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