Tallying The Scorecard

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!!!!!!

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

Jim

Creations for History

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

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