’t last too long. I had sung the 3rd line and it was followed with silence. Someone said, “What did he say?” So I repeated that line again, followed with more silence. Then someone cracked a joke and my effort died!

Oh well! We continued on our ride….

This was only the second ‘Critical Mass Bike Rally’ that I had attended, so I wasn’t up to date with all of the things that go on during the rallies. Sure, we ride our bikes around shouting out small slogans and all of that, so I was surprised when we were reaching the main intersection of London – Dundas and Richmond – and everyone got off their bikes and lifted them over their heads – with lots of shouts and whoops and hollers!!!!

I quickly learned that this was called a ‘Bike Lift!’ I cracked up cuz it is a really hilarious thing to have happened. It happened three times during this rally and after the first time, I participated as well.

This is Maryanne! We’ve known each other for several years and we’re always sharing information about community environmental happenings. Maryanne is a hero of mine! She could be one of the most active environmentalists in the city!!!

I’ve shared stories about how Maryanne organized London’s first environmental magazine – that I submit stories to – called Ecovox Magazine. During this bike ride, Maryanne told me how she has been working with Rogers TV to evolve the magazine into a television series. A few weeks after this event, Maryanne and a film crew showed up at one of the schools that I drive bus for, to interview the students and principal of the school – to highlight the children’s involvement with creating environmental art for The Peacebus.

This is a link to several clips from the Ecovox TV series – http://www.rogerstv.com/page.aspx?lid=12&rid=9&sid=4271

A little while later, we were nearing the end of our bike rally. As we were making our way back to Victoria Park, the girl beside me said that she was tired of the same chants we were yelling out and that she wished someone knew some other kind of songs that we could sing as a group. Maryanne was close by and she smiled and said that I probably knew a song or two.

The next few minutes had me smiling. I mentioned earlier how I had put effort into trying to get a song going, but I had failed. Now, without any effort, I was able to start another song – sung with the help of just a few people – and it grew and grew until everyone had joined in!

The Earth is our friend
The Earth is our friend
And she needs a helping hand!
And she needs a helping hand!
The Earth is our friend
The Earth is our friend
And she needs a helping hand!
And she needs a helping hand!

Singing Way-oh, Wayy-oh!
Singing Way-oh, Wayy-oh!
Way-oh, Way-oh, Way-oh, Way-oh!
Way-oh, Way-oh, Way-oh, Way-oh!
Wayyy-oh, Way-oh!
Wayyy-oh, Way-oh!
Way-oh, Way-oh, Way-oh, Way-oh!
Way-oh, Way-oh, Way-oh, Way-oh!

We can plant some trees
We can plant some trees
Making home for birds and bees
Making home for birds and bees
Repeat…

Way-oh part of song….

We can clean the air
We can clean the air
To show the future that we care
To show the future that we care
Repeat…

Singin’ I want peace
Singin’ I want peace
Puh-puh-puh-puh-puh-puh-peace!
Puh-puh-puh-puh-puh-puh-peace!
We’ll work hard for peace
We’ll work hard for peace
Puh-puh-puh-puh-puh-puh-peace!
Puh-puh-puh-puh-puh-puh-peace!

I wonder if any of the students who rode my bus happen to be reading this story. If there are they’re probably saying, “Hey! We sing that song on the Peacebus!!!” I wrote this song for them!

I met a lot of interesting people during this bike rally. One lady works at the University of Western Ontario and she shared stories about initiatives that she is working on to make it easier and ‘greener’ for the students to get around the city. I also listened in on a conversation that involved one of the City’s council members as he shared ideas that he is hoping to build on to make it easier and ‘greener’ for all Londoners to get around.

This rally was not just a bunch of people trying to stir up controversy and annoy people driving their cars. It was a large group of people taking a small peaceful initiative to inspire the city, all the while sharing ideas and initiatives meant to create a stronger future for the world. A very honourable event to be a part of!

But then it was time to go home…

After the last rally, I simply hoped on a transit bus to make my way home. I live way out in the west end of the city and I thought that it would take forever to ride my bike home. This time, I challenged myself…

… and I’m so glad that I did!

As you can see, the bike path is fairly flat, with just a few small rises and falls along the way. It passes through many different parks throughout the city as it winds its way along the side of the Thames river.

It had been many years since I last made such a long ride, and the time passed rather quickly as my mind wandered and my eyes enjoyed the scenery.

When the paved path ended and I found myself on a gravel bike path, passing many soccer fields, picnic areas and children’s playgrounds, I knew that I was almost home.

The cool damp air contrasted with the body heat that I had been producing and when I got home, Koly enjoyed licking at the moisture drops that had collected on my stubbled chin!!!!

This ride home taught me one thing – 35 minutes passes by very quickly when I’m enjoying myself! Since then, I’ve made it a part of my weekly routine when coming home from work. In the past – on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday – I would drive my car to Joanne’s work, leave it for her to get home, and then I’d hop on a bus to get myself home. Now, I put my bike in the trunk of the car and on these three days instead of taking the bus, I’ll ride my bike home. This saves us a few dollars on bus fare, I get a bit more exercise while cutting back on my carbon footprint!

It’s small initiatives like this that allows us to continue to search for more and more ways to lessen our dependencies on fossil fuels. My quality of life has been improved and so has the quality of lives for future generations.

“I’ve got a bike
and you can ride it if you like.
It’s got a basket and a bell
that rings and things that make it look good.
I’d give it to you if I could
but I borrowed it!”
Pink Floyd

Be inspired! Participate in community environmental rallies!

Jim

The Roof Repair

2011-08-08T08:27:00.000-07:00

Hmmmm… This seems kinda odd! Here I am, with my shovel in hand, and yet it doesn’t look like I’m in my vegetable garden! They say, “Give a man a shovel and he can do anything!” I think that ‘they’ might be right!!!!

This is one of the reasons why my garage roof is in need of repair. Extreme heat on the south side of the building has caused the shingles to lift and curl – not a good thing!

This is the other reason why my garage roof is in need of repair. Extreme moisture build-up on the north side has caused the roof supports to rot – not a good thing, either!

The biggest reason for both of these extreme conditions is poor air circulation. One of the causes is the many overhanging branches from my big maple tree.

There! Now air will move easily in any direction the wind may blow.

Now, my working area is filled with all of these branches – getting in my way!

I decided to use these in ways that will benefit my garden. First, the leaves are stripped from the branches. The branches are broken into small lengths and over the course of the next several months they will dry in preparation of my Autumn garden fire – which will add nitrogen to my soil for next year’s tomato plants!

I put the leaves through my ‘leaf shredder’ (my most favourite garden tool to date!!) and then this mulch is added to my vegetable garden. The mulch will dry up and decompose adding nutrients to the soil and the mulch will discourage weeds from growing while retaining moisture in the soil.

I think it’s great that things that could be considered to be ‘garbage’ can actually be used in many useful ways around my garden. Talk about recycling – eh!

The joint between the roof’s north slope and the awning that was later added by the previous owner of my house was not constructed properly – thus all the water damage! The shingles were damaged, the roof sheathing was damaged and all the chipboard ceiling panels, underneath, collected all of the water and were rotting away.

I added a few 2” x 4” roof beams to steady the structure…

… and then I added some stronger pine boards to strengthen the roof itself. I forgot to take a picture showing the metal valley that was also added to this area. With all of this new structural support, I’m sure that I won’t be having any water problems for many many years.

The materials that I would need to continue on with the top part of this roof weren’t due to arrive until the next day, so I continued working away on the underside of the awning. The red, rotted chipboard ceiling was removed and then I began adding nailer strips between each beam that will support the new ceiling I will soon be adding.

One problem that we had with the old awning was that bees and wasps were finding their way into the openings in the awning and building their hives. I do love bees and I appreciate that without them I wouldn’t be able to enjoy any fruits or vegetables, but I figure there are better places for them to build their homes.

A fresh coat of outdoor paint was added, along with some more nailer strips of wood. It’s hard to see, but I added window screen to each opening – between the roof beams to keep out the bees and wasps.

Man! Was I ever tired after all of this work. It was time to take a load off and enjoy the evening sunshine!!! While I was doing that, I noticed something very special. Can you see what I saw?

Let’s take a closer look…

Wow!!! How cool is this?! This is the very last day lily in my garden and because of the time of day and the angle of the sun, this flower glowed like a spark of intense light! I was definitely at the right place at the right time.

Even though my body ached, I was inspired to get off my butt and snap a few pictures before the moment passed. This is my favourite one!

The next day, the delivery truck filled my driveway with the materials I would need to complete my job. By the end of this day, the roof was covered in a protective layer of roofing felt – very strong and durable.

I got this roof protection on just in time, cuz it rained lightly throughout this evening and into the next morning. Even though I couldn’t continue with the topside of the roof…

… the underside of the awning was nice and dry and so I continued working in this area. I decided to use vinyl siding to create the ceiling for this area. If, for some strange reason, water did get into this area again, it won’t be able to collect on wood boards and rot. Vinyl won’t rot. If water does get in, it will collect in smaller quantities and eventually it will evaporate.

A little while later, I decided to try out my brand new toy! A Circle Hole Saw. I felt like Tim-The-Toolman-Taylor – LOL!!!!

By cutting many holes along the underside of the roof’s soffits and adding these metal vents, I am able to increase (by many times) the amount of air circulation within the garage. This will take care of the problem of having my shingles bend and curl due to the extreme heat.

By the next day, the roof was dry and I was able to start adding the shingles. I found myself in many awkward positions and even now, my body aches from the strain I’ve put on all my muscles. I’m not complaining tho’ – it feels invigorating when you can feel every single muscle in your body!

There! Not bad for a day’s work!!

The next morning, I began by bracing the inside structure of my roof rafters so that I could add two vents to the upper portion of the roof. These, along with the soffit vents I added two days before, will ensure that the whole garage will get lots of air circulation.

Now, the one side of my roof has been completed! The valley between the garage roof and the awning has never looked better and the added roof vent went in without a hitch! I guess that’s why Joanne keeps me around – I’m a pretty handy guy!!!

During this whole process, I had lots of time to think about things. One train of thought led me to compare this roof repair to the task of bringing peace to our planet…

The roof is like our Industrial society. Both were created by humans and both are in need of repair.

My roof was rotting and if left to continue on its present course it would soon find itself in ruin. Our world’s environment is in a very critical state and if we don’t correct our present course we will soon find ourselves in ruin.

Something had to be done to heal my roof. Something needs to be done to heal the Earth.

At first I was a bit overwhelmed with the scope of the work that needed to be done. I had never done anything quite like this before. The scope of the work needed to change our relationship with our world is quite overwhelming, as well. We need to completely change our attitudes and ways of doing things if humanity is to remain on the Earth. Humans have never done anything quite like this before, either!

I started by examining the many problems facing the future of my garage roof. We need to start questioning our actions to realize the consequences that they will have for future generations.

I started to understand what needed to be done. We need to start understanding what it is that we need to do.

I began the work… slowly, taking my time to think and plan - to ensure success. We have also begun… slowly, taking our time as we learn more about ecosystems and how they have a greater value than savings found in the aisles of Wal-mart!

The roof structure was built very soundly, but mistakes were made in its design. Our societies have also been built very soundly, but mistakes were made in their design.

My roof needed a new change, one that incorporated the idea of working with Nature to ensure adequate air circulation. Our world needs a new change, one that incorporates ideas of working in harmony with Nature to ensure the quality of the air that we circulate.

While completing my roof, small mistakes were made, but I continued to forge ahead. As we work towards building a peaceful world mistakes will be made, but we will need to continue forging ahead.

Nearing the end of these thoughts I came to realize that there is indeed one significant difference when comparing my roof repair to the Earth repair…

I have the ability to repair my garage roof unassisted.

Jim

PS – I couldn’t think of a better way to end this story than with a fun and inspirational song about roofs… and being up on them!

Up On The Roof – The Drifters 1962
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7F_opWg9_qI

The Peacebus In The News

2011-07-26T09:07:00.000-07:00

It’s hard to believe that something as simple as The Peacebus should gain sooooo much attention – but it’s true. Maybe because The Peacebus is not so simple.

Just last month, a photo of many of The Peacebus students surrounding an amazing peace of artwork hit the pages of The London Free Press…

http://bitsandpeaces08.blogspot.com/2011/07/their-home-too.html

… and just yesterday, an article about my adventures on The Peacebus made headlines again!

This time appearing in London’s second daily newspaper The Metro. Jill Ellis and I had a great chat about The Peacebus, Meadowlily Woods, protests surrounding the Mega-Quarry in Melanthon township and of course, my vegetable garden. All of these subjects have also been written about in this blog, over the last few months.

I just found this link to the above newstory, as found in the online version of London Metro - http://www.metronews.ca/london/comment/article/925413--a-new-peace-of-artwork-hits-the-road#commentbox - so that you can read the story about The Peacebus and the many other exciting events happening throughout the city. But for those of you who want to continue reading on this page, I’ve copied the story for you here. I’ve also added a few other artworks created by my students to add a splash of colour to your computer screen…

A NEW ‘PEACE’ OF ARTWORK HITS THE ROAD

Written by Jill Ellis

Greenwashing has become vogue in these days of nearly universal concern about global warming. There’s a lot of talk, but not many who walk their talk. One of those who does is Jim Kogelheide.

Known to his thousands of Facebook friends as Peaceman Jim and to hundreds of London school children as Mr. Jim, Kogelheide is a peace activist, artist, art teacher and environmentalist all wrapped up in the guise of a bus driver.

For the past couple of years, he’s driven the ‘peacebus’, which is a regular Murphy Lines school bus decorated with art created by the kids who ride it every day to and from school.

Having studied graphic design at Fanshawe College, Kogelheide traveled around the country for five years with wife Joanne Custy, working on the Canada: Glorious To Be national mural project. The duo spent their time creating their art and talking to school kids and community groups about art, peace and the environment. Kogelheide and Custy returned to the city they loved and settled down here in 2004.

Though his Stikman series (stick figures spreading the peace message) has enjoyed some notoriety as he distributed it through the country during his travels, Kogelheide realized that being a full-time artist is a hard way to make a living. But a serendipitous moment came when he was gazing out the window of his Byron home one day, contemplating his next move down his winding life’s journey, when a school bus passed by. An epiphany occurred: as a school bus driver, he’d make a steady income and still have time for his twin passions of gardening his veggie patch and volunteering in community organizations that promote sustainable living and environmental causes.

After driving his plain bus for a while, Kogelheide noticed another driver had butterfly drawings all over hers. After checking with the boss, he posted some of his own peace-based artwork. The kids were intrigued. He threw it out as a challenge and got the kids excited about making art about peace and the environment. He offered a contest to up the ante a bit.

The kids love having their artwork displayed on the windows and ceilings of the peace bus, but none are displayed on windows that obstruct sightlines.

The peace bus rocks with kids’ voices raised in song and is one of the most colourful on the road. Give it a wave or thumbs up next time the peace bus rolls your way.

_ _ _ _ _ _

I wouldn’t even want to guess how much it would cost if I had to pay for one third of an entire page of newspaper, so I’m very grateful for this free publicity. It brings a smile to my face thinking that a few of my students and co-workers will see this story and keep it as a wonderful memory. It also makes me smile to think that many other bus drivers may read this story and be inspired to have their kids decorate their buses.

If I had to guess conservatively, I’d say that over 40, 000 Londoners read this story yesterday, seeing the words ‘peace’ and ‘environment’ used together in several sentences. I hope that this story sparked open a few of those minds to realize that these two words may be the most important words for this century!

Mr. Jim

God’s Glue

2011-07-22T14:07:00.000-07:00

About fifteen years ago, I was gathering and organizing my thoughts to understand why our world is in such a dilapidated state of environmental care, so that I could best choose my path forward in such a way that my actions would help to create a better world for future generations.

I started defining words like karma and destiny. Somehow or other I came across the word ‘providence’ and I included it in an essay I was writing. I wrote, “When a person has made a decision to act as an inspiration or true steward for the Earth, providence will move!” This is similar to the philosophy of ‘Positive Attraction’. If one is dedicated to positive action then positive results will prevail. Providence is – according to my dictionary – ‘God’s protective care’, and with providence one will achieve positive results.

Over time, I’ve come to notice that providence seems to thread its existence through synchronistic occurrences. Synchronicities may be involved in karmic activities that will aid in one’s pursuits to flow through life as one embraces destiny, but sometimes synchronicities just happen – with no apparent affect on a soul other than simple appreciation for this phenomenon.

Today’s story revolves around this idea…

This is one of the Red Currant bushes that I planted in my berry patch, last spring. You can tell that this photo was also taken in the spring cuz the ground is littered with freshly fallen Maple tree keys. You’d be correct in thinking that this is not a very big deal – it’s just a berry bush, but let’s take a closer look…

Hmmmmm… what’s this? I can see one or two Maple keys stuck to one of the Red Currant bush’s leaves. Interesting! Let’s take a closer look…

Oh! In fact there are three Maple keys somehow hanging on to one of the berry bush’s leaves. Unbelievable… but true!

It’s really hard to see this clearly in a two-dimensional photo, so I took a few pics from different angles. While I was moving around the bush, snapping these photos, my mind wandered around – wherever it tends to wander – searching for an explanation.

In slow motion, my mind played back for me a possible scenario that could have happened to create this natural phenomenon. It was a very rainy Spring, here in London, Ontario and so the Red Currant leaf and the three Maple keys – along with everything else in my garden – was covered in tiny beads of moisture. The wind might have been blowing a slight breeze through the air at the time when these three individual Maple keys had fallen off the tree to begin their swirling decent to the ground. In my mind I could picture these three keys swirling about as they descended, drawing ever closer to each other and to the very small leaf on the berry bush. Then, in one flash of an instance all three keys magically touched – each other and the leaf on the bush! Synchronicity!!!

Had there been no breeze – these three keys would have never met. Had there been a stronger breeze – these three keys would have never met. Had it been a wetter day, the keys may have had too much moisture on them and again, they would not have met. Had it been a drier Spring, then there would have been no moisture and these keys would not have been able to stick together. See the magic, now?!

Thousands of different variables came into action throughout the brief history of this event and had one single variable been just slightly different then this phenomenon would not have happened.

While I marveled at this, a song started playing in my head and I could hear Bono singing, “Stuck together with God’s glue”. I smiled as I appreciated this most excellent tune drifting through my mind as I appreciated this most synchronistic Earthly phenomenon!!!

Nature is continuously swirling around us and if we had a way of identifying the millions of synchronistic Earthly phenomena that are continuously occurring I’m sure that we would be awestruck with lack of definition. I think that this is a good thing!!! Nature should always delight us with fascination. Nature should always thrill our investigative minds. Nature should be honoured for its fierceness and gentleness…

… but it sure is hard to do these things while we surround ourselves in technologies that have become blasé. So, get off that couch, put down that remote and go for a walk in a park full of grasses, bushes and trees and you, too, may witness a most synchronistic Earthly phenomenon that was created just for you.

Jim

PS – For your enjoyment, I have included a link to the U2 song mentioned above, as well as a Beatles classic that elaborates on the subject matter of this short story…

U2 – Staring At The Sun
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3jzvVPWy2I

The Beatles – Within You and Without You
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4G2RlBKbrM

Here’s a little treat for my newest readers, who don’t know that I have a few (5) Youtube videos of my very own….

Jim Kogelheide – The Bricks of Love
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVcQiXq9qhI

ENJOY!!!!

Gifts From The Earth

2011-07-19T12:01:00.000-07:00

Over the last many months I’ve been happily snapping lots of photos of the flowers that I’ve planted around my house. Instead of telling the stories about how I planted them and the things I’ve observed during their growing and flowering stages, I thought that I’d do something a bit more fun. For today’s blog I’ll simply be showing my favourite garden photos in and around the lyrics of a song that I wrote a few years ago.

Please enjoy!

Our Only Friend

Can you feel my heartbeat
Pounding thro’ the strings

Of my guitar?
Oh! The joy it brings.

I’m singing simple songs
For the world to hear

About ‘Peace and Love’
Laced with a little bit of fear.

Can you feel your spirit
Raising in the air?

As you’re floating above life
You can go anywhere.

You can scale a mountain
Or forge the great divide.

You can dive in with the whales
And now you’re coming out the other side.

You can hug the moon
And kiss a brand new day
Cuz you’re young and wild.

Could you be a tree
With branches waving at the sky?

Once you were a seed
But then, you grew so high.

You’re changing with the weather
And the seasons, too.

White is your winter crown
And the summer brings the morning dew.

When you hug the moon
The night dissolves away,
Then your heart can smile.

Can you see the sunshine
Through the acid rain?

Dark clouds usher in
Ten thousand years of pain!

It’s not to late
If we find a peace to lend

We’ve got to learn
That the Earth is our only friend

You can hug the moon
And kiss both night and day
Cuz you’re Nature’s child……

Until next time – see the Earth, smell the Earth, touch the Earth and love the Earth! Appreciate all beauty that she brings into our lives and look for ways to share this inspiration with others!!

Jim

Another Spirit Soon To Breathe

2011-07-13T13:28:00.000-07:00

Way back in February I wrote a story that described the conflicts that had arisen in my mind concerning my employment, and the struggle that I went through to find peace in the lifestyle that I wanted to create with my wife Joanne.

http://bitsandpeaces08.blogspot.com/2011/02/stepping-back-to-move-forward.html

After many deep searches within my heart, I realized that I had to go back to being the driver of the Peacebus. My first day, back to work, just happened to be February 14th – Valentine’s Day – the day of love and peace!

The evening before I went back to my previous job, this beautiful sunset graced the skies and I knew that I had made the right decision.

My first day back with the Peacebus was a great one, filling me with many positive thoughts; about myself, the future of the world and my part in it! That evening, after dinner, Joanne and I were relaxing in our living room, before it was time for bed. Joanne leaned in close to give me a kiss and said, “I have a very small Valentine’s present that I’d like to give to you.” And then she told me that I was going to be a Daddy!!!

This day had changed the direction of my life in two ways! We were – and still are – very excited!!! Babies see the world as new and grand and great. They recreate for us all its possibilities and give us the inspiration to believe again.

We kept this news quiet for a few months, because – although it is painful to think about it – the fact remains that many pregnancies end up being miscarried. But, soon enough, Joanne gave me the ‘thumbs up’ to share this news with my friends.

I used Jo’s first ultrasound picture to create this image for my new profile picture on Facebook. It was great reading so many positive comments that were left for me, from people from around the world.

We’ve had a very busy year, so far, and I expect that it will continue to get busier and busier for the next seventeen years or so! LOL! Joanne has been spending her time reading all sorts of books on babies – to learn about things that can be expected during this time. My first job was to move all of art supplies, tables, computer, etc out of ‘the babies room’. My ‘art room’ is now cozily situated in the basement of our house.

Since Jo’ and I both believe in supporting a localized economy, most of the items we have purchased for our baby have been used. At first, we spent our time looking for items that we knew we would need no matter what sex our baby turned out to be: strollers, playpens, changing tables, cribs, etc.

Then we had another ultrasound and were delighted to learn that we were going to have a boy. It was time for me to change my profile picture again!

There are many wonderful used baby clothes stores throughout London and now that we knew our little munchkin was going to be a boy, we could start preparing early. A few weeks ago, one of the stores had a huge sale. Joanne spent most of her time selecting clothes. Most of the clothes are decorated with images of animals and fish and several items had ‘environmental’ messages written on them.

I headed straight for the toys department! When we got home, Guido helped me to inspect this big bag of oversized Lego blocks. He approved!

I got busy creating a peace of art inspired by my love for Joanne!

I also selected a few really cool books that Jo’ and I will be reading to our baby over the next few years. You can also see some of the small rocking toys that I selected, in the back of this photo.

Joanne asked me if I chose the books for our baby or for myself! Just look at this cool watercolour painting that I found inside one of these books.

Since musical creativity is an area where children excel in learning, I knew that I just had to buy this small drum. Joanne cringed!

It wasn’t until we got home, and I had a chance to check it out more closely, when I discovered that the drum was also filled with other musical toys, like this bee shaker…

… and this caterpillar tambourine. Joanne cringed again!

But wait! What’s this, way at the bottom…? Ah! A ladybug xylophone!!!! I started playing a little tune for Jo’!!

I looked up at Joanne and asked her why she didn’t seem as delighted as I was. “I can just imagine you, our son, and all the other babies in our neighbourhood having ‘jam’ sessions in our living room. I have a feeling that the two of you are going to drive me crazy!” We both laughed cuz we both knew that this would probably be the truth!!!

This will be a mostly ‘stay at home’ summer for us. We have a lot of work ahead of us, getting ready for the big day. Joanne just recently finished painting the baby’s room – after weekends of wallpaper striping, hole patching and priming. I’m just starting to prepare a design for a fun wall mural for this room and I imagine that will take me some time to complete that task.

We usually do quite a bit of camping, but Jo’ and I both agreed that sleeping on the damp ground will do her muscles no good at all, especially now that her back causes her a bit of discomfort.

So we’ve agreed that a few day trips to the beach will have to suffice, instead. Of course, Koly was in total agreement!

I think that Jo’ was thinking of the beach when she bought this rug for the baby’s room. I just love it! Buying used items does not mean that you have to buy poor quality. In fact, we are both discovering that we are able to purchase many top-end products for very reasonable prices. You just have to take your time selecting the items that you want until you find what you are looking for.

It really brings me a lot of joy to see Joanne so happy. She will be the best mom in the world!!! The first month or so, saw Jo’ experiencing a lot of fatigue, but lately she has been glowing! I can tell that she is enjoying being pregnant!! I just hope that she continues to feel this way when we hit the peak of summer’s heat in a few more weeks.

But that is still a ways off, so for now, we’ll continue saving our oceans from pollution by buying high quality used items, we’ll continue to grow and harvest organic vegetables in our gardens for next spring’s baby food, we’ll continue to enjoy day trips to the beach where mommy can relax so she can build a healthy baby and we’ll continue to enjoy trips to Toronto to see world famous Rock’N’Roll bands! Ummm… well, we’ll enjoy at least one trip into Toronto anyway… I think it may be a while before U2 comes to town again!

But that’s another story….

Jim

If Enough People…

2011-07-09T12:13:00.000-07:00

The majority of the world’s population believes that they vote only during elections. They fail to realize that we all vote many times each and every day of our lives. Every time we purchase a product or service we vote.

When we go to the grocery store and buy an imported pear from India or Spain we are voting to support an industrialized global society that is doomed to fail. This vote ensures that pesticide companies continue to manufacture harmful poisons to spray onto foods in countries that have lenient regulations. This vote ensures that trucking companies, distribution centres and overseas transportation companies continue to consume vast quantities of fossil fuel products. This vote ensures that army forces and munitions manufactures continue to thrive to ensure that these resources continue to be available. I hope that it was a good… no, no… a GREAT pear!!!

It sure is hard to see all of these interrelated connections that keep Industrial Man going (if just briefly - in relation to even our own history), but they are there!

If enough people were able to make these connections then our world would surely be a happier and healthier place.

If enough people were able to understand the destructive nature of McDonalds and how they are destroying the Amazon Rainforest and treating millions of God’s creatures in inhumane ways, then we could vote to eliminate this plague from the world, buy not voting with our purchases in their business outlets.

If enough people were able to understand how Walmart’s low, low prices are having grave environmental consequences in our oceans and in foreign countries, then we could vote to eliminate another world plague. As we continue to shop and vote in other stores – smaller, more unique and locally owned stores - we will see the reconstruction of localized economies and localized manufacturing that will ensure employment and prosperity in the places we call community.

If enough people were able to understand that supporting local farmers inevitable creates a more peaceful planet, then there would have been more families picking Strawberries with Joanne and myself, a couple of weeks ago!

We had a very wet Spring, here in Southern Ontario, and this meant that Strawberry season started just a little bit later than normal. Which ended up being a good thing. Last year, Joanne and I had to scavenge through many Strawberry plants to fill our baskets…

… but this year, we stayed in one small area and filled our baskets quite easily.

Errrr… did I say ‘fill our baskets’ or ‘fill our faces’???

I’ve always felt that the healing of the Earth will only happen when we open our hearts and minds to realize that we are connected with the Earth. The best way to connect with the Earth is by touching her and we can do this quite easily when we grow and harvest our own food.

Once we have learned how to connect with the Earth, we can then share our experiences with others and include them into our lives!

HEY! WHAT’S THIS!????? Ha – I’ve been wondering how I would share this delight with the world. Yup! Joanne and Jim are gonna have a baby!!!!

You can bet that this new development in our lives will give me a lot of material for future blogs, but those will have to wait until after I get my Strawberries home and into my freezer, so that I can enjoy them with our ‘soon to be’ son all through the next Winter!

Jim

Their Home, Too!

2011-07-05T10:33:00.000-07:00

The Unveiling!!!

My last blog story shared the last many artworks that were created to finish the Peacebus project entitled, ‘Their Home, Too!’, but that was not the end of the story. Yes – the artworks were completed, but now I had to prepare these 63 artworks so that we could donate this art peace to the London Children’s Health Foundation.

While this project was being completed, the artworks were simply being taped to the roof of the Peacebus. Since I couldn’t donate the roof of the Peacebus – LOL – to the CHF I had to mount the artworks onto something else. I bought a 3’ x 4’ plywood board and some other wood to make the final presentation board.

All the wood that I used was coated with a primer paint to seal the wood to ensure that they wouldn’t bend (due to moisture) or discolour.

The front of the display board had to be divided so that I would know where each of the artworks would be mounted.

The framing boards had to be cut.

Eyebolts with locking nuts had to be added so the artwork could be hung on a wall.

There! Step one complete!!

Each artwork had been laminated and this means that each artwork had an additional ¼” of plastic surrounding it. When I was displaying these artworks on the bus I was easily able to overlap them to bring all the artworks closer together. For the final presentation I was not able to overlap the artworks and this would result in a ½” space between each artwork.

Because I didn’t want the white sealing paint to show between each artwork I had to mix small batches of paint of each colour used in this project. I then added ½” borders of paint around each space where an artwork would later be added.

To mount each artwork to the display board I used a basic all-purpose glue. Ha – even when I was adding the glue I was being artistic by creating fun wiggley lines on the back of each artwork.

I used small scraps of wood and half-filled paint cans to add a little weight to each artwork that was being glued down. This is as far as I got on the first day.

At the end of a few more days you can see that I was getting close to being finished.

And… Ta-da! Now the project was mounted, framed and ready to be presented to the CHF!!!

While all of this was going on, I got a phone call from a friend of mine. I’ve mentioned the name and I’ve shared many stories over the last few years about my environmental escapades with Maryanne Macdonald.

Maryanne was one of the creators of London’s newest community environmental magazine, Ecovox. I’ve been making contributions to this magazine since the first issue.

Throughout this spring, Maryanne has had many meetings with London’s Rogers Television Network and just last month Ecovox TV was born. It is a half-hour television series, showcasing unique individuals in the London community who are defenders of our global environment.

Maryanne wanted to do a segment on the happenings of the Peacebus. I’ll be posting a link and sharing that story in a few weeks – once it has aired. In the mean time, you can follow this link - http://www.rogerstv.com/page.aspx?lid=12&rid=9&sid=4271 - to get a small taste of some of the shows that have already been broadcast.

I mention this to explain…

… this photograph. These were the students who were interviewed for that TV series. Since they got to be in the spotlight for the television show I decided to have the unveiling at the other school that I drive for – to even things out.

But, I did want these students to see the final presentation of ‘Their Home, Too!’ so I brought the artwork on the bus, to their school and we had fun taking a few group photos. Since I don’t have permission (and that would have taken a few days to arrange) to show the students faces, I added some fun filters to this image so that the students identity would be safe. You can still see the positive expressions and energy of the students and that’s what I really wanted to share with you, anyway!

The artwork also spent a day in the office of Murphy Bus Lines. My co-workers and supervisors were all smiles when they saw it and everyone enjoyed it!

The official unveiling happened the next day at Jeanne Sauve Elementary School.

The event happened in their gymnasium, and soon the floor was filled with hundreds of students. While the students were still filing in, with many already seated, I found myself waving at the students from the Peacebus. Soon, more and more students started waving and flashing me with ‘the peace sign’ and then I decided to have some fun by creating a ‘peace wave’ throughout the gym.

A few moments later, Mme Mallet – the school’s vice principal – calmed the audience and then introduced me to the students.

I told the room full of ‘Future Leaders of the World’ that I wanted to sing a song with them - a song that the students of the Peacebus and I sing quite often. Instead of staying at the front of the gym, I found my feet carrying me into the crowd of students as we sang our song.

Since the song was ‘a repeat after me song’, I would sing a line and then I’d bend down to one of the students so they could sing their part into the microphone, too. What a lot of fun that was!!!

We dimmed the lights so that I could continue with the slide show presentation. I started with a brief history of how the Peacebus came into being.

And then, I shared the history of ‘Their Home, Too!’

I didn’t show all 63 images – that would have taken a very long time – but I did show all of the artworks created by the students from this school. First I would show an artwork and mention the student’s name who had created it. Then I would ask the audience to applaud as the student was called to the front of the gym. Then I would talk about the artwork and then continue to the next.

One by one, the students were called to the front of the gym.

As I talked about the artworks, I would use one of my hands to point to whatever it was I was talking about, by putting it in the light from the projector. Boy! I sure look serious in this photo!!! But I assure you, the presentation was filled with many moments of laughter and cheer!

Soon, all the students’ names had been called and it was time to lift up the projection screen to see the final artwork that was hiding behind. Mr. O’Keefe (seen of the right) was the delegate from the Children’s Health Foundation, who came to accept our donation. He was very shocked at the high quality of art that these young students had created and he was very happy to accept this for the hospital!!!!

What a busy time of year for Mr. Jim and the Peacebus. Television interviews, art project unveilings and…

… a photo in the London Free Press!!!!

The school year ended just a few days ago, and I already miss all of the students who rode on the Peacebus. To the graduating students I am extending my best wishes for their experiences in high school, next fall. To the rest of the students I am wishing them a most enjoyable summer, filled with sports, swimming, camping and many many artful adventures. I’ll look forward to seeing them again this Autumn!

“Just remember that even though you are on summer vacation, it is still important to follow the 3 Peacebus rules every single day…. 1) Learn something {anything at all}, 2) Have fun {always have fun doing whatever it is you are doing} and the most important rule is 3) Be peaceful!!!!!!”

Mr. Jim

Their Home, Too!

2011-06-28T07:43:00.000-07:00

Conclusion?

Okay – I’m just gonna dive right in to all of the artwork that I have to share with you concerning the Peacebus art project entitled, “Their Home, Too!” For any readers who would like to see the previous artworks and read the first two stories…

http://bitsandpeaces08.blogspot.com/2011/04/their-home-too-from-time-to-time-i-like.html

http://bitsandpeaces08.blogspot.com/2011/06/their-home-too-continues.html

So… this is where we left off. As you can see the project is about half done.

As more and more artworks appeared on the roof of the bus, more and more students asked if they could create some art for the project. Of course, I said, “Yes!”

To help some of the younger students, I began to create simple colouring sheets for them. It was their job to use their imagination to find ways to complete their colouring sheets using the proper colours needed.

This happy bunny rabbit is a fine example showing the skills of Anastasia, who is only in Grade 1! When I gave her this colouring sheet, I told her that most of the drawing needed to be coloured in with green pencil crayons. I explained that she could use a little bit of yellow and brown in just small areas. You can see that the rabbit was coloured in using four different shades of green and that the sky is a blend of green and blue. I was very impressed with the skills used to create this peace!

Mira’s little fish got a lot of smiling attention by the other students. I heard many comments stating that it was cool that peace symbols were drawn in the fish’s air bubbles.

When I first introduced the students to Haida Native art design, I wasn’t sure if they would think that this style of art was interesting. I was surprised when the students started asking me to tell them a bit more about the history of this kind of art.

In this design, Kailey used two separate Haida designs to create this peaceful expression.

Angela is an ‘Art Monster!’ There was no stopping her!!!! As soon as she finished one peace of artwork, she would ask to do another. The variety in her design concepts and her ability to blend colours together never ceased to amaze me!

This project was filled with a many different examples of evolution. It started as an idea for creating images of animals. Then the colouring sheet concept idea presented itself. Then the Haida Native art design concept emerged. Then I came up with the idea of using sentences -that expressed thoughts of animals – in the project.

I explained to the students that art is a form of communication. By drawing a picture of an animal we are sharing information about that animal with the world. By drawing a picture of a sentence that tells a short story about animals we are being more direct by expressing a well thought out statement.

I had mentioned in previous stories how I had asked some of my Facebook friends to help out with this project. Zeineb was one of the first to accept my challenge. The students on my bus thought that it was really cool that someone from, “all the way across, and on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean,” had created art for this project, too!

Ahhhh! Looking better and better, every day!

I couldn’t figure out what was more difficult – drawing pictures of animals or using sentences to create some fun art expressions.

So… I decided to limit the use of sentences to the magic number of three. I just wanted to use these as examples to fuel the students’ imaginations, so they would maybe think of using this style of art in some of their own future creations.

Over the next short while, two other artworks were emailed to me by Facebook friends. This one came from the US of A…

… and this one was sent to me by a friend who spent one afternoon with me and several others, planting Day Lilies in a ditch – here in London, Ontario – in the shape of a peace symbol!

If you’ve never heard of ‘Guerrilla Gardening’ then you will truly enjoy this story – http://bitsandpeaces08.blogspot.com/2010/04/guerrilla-gardening-attack-2.html

I’ve noticed how some animals attract the students’ attention more than others. I think there are four images of penguins in this artwork, two dolphin drawings and this drawing is the second image of butterflies.

Oh, how I love Haida Native art designs! I thought that this design was one of my simpler ones, but the students really ‘Ohhhh’ed and ‘Ahhhh’ed when they saw it on the roof of the bus.

Slava is another one of my ‘Art Monsters!’ I think that this is the fifth design that he completed for this project. He asked me if he could do another drawing. Of course, I said, “Yes!” He told me that he had a special topic that he wanted to do… something that hadn’t been done before. I became curious. He explained that he wanted to invent his own animals. I became delighted!!!!

Yet, another example of how art evolves through time!!! And ‘yes!’ that is a frying pan on one of the creature’s heads and a large tea mug balancing on the head of the other imaginary animal. Slava was very happy to use his imagination and sense of humour in his artwork!

My oh my!!! Almost done!

And speaking of imaginary animals… Thalia thought that creating an imaginary animal would be fun for her younger sister, so she had Kendra design this creature and Thalia helped her with the filling in of the colours. It thrills me to know that silly little art projects – like this one – help to bring people together: sister and sister, mom and dad and daughter and son.

With only a week or so left to complete this art project, I had to pick up the pace a bit. Many artworks were still being worked on by the students and I wanted them to relax and have fun with their art, so I decided to work of a few more designs by myself…

As you can see, I had a lot of fun dabbling around with my pencil crayons, too! Why should the kids be the only ones having fun?!!!!

Did I mention that penguins were a popular topic?

Kaela really blew me away with her third drawing for this project! Her first two artworks were just great, but this one really delights the eyes! When this drawing made it to the roof of the Peacebus, the students were so thrilled that they made up a song about, “The great big Panda… who likes to eat a lot of bamboo…” Art influencing music = inspiration!!!!

This is another ‘third’ artwork for this student. Michaela’s drew her first two artworks all by herself, but she asked me to help her out with this one cuz she really wanted to draw a picture of a polar bear.

When my Facebook friend from South Africa said that she wanted to create a peace of art for this project, I was extremely happy! Sasha told me how she had come home from work, emptied her pockets on the kitchen table, sat down with a peace of paper and began to wonder what she would draw. Her eyes wandered to the coins that had just been in her pocket and where now on the table and she told me that this was her moment of inspiration!

The coins of South Africa all have images of animals on them. So, instead of drawing one animal, Sasha put the coins underneath the sheet of paper and used her pencil crayons to create these ‘rubbed’ images of her coins. It’s a little hard to see, but upon close inspection I was able to make out three different images: an antelope, a yak and another animal resembling an antelope – I’m really not that familiar with all the varieties of animals living in South Africa, so I’m not positive on their names.

Hmmmm! Well! Look at that! All the artworks have been completed and if I could have a little drum roll…

… so I can present to you, “Their Home, Too!”

Yup! 3 ½ months of work has finally come to an end and I couldn’t be happier! It was interesting to watch all the evolutions that emerged during this process. It was even more interesting to witness how this one project united students on my bus, families and friends from around the world! Truly a global art endeavour brought to fruition through the dedication of many! I’m impressed!!

So… some of you may think that this should be the last story, since the artwork has been completed, but it’s not.

For my next story, I’ll be sharing photos from the ‘Unveiling’ and I’ll tell how one London news reporter got wind of this story and was inspired to share this art with the entire city!

Until soon,

Mr. Jim