First Peace-Art Competition On The Peacebus

In a few previous blogs I’ve mentioned that my bus routes have recently changed. I’m now driving a different group of students to a different elementary school.


I can remember how excited all the students were when I first pulled up to their bus stops. They were all surprised to see that they had a new bus driver and once they entered The Peacebus their eyes grew large and filled with wonder as they saw all the peace-art that is decorating the inside roof of the bus.


Once we arrived at the school, I took a moment to introduce myself as “Mr. Jim”, go over some of the bus rules (concerning eating and drinking) and I asked if they liked the way I decorated my bus. They all smiled and said that they thought my bus was cool! I told them that in a few weeks I would be giving them a chance to add their peace-art to the bus, as well.


I didn’t want to rush right into any new art projects until the students and I had a while to get to know each other a little bit, first.


After a short period of time, one of the students asked when they could start creating artwork for the bus. I told them that I was in the process of organizing a fun art competition and that it would begin in the next week. Well, it seems that the students just couldn’t wait. The frosted winter windows became their canvases each morning. By the time I had reached the school almost all the windows were covered in peace symbols, heart-peace symbols, stars and happy faces. These students were showing me that they were ready to create some real art!!!!


It didn’t take much effort to get this first competition in motion. One day I simply asked if they were ready to create some peace-art for the bus. They all hooted and hollered that they were ready. I told them that I wanted them to follow just two simple rules. 1) The drawing had to be created on either a white sheet of paper or a coloured one – no lined paper (that they use to take notes in school) and 2) They had to fill the entire page – I didn’t want them to simply draw a peace symbol on a piece of paper and say that it was art. I wanted them to create an environment for their peace symbols. “You can draw a garden full of peace flowers. You can draw a landscape with a peace symbol for the sun. You can draw a huge peace symbol on the Earth and fill the rest of the page with stars and planets. Use your imagination and be as creative as you can be. Use lots of different colours, bright colours, peaceful colours and fill in the entire sheet of paper.”


The very next day, I received the first entry for this competition and the artwork has been flowing in at a steady pace, ever since. The easiest way for me to get even more artwork from the students was to tell them that they could enter this contest as many times as they wanted to. “The more you enter, the greater your chances are for winning!”


Okay! Okay! I’m a big, mean and ugly fibber!!!! My plan is, of course, to give each student who participates a prize… but they don’t know that – that’s why it’ll be a surprise. In the mean time, I’m getting a ton of artwork to share with the world. Matt is in grade 6 and he is an art machine… he’s already created seven different artworks for this competition!


When this peace-art was handed in to me, I couldn’t help but laugh and smile. “So, Camilo, what’s with the flying chicken-man?” Camilo told me that this chicken-man is a real person who lives in Mexico. He’s sort of a superhero cuz he helps many people. I told him that the chicken-man would be very honoured to know that he was in Camilo’s drawing. Camilo smiled at the complement!


Viveka took a different approach for creating her artwork. Instead of drawing a picture, she created a collage using photos that she had taken last summer. I asked her why she likes photography and she told me that she loves taking pictures of beautiful flowers. I asked her if she knew the names of the flowers that she had taken photos of. She knew about two of them and told me what she knew and then I told her the names of the other two flowers and told her why I thought they were beautiful. I told her that her layout and composition was done very well and then she confessed that her dad had helped to show her how to do it. I told her that it was great that she had asked her dad to help her. “ I’m very proud of you for learning so much about Nature and being able to share your ideas by creating artwork on your computer and I’m proud of you for being able to ask someone to help you.”


I’ve had so much artwork handed in that it will take me at least another blog to share it all with you. So, tune in for my next story to see more wonderful peace-arts by the students who ride The Peacebus and by that time I should have ‘the prize’ ready to share with you, as well.

Jim

The Sounds of Silence

With all the hustle and bustle that happens in our day to day lives, it's hard to notice all the simple and amazing things that continuously surround us. Simple things like, the shadow of a tree dancing in a slow breeze or amazing things like a wisp of cloud stretched out to defy the blues of clear sky.

I, like most, am guilty – to a certain degree – of this infraction, but I do my best to find small windows of opportunity where I can ‘unplug’ from the world to become an observer.


A couple of Saturdays ago, I woke to an empty house. Joanne had to work the morning shift at the animal hospital and I slept in. I thought of all the things that I had to do that day and then I decided that it was about time that I had ‘a day without me’ and then my schedule opened right up.

I didn’t turn my computer on to scan any children’s peace art. I didn’t call anyone or even answer the phone when it rang. I didn’t go to the library to check my emails. I didn’t even turn on the television or radio.


But I did go out to my backyard, brush off a patio chair and let a cup of tea warm my hands as I let the sunshine warm my face.

It was one of those rare winter days where the winds were almost non-existent, the sky was blue and the air was filled with silence. I felt the tea warming my body as I sat with eyes closed, facing the sun. My chest rose and fell with each fresh breath and I basked in my winter wonderland and let the troubles of the world pass me by.


When I have moments like this, where I separate myself the world to become a peaceful observer, I am always amazed by the amount of activity that occurs in a seemingly empty place. Every few minutes a short breeze would blow by to lift the lightest snows off of the laden tree branches. These bursts of dazzling crystals would cascade outwards from the trees like winter spirits performing pirouettes as they descended to the ground.

Two chickadees flew by, like fighter jets in a game of tag. They had flown just above my neighbour’s hedge and into my backyard just a few feet away from where I was sitting. I think I startled them more than they had startled me. They were so close that I could actually hear their wind beneath their wings as they zoomed by.

My backyard was an amusement park for my senses. Mother Nature always puts on a spectacular show!!!


Something caught my attention, from just two yards away, and I lifted my head to get a clearer view. With brown wings spread out a small hawk lifted into the sky, coming towards me. It seemed like I could make out individual feathers of dark patterns separated with forks of white as it flew over my head. I turned to watch it continue on its course and the hawk bent its head so that one of its eyes could peer right at me. I smiled in wonder!


After about an hour and a half I became inspired to capture some of these snowy images with my camera. The high puffs of snow that were perched on top of some dead flowers seemed to defy gravity. The shadows of the surrounding trees as they fell across my backyard intrigued my visual senses with all of the contrasting tones of white. The flow of the snow as it had been formed with the winds, on top of my back hedge was full of so much texture and movement.

I think that I could have spent the rest of the day, just wandering around my backyard with my camera in hand, but soon this special time was over.

Joanne came home and I greeted her. She asked why I was looking so peaceful and relaxed. I told her that for over two hours I had done absolutely nothing. “I just sat in our backyard and watched and listened and was amazed!”

My condition was contagious and soon Jo’ and I both settled into the rest of this quiet day. I spent a short time enjoying a book while Joanne stared out the window enjoying a warm hot chocolate. We puttered around doing a few household chores and then it was time to take Koly for a romp through the snow.


The television stayed off, throughout most of the evening, as I spun a few vinyl discs on my record player. After dinner I decided that I had been lazy enough all day long and that it was time for me to do something. I got out a pencil and began to layout my design for a wall mural that I want to paint in our living room.

Ahhhhh! But that’s another story….

Jim

Cards Of Hope

As we all know, the citizens of Haiti have recently been devastated by a massive earthquake which took close to 200 000 lives. The survivors are suffering greatly as food, water and shelter are slowly being brought in to this country. The world watches on with desperate eyes as medical teams and rescue workers struggle on, trying to bring relief to those who can be reached.


This tragic event has touched each of us, in some way, and a world full of ‘THANKS!’ is on each of our lips as we praise the efforts of those able to help.

Last night, Joanne and I joined millions of other individuals from across North America to unite in collective thoughts of hope for the survivors of this tragedy. We don’t often spend our evenings glued to the television set, but this was an evening that warranted this seemingly insignificant act.


It seems hard to believe that thinking about something can actually have an impact on a global event – or any event for that matter, but I believe this to be true. We humans are composed of Earthly matter and universal energies and whenever we think about anything or do anything we are sending the energies of our minds and muscle outwards into this world. As individuals the energies that we are continuously sending out – twenty four hours a day (even while we are dreaming) – most times loose themselves in the chaos of all the other energies that are ebbing and flowing across the surface of this planet.


When small groups of individuals gather to dedicate themselves to a particular matter, these energies converge and unite into stronger wave patterns. When an entire world is dedicated towards one train of thought and one uniting purpose then patterns of energies begin to emerge in empowering ways.

I’ve always wondered if one day humans will actually be able to see and recognize these energy manifestations.


Music is a very enlightening energy producer and celebrities from around the world packed the three hour telethon that we watched, last night on CBC. In between performances news reporters took us on many journeys through Haiti – through the devastated cities and countryside. They showed the horrors that survivors will be dealing with for many weeks to come and they showed the strength and compassion that is extending its heart and hands in efforts to bring relief.


Every performance was filled with strength for hope for the people of Haiti. Gordon Downie, from The Tragically Hip (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGnAGbTdWhA) could be seen wiping a tear away after the emotional performance of ‘Fiddler’s Green’. Bruce Springsteen was calling to the world for support with every sobering note he plucked on his guitar. Madonna’s ‘Like A Prayer’ which was accompanied by a choir, sent chills of confusion and sorrow through me as I felt the song begin with its haunting tones. As this song continued bursts of hope and light radiated from the stage to fill all viewers hearts with strength and love. I’m not much of Coldplay or Justin Timberlake fan, but I became one… if even for a few minutes! Stevie Wonder twisted his fingers all over his piano to bring an empowering medley to life. This performance ended with a breathtaking rendition of ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0B07qowh0YQ) and Stevie’s vocals cracked something inside my eye as I felt a small wet drop spilling over my bottom lid.


The evening ended with two supergroup performances. The Edge, Bono, Jay Z and Rihanna (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTa8aGvU9CE) were brought together to unite people from different musical genres in a celebration of love. I thought that it was great that Bono did not steal centre stage – as his soul was designed (LOL!) – but seemed to be there to let the other performers shine while he contributed in a more supporting role… except for a few hoots and hollers he managed to sneak in nearing the end of the song!!!!

Dave Matthews and Neil Young brought this evening to an end in a spectacular way. You could see these two musicians churning their talents together as their guitars sang to each other, feeding one another and feeding from each other (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hk6OcXb-W2E).


It is really spiritually satisfying to witness a world uniting for such a worthy cause. I sat in silence with Joanne after this show and thought about the world’s future… as events such as this one will become more frequent and undoubtedly more devastating as global weather patterns become more extreme over the coming decades (and centuries). My thoughts of the future do not revolve around the human spirit as it deals with these crisis after they have occurred, but more to the idea that we will need to unite in new ways to create preventative actions as a way of preparing ourselves for the unexpected.


So… ‘Cards Of Hope’…

Michele Johnson is a friend of mine and an elementary school teacher. We attended a small friends gathering, last summer, and shared with each other many stories about our work with children, the environment and art. Two months later she shared with me her story about ‘Cards Of Hope’.


Michele told me that the students and parents of her school are continuously being asked to participate in fund raising efforts for a variety of causes. She wanted to create a small event that would allow her students to make a positive effect in the world that focussed on individual efforts instead of donations of money. “If the students simply donate a dollar or two to an effort they quickly forget about it, but if the students spend time thinking about a cause and work towards helping as they can, then they become more attached to the cause and then it becomes a part of them.”


Michele agreed that there are always people in need, somewhere in the world, and so she asked her students to create colourful cards with inspirational messages that would be sent to wherever they are needed most.

Though this artwork is several months old and these cards have already been sent to different parts of the world, I thought that it would be appropriate to share these artworks throughout this blog.


I want to inspire people to realize the value of our thoughts and how considerate concentration can make a difference. For those of us who are able to create positive change I want to inspire you to realize that simple and thoughtful actions can really make a world of difference.

Jim

About The Prizes

Well… I’ve had a few other people enter my art give-away, since my last story. I’ve already reached the twenty winners, but I’ve decided to share some of my artwork with these folks anyway!!!

The last three people who will soon be receiving a small package full of peace Stik-ers and a few other items are…

Sam B. – British Columbia
Toby B. – Barrie, Ontario
Rowan L. – South Africa

Congratulations to all 23 winners!!!

I thought that it would be appropriate to share the stories that tell about the why the artworks ‘New Horizons’ and ‘Sol Storm’ were created, since I’ve been sharing these images in my last few blogs.


The story for ‘New Horizons’ is a very short one! Way back in 1996 I began to create artful images. Most of the artworks that I created used geometric lines, grids or patterns as a part of their design. This is because of my architectural background – instead of using straight lines to draw walls, windows and doors I had adapted to use many straight lines to create textures for skies, trees or rivers.

About a year later I decided that I had enough artwork to put on a small display at a downtown London market. It was a few weeks before christmas and I thought that I might interest a few people in purchasing my artwork for gifts. Indeed, I did sell a few – which made me very happy.

I had many delightful conversations with a variety of people, during this time. Then there was a time when one man came to look at my art and he seemed to be studying each peace, very closely. He turned and looked at me and said, “This art isn’t bad… considering nothing is free-hand!” and then he turned and walked away. I looked at all my artworks on display and noticed that he was right. I did have many ‘free-hand’ art creations, but none were on display.

Quite simply, I took his remark and decided that I should create some more images that did not use geometry in their design.

As it was soon to be New Years, I was inspired to create an image that gave the viewer a sense of distant space – a far off horizon with expanses of the Earth ascending to a foreground where the viewer was contemplating their journey into the future. As each New Year approaches we should take a moment to contemplate our tasks and aspirations for this time, to set goals and create priorities as we seek our own ‘new horizons’!!!


The story of ‘Sol Storm’ takes us a few years into the future, to the time when Joanne and I were living in Nova Scotia (2002-04) – when we were working on the fourth art peace for my project “Canada: Glorious To Be” - .

Soon after our arrival to Nova Scotia I had joined a local artisans group. I participated in many of their art events and this allowed me to share my artwork with the community.

It was a year later and this art group was having a meeting to discuss their annual ‘Art Fair’. I must have blinked and suddenly everyone was looking at me to see if I would accept the task of creating the artwork that was to be used in advertising for this exhibition. I’m not sure why I was selected – I guess a lot can happen in a blink – but I accepted the job.

For the next week or so, my mind was a blank slate. I had many other projects on the go and they were taking most of my attention.


A few days later, a most delightful astrological occurrence happened. Our sun went through a three-day explosive volley, which showered the Earth with fireworks of intense colour. For each of these three nights I found myself sitting on my back porch for hours watching these displays of light. I’m wondering if many of you – now reading this – are remembering this time and your own experiences.

Well… this experience inspired me. I had heard on the radio that scientist were saying a sun storm of this magnitude may not occur again for many many years. I felt that I should capture this event in colourful inks and ‘Sol Storm’ was born!


I took the image to a local printing shop to make the flyers for the upcoming ‘Art Fair’. We lightened the image significantly so that the black text that was added could be read very clearly. You’ll notice on the flyer the announcement “Special Musical Slideshow Presentation”. This was an event that I had asked to do, to share my story about the Temagami forestland and how this experience had shown me that I was to be an artist.


At 2:00pm I shared my story, using a prerecorded musical selection along with many slides that I had photographed while in the Temagami region. If you look really closely at this picture (almost right in the center) you will see the mini-print ‘New Horizons’ on display.


Whenever the opportunity presents itself, I always talk about the Temagami forestland. It is very important to me. My experiences from my journey to this region were filled with magic and I tried very hard to use my photographic skills to capture these feelings. In this photo, just a small cropping of pine tree branches is in focus in the foreground. The rest of the photo is blurred, but just to the perfect amount, where the essence of light and shadows creates a feeling of spiritual energy that lives in this forest.

I’ve often thought about creating a painting based on this photo, but as of yet that hasn’t happened… maybe one day!

Jim

And The Winners Are…

Last Friday, I thought that I’d have a bit of fun with this blog and with my facebook friends – I had an art give-away. I thought that this would be a great way to kick of the New Year. I had created a total of twenty prizes that I would award to the first twenty participants. All anyone had to do was simply send me an email with their mailing address so that I could mail the prizes to them.

I thought that for sure, I would receive about forty or even fifty emails and I was a little surprised when, the next day, I had only received nine. The very first email was simply a quick note with no address attached. This person told me that she was a big fan of all the artwork that I post on facebook and that she thought my art give-away was a really great idea. She continued by saying that she did not send me her address because she thought that for sure, that she would be about the 500th entry! All these ‘for sure’s made me laugh.

I replied to her and told her that she was in fact, the first entry! She replied to my reply with a few laughs and her mailing address. There were two other similar stories within these nine entries.

To help further this ambition I had made a comment about these responses in my ‘status’ on facebook – to encourage others to participate. I wrote something like, “Peaceman Jim Kogelheide thinks it’s funny that so many friends think that everyone else is entering his give-away, so they aren’t entering… when in reality very few are actually entering! There are still 11 prizes up for grabs.”

This helped me find the last winners…

New Horizons is a mini-print and only 30 have ever been made. When I created them in 1998 I had also numbered and signed each one. Through the years, I had lost track of the remaining prints – I have about fifteen left – so when I found them I thought that these would make nice gifts. They are very small… but once a matte and a frame has been placed around it they look rather nice.

Five of these prints will soon be traveling around the world to find new homes!!! The first five winners are:

Kate G. – England
Carla J. – Manitoba
Deseree R. – California
Debby C.– Florida
Rob C. – right here in London, Ontario

Rob and I have met a few times and once we worked on a community arts project together. He thought that my art give-away was a great idea and he wanted to do something nice for me, in return. Rob asked me to send him a photograph of someone in my life so that he could draw a portrait for me. I told him that I have many portraits of my wife, already – ones that I’ve created over the years – so I asked him to draw me a funky peaceflower!! I’ll be sure to share his art creation once I receive it. Thanks Rob! That really made my day!!!


Sol Storm is an ink painting that I created while I was living in Nova Scotia. I have used this design to make prints and stickers over the last several years. This series however, was made at a slightly different size than normal and only ten were created. Each of these ten were numbered and signed.

Five of these prints will be travelling to the following people:

Julie P. – Gibraltar
Anne E. – Montana
Esha M. – Vancouver
Jennie F. – Connecticut
Tim Lane – again, from London, Ontario

Last Friday, when I created this art give-away, I made an announcement about it to the high school students who ride The Peacebus. When I had pulled up to the last stop, Tim told me that he had visited my website, linked to my blog, read the story and then emailed his entry to me… using only his cel phone!!!


Each of these ten winners will also be receiving a copy of the premier edition of Ecovox magazine!


To add a personal touch, on page 7, I wrote a personal message to each of these ten winners, “When moving a mountain, begin with the small rocks!!” and then I signed each magazine.

The mountain refers to the enormity of all the environmental, social, religious and political problems facing our world today. There are soooo many problems that are threatening humanities continued existence on the Earth and if we are to survive as a species we must move and transform these ‘mountains’. When people become aware of these issues it is often so overwhelming to think that solutions can be found. We do not need to give up, before we’ve even begun. We need to start small, with solutions that are easily accomplished – the ‘small rocks’. As we become more educated through these smaller efforts we build strength of mind and will to then begin to tackle the larger problems.

Now… I would have loved to have been able to give all twenty winners one of my prints and a copy of Ecovox magazine, but I didn’t want to overstep my small budget.


So… the last ten winners (I included these items in all twenty prizes) will be receiving
sixteen of my peace Stik-ers…


and two newspaper articles that talk about my environmental ambitions to raise awareness about the clear-cutting of the Temagami forestland – an ambition that dates back to 1996. It was this experience that guided me to become conscious of my creative abilities.


Since my peace Stik-ers are all black & white images, I decided to add a little splash of colour into these packages. I made a quick trip to my local copy centre to print some more sticker designs that were created over the last four months (inspired by the elementary students of The Peacebus!)

The last (but certainly not least) ten winners are…

Grace W. – Nevada
Angie W. – Dundalk, Ontario
Zeineb A. – Tunisie
Kim L. – South Africa
Dyhana L. – Florida
Mike Y. – California
Annie B. – England
Hal – British Columbia
Alex K. – Ajax, Ontario
Tara M. – New South Whales


I always have a lot of fun when I do things like this. It makes me feel really great to be able to reach out around the world and share in people’s lives.


I enjoy the time I spend designing my stickers and going to the copy centre. I’ll listen to an LP (yes – I listen to old vinyl records) while I cut the sticker sheets, sign the magazines and address the envelopes.


I enjoy decorating the envelopes with my peace Stik-ers, thinking about all the people that will see my artwork as each package moves from place to place.

And… the thing I like most is thinking about all the smiles that will shine on each face when my package arrives at their mailbox!

Thanks to all of those who participated in my art give-away! Thanks to everyone else for enjoying this story!!!

Jim

Smiling Leaves

In all my conversations and teachings about art with children I always stress the point that art can be found in everything we do if we use our imaginations.

When Joanne and I were living in Nelson, B.C. in 2002, I lived up to this philosophy.


It was autumn and the leaves were changing colour and falling to the ground. Instead of simply raking them into piles and bagging them for the local dump, I decided to have some fun with my art! I raked the leaves to form an image of a smiling sun, using one of the tree trunks as an eye.

The sun may appear upside down in this photo, but imagine that you were walking along the sidewalk at the top of this photo – it would appear right-way-up.

There was an elementary school at the end of this street, so many children walked past my smiling sun, everyday. I used to arrive home from work just before 8:00am – I was working the midnight shift at a nearby hotel – and I’d often sit on my front porch watching the students going off to school. While this smiling sun lasted I would always hear a few funny remarks from these students as they walked past my lawn.

It made me feel great to be able to do something so simple that caused the air to be filled with children’s laughter!

Jim

Why I’m Always Poor

Joanne and I had a very quiet New Year’s Eve. Christmas saw our house full of family and so we simply wanted a bit of quiet time, on this day.

We walked to the corner store to rent a movie at around 9:00pm and were surprised to see a colourful display of fireworks being set off at nearby Boler Mountain. We assumed that they were set off at this time cuz a lot of children wouldn’t be awake to enjoy them at midnight.


The next morning, we relaxed and watched the snow fall while we warmed up with cups of tea. Joanne busied herself with the animals and I sat back to read the very first issue of Ecovox Magazine.

I am interested in this magazine for two reasons. 1- It’s a local magazine that is ‘designed to enable Londoners to gain a high awareness and understanding of local and global environmental issues and to find practical solutions’. 2- I’m in it – LOL!!!

The editor, Maryanne MacDonald and I have worked together on several local environmental projects in the past, and a few months ago she told me about this upcoming magazine. She had asked if I would like to contribute stories and artwork for Ecovox. Of course, I said yes… and now my story about the Temagami forestland (Part 1 of 7) and one of my landscape ink drawings inspired by this region of Northern Ontario fills half of page 7.


The magazine is only 12 pages long – I hear that it will be growing over the next few issues – but it is filled with many interesting stories. There are a few book reviews that highlight mostly Canadian authors who write about environmental ideals. There is a story that highlights what Londoner’s have done to raise their voice in support of global organizations such as http://www.350.org/ (My face appears in two of these photos as I was a participant in this event). Hints and suggestions for living ‘lightly’ on the Earth focus on things that we can do over the winter months. Many community personalities are spotlighted for their participation in environmental activities and there is an inspiring story about how Girlguides are reusing plastic milk bags to create blankets for the homeless!

There are a few other columns in the magazine that I’ll let you find out about for yourself. Ecovox is a free magazine and it is distributed through all 16 London Library branches.

The paper that is used to produce this magazine is 100% post-consumer material. It has been processed using chlorine free methods and the printing company uses bio-gas energy! These processes will be the wave of the future as more consumers demand environmentally friendly products from manufacturers.

So… what does this have to do with me being poor?!!!

A few blogs ago, I shared the story about a pet portrait that I was commissioned to do. Michael loved the portrait of his dog Digger so much that he gave me a bonus on top of the agreed upon price. Whenever these kind of surprises happen in my life I’m always compelled to use the bonus to help me share my artwork. My wife always says, “No wonder you’re always poor… everytime you make any money selling your artwork you turn around and spend it all on stickers and prints to just give away!” Ha! She’s right and she knows that it brings me a lot of personal satisfaction so it’s a bit of joke around our house, after all these years!!!

Hmmm… what am I planning on giving away?!!!

A few days ago, I was going through an old file box and I stumbled upon a few series of prints that I had forgotten about. One series dates back over ten years and the other series of art prints dates back to 2004. Both series’ are limited edition, numbered and signed! Hey – if I ever become famous these prints just may be worth an extra penny or two!!!

I thought that it would be a fun idea to create 20 packages to mail to you – my blog readers and facebook friends. The thought of my artworks travelling to different countries around the world really excites me!

These packages will include copies of Ecovox magazine, an art print and lots of my personally made peace stickers.

Here’s how it works…

All you have to do is send me an email – peacefulwarrior333@hotmail.com – and tell me what your mailing address is (please include country, etc.). That’s it! It’s that simple!!!


The first 5 mailing addresses that I receive will be sent 1 copy of Ecovox magazine (I will be writing a personal note inside for each of you), 1 numbered and signed ‘New Horizons’ print and lots of my personally made peace stickers.


The next 5 mailing addresses that I receive will be sent 1 copy of Ecovox magazine (I will be writing a personal note inside for each of you), 1 numbered and signed ‘Sol Storm’ print and lots of my personally made peace stickers.


The next 10 mailing addresses that I receive will be sent a business sized envelope filled with lots of my personally made peace stickers.

I will write a future blog about this ‘art give away’ to let you know where in this world my artwork has traveled. The only information that I will share in that story – about you - will be your first name and city or country where you live.

With 2010 just beginning I thought that this would be a great and fun way to spread some inspiration around this wonderful planet of ours. I hope that you agree!

Looking forward to hearing from at least 20 of you, soon!!!!

Jim