I’m Not The Only One - Part II

My last blog entry shared the stories behind the ideas and inspiration that influenced the creation of a twenty-foot long wall mural entitled, “I’m Not The Only One”. To date, I’ve only shown you the first of the five panels used to create this mural…

Here it is again, in case you forgot what it looked like.

I mentioned, briefly, that I’m also creating an animated video to tell the story of this mural, leading up to the opening reception. I’ve created these 3 image sequences to share this idea on my Facebook pages. There are many more photos that will be appearing in the video, but the 3 image sequence gets the idea across.

In each 3 image sequence, one completed mural panel is showcased. The artwork created by the students who ride The Peacebus is used to create the words in these mural panels. Each panel also shares stories about some of the adventures that have happened on the bus. This panel showcases all eleven pages of the book entitled, “A Turtle’s Great Adventure” that was created at the beginning of this school year, last October.

http://www.bitsandpeaces08.blogspot.ca/2011/10/turtles-great-adventure.html

Now that a mural panel has been loaded into my car, it is time to venture to the Cherryhill Library where it will be hung for the opening reception – Vroom! Vroom!

And now I’m unloading the mural panel and taking it into the mall where the library is located. But wait!? What’s this???? Above we see that I’m loading the panel “NOT” into the car, so how is it that I’m unloading the panel “THE” when I arrive at the mall?

HA! When this idea popped into my head I laughed! I thought that this would be a fun way to showcase each individual mural panel and also show the journey that all the mural panels went through, at the same time.

And this is the completed 3rd panel in the sequence. As you can see, there is a lot going on inside each panel. There’s no way that this art creation could be fully understood just by a passing glance. This artwork demands a closer look!

I wanted people to get a sense of how this project would look when it was completed, so I made this image showcasing the first 3 of the 5 panels. I was very satisfied to see that the bus (painted in shades of gray) was becoming very visible.

After entering the mall (above), I’ve now entered the library and I’m carrying the “ONLY” panel to the Cherryhill Room, inside the Cherryhill Library, which is found inside the Cherryhill Mall, where I will soon be hosting the opening reception.

This panel was a bit more challenging – it has the most letters in it. If I had made all the letters the same height (as the rest of the mural panels) then the letters would have been very thin, making it almost impossible to read. This panel looks a bit more abstract but that’s okay with me.

The “O” in this panel is dedicated to many of my Facebook friends. It tells the story about how I used photos sent to me from these friends to be the first art decorations on my bus.

http://www.bitsandpeaces08.blogspot.ca/2009/06/peaceflowers-from-around-world.html

This is the final 3 image sequence that I’ve put together. It was meant to be a bit of a tease, because you’d possibly expect me to have shown the whole mural. If I did that then there would be no need to attend the opening reception… and I wanted you to attend!

It was Thursday, June 14 at 2:22pm when the last artwork was glued onto this mural panel. This was a great moment – I could relax for about 30 seconds! The opening reception would be in two more days and I still had a lot of work to do to get ready.

This work took me until the day of the opening to complete. One last minute run down to the photocopy centre and then back home to pick up Joanne and Devon and I arrived at the library with 43 seconds to spare! Wheewwww!!!

I made just twenty prints of this ‘mini poster’ and then I numbered and signed each one. I made them to be small souvenirs for any of the Peacebus students who attended the opening reception….

… and several did!!!! The first to arrive were Abbey and Liam with their father. You can see that Abbey was having fun giving Mr. Jim the ‘rabbit ears’!!!!

As you can imagine, Devon and I made it into many photos, but since this part of my story is about those who attended I’m just going to show those photos. I quickly learned that Andor’s father loves babies. Seconds after this photo was taken, he was playing with Devon on the play mats that I had brought into this room.

It was very nice having many moments to chat with the students and their parents outside of the school yard and bus stops. I see Justine’s parents almost every morning and usually we just have a few seconds to exchange some fun words, so it was nice to be able to have an actual conversation.

It was hard to remember to take photos of everyone who attended. Although the atmosphere was relaxed, there was always a lot going on.

I was really happy to see that Carrie had come to visit with her mom and her son Jakob - who I’ve known since only a few hours after his birth!

Even my real estate agent Bud (there’s no Bud wiser!!!!) made a huge effort to be a part of this days happenings. He had spent the afternoon working in nearby Strathroy and noticing that it was getting near 4:00pm (the end of the opening reception) he quickly wrapped up his business and zoom zoomed his way to London to check out this mural. Thanks Bud!

A great surprise for me was seeing one of my closest friends from high school. Because it was a two hour drive to London, Brenda decided to make a day of it with her daughter Alyssa. They spent the morning at Storybook Gardens and after lunch then arrived at the library to meet my family and see the wall mural. It had been almost 21 years since we last saw each other and I hope we won’t wait another 21 years until we get together again.

There was an interesting surprise waiting for Don, when he surprised me with his visit. It seems that there were many surprises for many people during this two hour long event!!!! Don’s surprise was seeing his picture in this wall mural!

Two summers ago, I had arranged to use the Peacebus to transport (for free) people from across London to a local organic blueberry farm. Photos from that event made it into this mural and since Don also attended the ‘Blueberry Daze’ he is now a part of the story.

http://www.bitsandpeaces08.blogspot.ca/2010/08/blueberry-daze-continued.html

This is Grace. She is one of the many people who I see when I’m working at my second job. My second job is driving mini-buses around town, helping people with mobility problems. Sometimes my passengers are going to doctor’s appointments and sometimes my passengers are visiting local libraries to see art mural installations!

All in all, it was a great event!!!! It would be hard for me to plan anything better – even if I could. All the smiles and silly jokes, rabbit ears and crying babies, hugs and memories shared made this an afternoon I will cherish for the rest of my life!! Thanks to all for sharing these moments with me!

Since then (and this event only happened a week ago) I have received emails and posts on my Facebook pages by other parents and students who have also gone to view this mural. Even some fellow bus drivers have made it down to the library for a look-see.

If you would like to pop in to check it out, it will be on display at the Cherryhill Library until the end of July, before it continues its tour through three other London Libraries over the next six months.

If you decide to go I will make just one simple suggestion… be prepared to smile!

Mr. Jim

I’m Not The Only One – Part I

To say that the last few years of my life as an elementary school bus driver have been interesting would be a grand understatement. The stories, songs and artworks that the students of The Peacebus have shared with me have filled me with the most positive of assurances that these ‘Future Leaders of the World’ will grow to respect our Earth and all of the lifeforces that abound here in ways that I can’t even begin to imagine.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GD7j_STtc_8

About two years ago, I began to wonder what I would do with the hundreds and hundreds of peace art drawings that these students are continuously creating. An idea began to form, in the back of my mind, and since then I’ve spent much time developing this idea. My plan was to create a large mosiac mural, using all of these artworks.

Since I knew that this mural would be a very unique art creation, I thought that it would be a great plan to be able to share this with the community. I began to organize a small art tour throughout the libraries, here in London, Ontario.

The construction of this mural began five months ago. Wood panels were cut and primed, wood supports were fastened and eye-hooks were mounted so that the panels for this mural could be easily hung from a wall.

The inspiration for my art concept came from John Lennon’s song entitled “Imagine”. The lyrics from this song are very inspirational and found myself being drawn to one line in particular: “You may say ‘I’m a dreamer’, but I’m not the only one”.

I wanted to create an art mural that would show John (rest his soul) that indeed he was not the only one to have dreams about ‘Peace on Earth’ – the children of today (40 years after this song was written) also have thoughts and desires to realize humanities destiny to bring peace and balance back to our global civilization.

The mural concept focuses on just five words from this song – I’M NOT THE ONLY ONE. Since there are five words in this expression my mural is designed using five separate panels – one word is found in each of the five panels. The students’ artworks will be used to create these words in large capital letters.

Since all of these artworks were created to decorate The Peacebus, it seemed obvious to me that the background image – filling the rest of these mural panels – should be of The Peacebus.

I decided to paint the image of The Peacebus in many shades and tones of grey. I figured that this would make a nice background.

I really want the students’ artworks to stand out, so they’ve been printed using full colour which, when set upon the grey background, really sparkle with life.

Early on, I realized that I wanted to do a little more than simply showcase all of the individual artworks that the students have created. I decided to highlight many of the art adventures that we’ve had, as well.

Part of the first mural panel, tells the story about how Peacebus buttons were created with the generous donation by a Peacebus fan.

http://www.bitsandpeaces08.blogspot.ca/2010/07/buttons-for-bus.html

Another panel shares the story about how I shaved my head to raise money for the children of Kenya.

http://www.bitsandpeaces08.blogspot.ca/2012/05/mr-jim-goes-bald.html

Another panel shares the Earthday adventures where students joined me at a local park area to help plant trees and learn about birds of prey.

http://www.bitsandpeaces08.blogspot.ca/2012/04/mr-jim-celebrates-earthday-2012.html

And so on! In the end this mural will become more of a history of the students and my adventures over the last several years.

I’ve also been taking many photos of the mural’s creation – right from the beginning where I spent time priming the wood panels that are being used. The photos in this blog story have been grouped into sets of three – highlighting each of the stages. Many more photos have been taken and my plan is to create a fun animation film that I will be sharing in another several months, once it has been finished.

To conclude this story, I’m going to leave you will the promotional flyer that I’ve recently created to invite the community to the opening reception and the art tour that is to follow.

The opening reception is taking place at the Cherryhill Library on Saturday, June 16th, 2-4pm.  Please, consider yourselves ‘invited’ and I’ll hope to see you in a couple of weeks!

Jim

Mr. Jim Goes Bald!

A short while ago, a fun event happened on The Peacebus! Afterwards, the principal Mme. Cooke-Sawyer, asked me to ask one of the older students to write a story about the event for the school newspaper. I smiled greatly! “The students will think this is wonderful!” I told her.
Instead of asking one of the older students, I had anther plan. A talented artist and writer named Ava has been sharing with me her many creative artworks and stories, throughout this entire school year, and I was (still am) so impressed that I immediately thought to ask her. Ava smiled greatly!

I became her editor and advisor and I taught her how to interview another student. Her first draft was brilliant and needed little editing. I will share the final copy in a quick moment.

I just want to take another moment to add that this is the first time in “The Blog”s history that I’ve had a ‘guest writer’ – so this is indeed a special moment!!! Ava is a student in Grade 4. Please enjoy…

Mr. Jim Goes Bald!

Our school has been supporting children with special needs in North Maragoli, Kenya, for a number of years now. First, we helped build a school from fundraising events at Jeanne Sauve. We sell food, drinks and sock monkeys. We do fun activities and have raffles.

Now that the school is built, every year we help it to stay open by having a Dance-A-Thon. Plus, Scotia Bank doubles how much we raise so, “Thank you Scotia Bank!”

Every summer, our Grade One teacher, Mme. Bourassa goes to Kenya. She uses the money that our school raises to set up educational programs and buy school supplies for the children in that area.

This year, 2012, Mr. Jim (the most peaceful bus driver you’ll know) decided that he wanted to help out. So he thought to himself, “How can I help?”

He had a chat with Mme. B (which is what we call her) and asked if she thought if he would look good bald?! Mme. B thought that the students would definitely want to see him go bald. Mr. Jim wanted to challenge his students to raise $100.00 and if we did he would shave his head!

When he told the students who ride The Peacebus about his plan, they all cheered in excitement. We only had five days to raise $100.00, once the plan was in motion.

At first, we thought it was too much money to raise in such a short amount of time, but Mr. Jim kept encouraging us. He put reminder posters all over the bus so we wouldn’t forget.

To keep things interesting, everyone who donated got to enter a draw for one of Mr. Jim’s peaces of artwork. A Grade 5 student, Justine Jongepier, won a copy print of a painting that Mr. Jim created with the help of several students when he visited Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, in 2006.

Grade 4 student, Hayden Thomson, is happy about helping out. “It makes me feel like we really helped the people in Kenya and some of them now get to go to school.”

“Mr. Jim set a goal to raise $100.00 and he raised more. In fact, Mr. Jim has raised over $300.00!” Hayden smiles. I asked Hayden if he thought it was good to help people who he’s never met before and he shook his head, “Yes!” When I asked, “Why?” he paused and then said, “Imagine your life in their shoes.”

Mr. Jim also had a little help from some of his Facebook friends. Friends from England, USA and Nova Scotia donated money. His real estate agent wanted him to go bald, too, so he gave him $10.00

One day, he was driving as a substitute driver for a different school, when a little boy offered him a toonie (because he saw a poster). Mr. Jim said, “No thanks, I don’t accept tips.” Then a teacher from that other school told him, “He wasn’t giving you a tip, he was giving you a toonie to shave your head,” and she handed it back to Mr. Jim. So, he made two dollars from a stranger!

In the end, we raised over $420.00!!!!!

This is way more than we expected. It was time for Mr. Jim to make an appointment with his barber.

When the barber heard that it was for a good cause, he received a $60.00 hair cut free of charge! Give to others and people give to you.

Now, the next time you see Mr. Jim you will see the results. A peace sea turtle with some ocean waves are all that remain of his hair, which is shaved onto the back of his head. Mr. Jim loves turtles and he thinks that they are very important.

He also thinks it’s important to help others and he is glad that his friends and Jeanne Sauve students were able to help so many children in faraway Kenya.

Peace out!!

Ava

A Stitch In Time

(The video is ready!!!)

A little over a half a year ago, I posted a blog story about how…

… this peace of artwork came into being.

http://bitsandpeaces08.blogspot.ca/2011/12/stitch-in-time.html

I mentioned that I was in the process of creating an animation film showing the evolution of this artwork and that I hoped to soon be posting this video onto my youtube account.

Well!!!! We wait no longer!!!

I could write a detailed account of how the video came together, sharing some of the ideas that were used to create this video… but I won’t. I’ll simply let the video speak for itself!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFeQrOff8cc

I hope that you enjoy this short musical and artistic expression and that you feel inspired to help me promote this by sharing it with your friends.

Jim

Mr. Jim Celebrates Earthday 2012…

… with students from The Peacebus!

Earthday is one of my mostest favouritest days of the year! I love using my minds eye to see the millions of people from around the world celebrating the life energies of this ol’ great planet that we all share!! If the Earth could, I’m sure that she would send out a glorious ‘THANKS!’ to all those who cleaned up litter from parks, roadsides and river edges and those who planted trees, shrubs and bushes in parks.



To get to the Earthday event that I invited all of you – my readers – and my Peacebus students to, I hopped on a city bus. I live near Springbank Park and at this time of year so many colourful blossoms decorate the many trees along the roadside.


 I got dropped off downtown and continued my way to Watson Park via my feet, which was just a short 15 walk away. As I crossed over the Wellington Street Bridge I noticed that I was following and being followed by large groups of parents with their children. There were many in attendance and I thought that was just great!



It was still early – the opening speeches hadn’t even started yet – and people were already busying themselves with shovels.



To take this photo, I stood in an area that was planted last year. You can see that the trees are doing very well, with their leaves just starting to grow for this year. The areas that get planted are left to grow as Nature intended. The grasses and weeds and wildflowers fill the area and the Park’s maintenance crews let the long grasses grow. Each year less and less area is mowed and this means that less and less fossil fuels are burned in the mowing machines.

The trees that we plant are all indigenous to this region of Southern Ontario. Some coniferous species are planted, small shrub bushes like Dogwood and really tall trees – like this one – really help to completely fill in these areas. Just imagine how beautiful this whole area will look in another 20-30 years!!!!!


This (for now… soon to grow…) cedar is one of the trees that I planted last year. I always like to see if I can find the trees that I’ve planted in this space over the last several years.


In this photo we see London’s famous town crier Bill Paul – our M/C for the day, along with Steve Sauders – Mr. Earthday Canada himself inspiring the crowd with some uplifting words. “The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time to plant a tree is today!” We also heard statements from the politicians seen here.



We all had a chuckle when one of the politicians said that all three of them would join forces in planting a tree, “to show that different levels of our government can actually work together!”

Every so often, I would gaze around the crowd to see if any of The Peacebus students and their parents had arrived. Last year, two students showed up and I was hoping that as many would show up this year. After the first hour had passed I began thinking that I might not see any of my students, but then, from a distance, I heard, “Hey Mr. Jim! Hey Mr. Jim!” and I turned to see two face painted students running towards me!!!!!

A few minutes later, I noticed another student already busy with his father planting several trees. Another quick moment later, I heard my name being shouted across the area as another student arrived. By the end of the day seven Peacebus students had shown up, bringing with them another twelve adults and so I was happy to realize that I had inspired 19 people to attend and plant trees on this amazing afternoon!!!

Over this last week, I’ve been collecting photos from the students’ parents, of the students who attended. I spent a while this morning designing this….



… poster that I’m going to make copies of to share with these students - a very personal souvenir to remember this day by!

I hope that your Earthday adventures were as educational and inspirational as the one that I participated in and on behalf of Mother Earth I extend unto you a soulful and heartfelt ‘Thank You!’

Mr. Jim