Love Is Art!

Art is created in so many unique ways – it doesn’t always have to be a painting. Now, that Joanne and I have returned from our wedding get-a-way, we’ve had time to think about and recognize all the art that surrounded this event.

Of course, there was Nature’s art that was the backdrop to our ceremony in Niagara Falls.


After the ceremony, we all journeyed back to the cottage Jo’ and I had rented, to have a celebration supper… and it was super!! Joanne had brought along a few cookbooks and she surprised us all with two dishes that she had never made before. I’ve always regarded cooking as an artform and Jo’ took it to new levels with these creations. The salad has spinach, pear, walnut, goat cheese and arugula and the combination melted heavenly in my mouth. The golden patties were delicious and I told Jo’ that we’ll have to keep that recipe close by. They were made with carrot, zucchini, onion, curry powder, cumin and poppy seeds, an egg and feta cheese! You’ll also notice a loaf of homemade bread on the table that got gobbled up before I could have a third slice – LOL!


I should have taken the lid off the white casserole pot to show the orange ginger chicken with leak that everyone enjoyed with the bbq sweet potatoes!

Joanne received many compliments for her splendid meal. I had made the comment that we could have (like most wedding receptions) reserved a small section in a restaurant and taken everyone out for dinner – which would have cost close to four hundred dollars – but we thought it would be more intimate to prepare a special meal and save three hundred and fifty dollars!!!!


Everyone knew well enuf to make sure that there was room in our bellies for dessert. Joanne’s mom could open a bakery, if she wanted to, her cakes are the best many have ever tasted. The amount of artful skill that went into this one-of-a-kind wedding cake is unmistakable.


Joanne’s mom is also a very skilled and artful quilter. She made us this wedding pillow. There are three hearts on it – one heart has Joanne’s initial in it, the next has my initial in it and the third heart has both of our initial in it to show our union.


This heart flower looks rather simple, but it requires a special patience to make sure it is done properly.

Later, the next afternoon, after everyone had ventured on to their homes, Joanne and I were talking about all the art that surrounded our fun-loving wedding day. She told me that there was more art to come… but I had to be patient and wait!

I was curious and by the end of that evening I was growing excitedly impatient. Then Joanne announced that it was time for me to receive the wedding present that she had made for me.


My eyes exploded in wonder and delight – IT IS BEAUTIFUL!!!!

There’s a scene showing the beach along the shore of Lake Erie, the gazebo and flower gardens where we were married and the rocky escarpments that surround this area. Throughout the painting, Jo’ wrote me a poem…

On this beautiful day that I share with you
We create memories of our life together
A snapshot of time
Framed with peaceful waves and wildflowers
Blue skies and rocky cliffs
May we always have this place
In our minds and hearts
Forever we will be together
Through changing tides and drifting winds
From this day froward
We will only be happier
And our love will only grow stronger
Hold my hand as we take another step forward.

Thanks Joanne, you make me feel very special, indeed!!!!

Now – I’m not sure what type of art project my mother was envisioning (she paints with watercolours a lot), but she had me take several photos of our wedding clothes, as they hung up in the spare bedroom. She told me that she had a neat idea… I guess that more artwork may be born because of this period of our lives – we’ll have to wait and see.

Several days later, we had to return to our lives – LOL! We parked our car in our driveway and climbed the steps to our front door. There – waiting for us, was even more artwork for us…


Our neighbour’s children (who I built a sledding hill out of snow for – last winter) had created several cards with poems and well wishes inside. There was also this ornamental wild flower arrangement. I thought that it was great cuz it was made from found items, glued together and brightly decorated with paint.


This is the back and you can see all the work that went into decorating this ornament. Thanks Meghan, Taylor, Justin and Quinn!!!! Your art really brightens our lives!

Life is not about how much money a person can make, experiences you can pay for or how many things you can surround yourself with. Life is about cherishing the love of others so that we may experience the life that surrounds us, together!

Jim

Full Of Fun!

On July 04 Joanne and I and a car full of three pets, took off for a week of cottage living.

While cruising down the road listening to a Rockin’ mixed tape, I began to think of some of the blogs that I could write and the pictures that I might need – I always put a lot of effort into the photos that I select and prepare for this blog.


I took these two photos while we were stopped for a short break. I was already laying down the foundation for a blog story. Since many of my readers are from different parts of the world, I always like to share our Canadian landscapes.

As we continued, I told Jo’ about the photos I had taken and she said, “Taking pictures for your blog sounds like work to me. I thought you said you weren’t going to do anything for this week.” I laughed! Jo’s always so wise. I put the camera back in its bag and brought it out on just one occasion…


Our wedding day!

Jo’s parents and my parents and sister had made arrangements to meet us in a gardened area with a gazebo for our ceremony in Niagara Falls. Jo’ and I got there about one hour early to take some of our own pictures with the Falls in the background.


Unfortunately, my head got in the way and it’s blocking the Falls – LOL!


We must have been quite the scene, taking this photo. This was the best shot of the American Falls, but there was a stoopid dead tree in the way, so I kept telling Joanne to move ‘a bit this way, a bit more forward, wait, a bit more’ so that I’d be in position to block the tree. Wouldn’t ya know it – now my head didn’t get in the way and you can still see the dead tree!

So… it was on to the bed and breakfast cottage gardens to greet the family and get married.

And everything was going really well…


…Joanne and I were holding hands, the minister was talking about something, the sun was shining, I was waiting for my cue to say what I had prepared to say and then something caught my attention out of the corner of my eye. It started in the distance and drew ever closer.


I gave a quick jerk of my head to see a man standing behind my dad with his arm raised and waving in the air. He was trying to get our attention and I thought that he might be there to ask directions to the Falls. I nodded to Jo’ and pointed with my eyes, she took a quick glance, looked back at me and we both laughed out loud! (The photo above – with Joanne laughing and the minister smiling broadly, was taken at this exact moment)

Soon, we became aware that this man had his wife, mother, sister and daughter with him and they got comfortable so that they would be able to enjoy the rest of our ceremony. At the end, the man’s sister took a few photos for us!!!

Without missing a beat, the ceremony continued. Funnily (is that a word? LOL!) the next sentence that the minister spoke had to do with ‘those gathered’ and he added in a very low voice that trailed off to a laugh, “most invited…and some not.” Jo’ and I chuckled.

A moment later, it was my turn to recite my vows. Now, I’ve had a LOT of experience with public speaking and I’ve had to deal with many spontaneously unusual situations but none of that helped me at this moment. I went completely blank. I don’t know if the ‘interruption’ helped to unbalance me, but the next three seconds seemed like three days of everyone looking at me, waiting, and nothing comes out. I looked to Jo’ for help – she had been coaching me on my lines all morning – and she said, “Sorry!” with her eyes. She went as blank as I did.

I didn’t want to, but I had to reach into my pocket and get the paper with my lines written on it. After I saw just one word it all came back to me, and as I continued I made sure that everyone could see me folding the paper and returning it to my pocket, to prove that I did know my lines – LOL!


Then we exchanged rings, kissed and…


…now we can continue as Jim and Joanne!!!!!!!!


And these were the invited!!!

Later, everyone was agreeing that a ‘perfect’, ‘flawless’ or ‘ordinary’ wedding just would not have been a ‘Jim and Joanne’ thing to have happen. With the Brazilian family spectators, the forgetting of the words, and all the laughs and smart assed remarks that continued, it was definitely full of excitement and spontaneity. Most of all, everyone agreed that it all helped to build the strong feelings of love that surrounded us during this wonderful time in our lives.

Jim

What Is Love? – The Conclusion

WOW! Eight days of semi-solitude and sun – what fun! No television. No radio. No computers. Just a quaint little cottage along the shores of Lake Erie. I was soooo into turning ‘off’ that I didn’t even take any pictures – that would have been ‘doing something’ and I wasn’t into that… at all.

Near the end of May of this year, I was chatting with my mom on the phone. She was explaining that my grandfather was becoming very ill – we’re all still praying and hoping for the best for him – so she was making sure that all the ‘legal’ matters were in place. She told me that her lawyer was a bit concerned that Joanne and I were not legally married.


Jo’ and I had created our personal wedding ceremony – on our third year anniversary of being together – way back in August, 1997. Neither Joanne nor I wanted a ceremony that involved the church or the law. We wanted to share this joyous time in our lives with our family and close friends and of course the big chief of the universe. Joanne, bought fabric and sewed her own dress, our rings were bought at a pawnshop and the event took place in our living room, with no expense for halls and banquets. We always like to keep things simple and more intimate.

Our parents understood to respect our beliefs. However, now that we’re older, we became aware that ‘common-law’ marriages can pose certain problems when sorting out wills and other legalities. I explained this – briefly – to Jo’, while still chatting on the phone with my mom, and we decided to get married legally, to make legal proceedings easier in the future.

This was one of the reasons why Joanne and I rented a cottage for a week. It was our honeymoon!!!

We arrived at the cottage on July 4th. Met our families in nearby Niagara Falls on July 8th for the ceremony and then enjoyed the last few days at the cottage before coming home just a few days ago. I’ll share photos and stories from this event in my next blog entry.

So… what does this have to do with the completion of my art project entitled “What Is Love?”

When I began this project, in February of this year I had no set time to finish it… it really didn’t matter, at that time. I was thinking that it may make a nice anniversary present or possibly I would give Joanne the painting for her birthday.

Suddenly, with the upcoming wedding, I knew that I had to have this painting done to give to Joanne as my wedding present to her. I really had to put in the hours to accomplish this and when I was finished I was in need of a little vacation. I finished it July 3rd, just before noon and later that evening I presented it to Joanne.
Now – this is a very unique painting and before I simply unveil it for all of you, I think that it is important to understand all the different elements that went into the design of this painting.

From the beginning….


I spent close to two weeks just laying out my construction lines, preparing the canvas and mixing the paint colours.


Some of you already know that I was ‘splattering’ the canvas with bits of paint and taking pictures of this process to try to create an animation film.


The animation film would see all of these bits of paint slowly taking shape to form words that would spell out a poem.


Since the poem refers to love ‘ignighting’ I thought that it would be kinda funny to have a ‘love-bomb’ explode at one point of this animation film to fill in the final image. This picture shows the beginning construction of the bomb at the bottom of the canvas. In previous blogs I had mentioned that I was having difficulty with some of my paints drying up, so I had to increase my speed and stop taking so many photos. You can see that the border is filling in quite rapidly now.


I had a spontaneous idea to create the image of a heart within the bomb… this gave me a chuckle or two.


As the word ‘ignights’ is completed the fuse is lit…


As each of the final words find their place on the canvas, the lit fuse draws ever closer to the bomb.


Now, the poem is complete and the fuse has reached the bomb. It is ready to explode.

I have shared all of this – up to this point – in earlier blogs. Now it is time for the ultimate explosion and the completion of the painting. I hesitate at this point, because after this the story will be finished and then it will begin to fade into our memories… so let’s really soak this in, cuz THIS IS IT!!!!!

The explosion takes place in three stages…


So – there ya go! That’s it. It’s done. Completed. Finalization. LOL!!!

Joanne came home from work and I decided to take her out for a simple dinner and a bottle of wine to celebrate. When we returned home it was time to show her the painting. I wanted Joanne to enjoy the experience without me standing over her shoulder, so I went and had a shower while she went into the living room to see the mirror that I had created for her.

Joanne absolutely loved it! When I joined her in the living room she had a big, bright shining smile for me and a few tears of joy. “I don’t think that anything like this exists in the whole world. This is so special. Thank you for loving me so much,” was what Jo’ told me as she gave me a big ‘ol hug!!!

We sat and enjoyed it together for some time. Joanne would ask me questions and I would share stories about how it made me feel to create such a beautiful peace of art. I told her that I had been sharing photos during it’s creation, on my blog and Facebook and that this painting had quite a following – but for different reasons. Joanne saw the final image, everyone else was being captivated by the creation of the poem.

“Poem? Do you mean all the words in the painting,” she asked. I told her that it was a bit more than that. She let that be a mystery until the next day. Jo’ said that she was already overwhelmed with so many thoughts in her head that she couldn’t take any more in, right then. I totally understood.

The next day, about an hour before we left for our honeymoon, I showed Joanne all the photos that I had taken over these last five months. Suddenly, it all hit home and she could not keep the smile from her face. “It hurts!” she said, “to have all these emotions running through me like this.” She loved it!!!!


We had just enough time to take these pictures, before we left.


See! I told you that she loved it – she just gave me a kiss!

But now we have a problem. This is the seventh portrait of Joanne that I’ve created in the last fifteen years and we are not sure where to hang it. I guess we’ll have to do some more saving so we can buy a house with more wall space! LOL!!!

Jim

Wedding Present

Joanne and I had a great time at our friends wedding this weekend. The last time we saw Neal was in 2000 so we were all happy for a reunion. His best man, Jim, was also a friend of ours from our year long stay in Neepawa, Manitoba. The four of us almost completed a reunion of our old bowling team from so many years ago. Neal had named our team ‘The Smackdown’ inspired by his love for wrestling.

Later this week I’ll share some photos from this weekend. Today, I’ll share a peace of artwork that I gave to Neal and his lovely bride Miranda.

It was Sunday morning, the sun was shining and a cool breeze was lightly blowing as many friends and relatives gathered at Miranda’s parent’s house for the gift opening. There was a lot of food left over from the wedding reception, the night before, so we all had another good belly fill and then the wedding cake was cut and passed around. By the time we left a few belts were loosened around people’s waists.

‘Pines Of Temagami’ was a painting that I had created earlier this spring. I was preparing for a children’s art workshop and developing ideas for that class. I was inspired by design styles that artist’s use when working with stained glass – small, individual shapes molded to fit together like a jig-saw puzzle.

Neal and Miranda were delighted to receive a “Kogelheide original”, as Neal had said.

Jo’ and I had been asked to help two friends get to the airport and bus terminal in Toronto, later that afternoon, so we had to leave before all the gifts were opened.

It was a good thing that we were not slowed down by traffic jams or construction or Jim (getting dropped of at the Yorkdale subway station) would have missed his bus. Neal’s other friend, Troy, had about two hours to while away before his flight took him home to Edmonton.

Joanne and I were both happy that we made it back into London just before the kennel closed, so we were able to pick up Koly a day early. Koly was sure happy to see us.

Exhausted and happy Jo’ and I lazed on our couch with Koly snuggled in between us and Guido (our cat) purred around our heads as he lay on the top of the back of the couch. Our happy family was together again.

It’s times like these that make us realize how fortunate we are. Our family was separated because of a joyous celebration for only a few short days. Other families are separated sometimes forever because of war, politics or even environmental disasters. Let it be everyone’s desire to strive to create a world where man made issues do not tear our families apart.

Jim