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

Old Debts

This has been a very different year, for me, compared to the many previous. Being the owner of a new (old) home has meant that I’ve spent more of my time…

…doing repairs and…

…building lots of new gardens for flowers and veggies. These activities have kept my paintbrushes out of my hands, but I still found a bit of time to be creative.

I began the New Year by starting a huge mural in my living room.

It wasn’t finished until nine months later.

Then the new job came along and I found I had no time to paint. My lifestyle had changed very dramatically and for the next few months I focussed on my training courses and adjusting to my new work schedules. I was keeping my eye on the future, knowing that soon enough I would gain a new kind of balance that would allow me to be creative once again.

The christmas holidays were approaching and I knew that my work shifts were going to be cut back a bit as fewer people would be needing the Para-transit service. Finally – a few days to get down and dirty with my paints had arrived!!!

This painting has been almost two years in the waiting. In 2008-09 I was teaching my ‘Art For Earth’ environmental workshops in four of London’s elementary schools. The Ontario Arts Council had provided much of the needed financing for this program, but not as much as I needed. I had requested a small amount of funding to pay for my guest speakers’ time and preparation for these classes. Since I didn’t receive enough funding I had to find a solution.

One of my guest speakers was Denise – seen here on the left side. This photo was taken during my 2004 Art For Earth workshops where Denise and I both volunteered our time to teach London’s youth about the importance of protecting our environment for future generations.

Since then, Denise and I have worked together on a number of other related projects and our friendship has grown.

I couldn’t imagine not working with Denise during the 2008-09 classes. Denise is a great speaker, full of lots of knowledge on many subjects. The students learned a lot about grasslands and wetlands and the animals, birds and insects that inhabit these regions. Denise would teach them important lessons about these unique environments and then I would take over and teach them important lessons about how to be a great painter!

We made a deal. I told Denise that I would create a unique and original painting, just for her, in lieu of a cash payment for her involvement in my classes. She quickly agreed. So, this painting, my final art creation for 2010, is for Denise!

I decided to create an image using mosaic rendering techniques- using a grid. This would create a final image that would be interesting and slightly abstract – my favourite kinds of paintings to create! Instead of simply filling each small square with it’s corresponding colour, I used another technique that I teach quite often in my classes.

When I teach art classes, my greatest focus is on teaching ways to create interesting textures. I often share how textures are created by painting individual lines – be them straight or wiggly – while leaving spaces in between. Once these lines have dried, the spaces in between can then be filled in. It’s that simple!

By painting one line, letting it dry and then painting another line right beside the first one, small hills and valleys are created by the paints. These hills and valleys create the texture.

My furry friends always like to inspect my work. Whenever I’m in my art room doing something it doesn’t take long before Koly’s lying on the floor sleeping, Guido’s curled up in a nearby chair with Elly sitting on or near the work that I’m doing. I love the company!

So… this is what I mean my texture. You can see hills and valleys along the edges of each painted line. You may also notice that each colour is actually about three or four different colours, although created using just one colour. In some areas the paint is very thick and the colour is very dark. In other areas there is not as much paint and the white of the canvass shows through slightly, creating another tone of the same colour. In my eyes, this makes for a more interesting image!

From a distance all of these different tones blend together creating a unified colour. By creating textures you make the viewer curious as to how the image was created and they have to get very close to see all of the flavours that the artist added.

And now the painting is finished!!!

It was very easy for me to choose a subject for Denise’s painting. During my art classes, she would tell the students that her favourite insect is the Dragonfly and that her nick-name at work is also Dragonfly.

I’ll be getting together with Denise, sometime soon in the New Year of 2011 to present her with this painting. I’m sure that she will love it!

I really enjoyed working on this creation, knowing that it will be appreciated and knowing that – although it has taken me longer than I originally thought – an old debt to a good friend has finally been paid.

Wishing everyone a most creative and enlightening 2011!!! And let's always remember that 'Everyday is Earthday'.

Jim

Why I Love My Wife – Reason 1 638 925

Joanne and I have been together for almost fifteen years. There has never been a dull moment. Jo’ is my best friend and I always look forward to spending as much time as I can with her. Over the last few weeks, we have had quite a bit of time to enjoy together. With christmas and New Year’s both falling on Thursdays, Joanne has had a few lazy afternoons to share with me.

During this time, I’ve been busy getting everything ready for my art classes that are soon to begin again, so I spend a few hours in my ‘art room’ everyday. Joanne enjoys my busy time by taking Koly for extra long walks, reading or relaxing with a cup of tea. We may not be in the same room at the same time, but it’s nice just to know that Jo’ is still close by.

Like me, Joanne always has to be using her imagination to find ways to be creative. The artist within her has been exploring the medium of food and that suits me just fine!!! I love to eat good food. Now – don’t let me be misunderstood – we both like to prepare nice meals, everyday, but our lives are usually quite busy so having an afternoon to flip through a cookbook is a bit of an extra special treat.

A few days before christmas, Joanne had prepared an amazing beef stew with a few veggies from our garden. Earlier, while she was enjoying her morning tea, she watched a cooking show on TV – we only get four channels so we can’t be too picky – and that resulted in a beer and cheese bread that tasted wonderful with the stew.

A few days before New Year’s, Jo’ was at it again…


This time she had baked a pear tart! She made the crust from scratch, using flour, honey and crushed nuts. The sauce was made from fruits we had picked during the summer and some of my mom’s homemade red currant jam. I approached the tart with a knife, after it came out of the oven and Joanne got really mad at me, “Not ‘til after dinner!” And what a super yummy dinner we had…


Joanne made pizza! Usually, we buy frozen pizza dough from our local bakery, but today Jo’ made the crust from scratch. She lightly fried a ton of veggies, including artichoke hearts and then began to layer the ingredients onto the pizza before the shredded cheese went on.


Finally, it was dinnertime! What can I say, “Super Yum!!!!”


After dinner, I was finally able to sink my teeth into the pear tart, “Super, Super Yum!”

Sometimes the best way to save ‘our environment’ is to fill our hearts and bellies with the gifts that this world provides for us for free – plus a little hard work!

Jim

Canada Day Weekend 2007

While I was online, yesterday, on my facebook pages, a ‘chat’ box opened and I found myself talking with someone from North Africa. I talked a bit about the snow that we’ve been getting recently and my fb friend talked about how she has never seen snow, in person. Our conversation made me realize how much I’m missing the daylight and the warmth of the summer season so I thought I would dedicate today’s blog to my memories of a camping trip, from 2007.

Joanne, Koly and I spent an amazing weekend with our friends Jim and Audrey. Jim and I have known each other since kindergarten. Jim has a twin brother, Ken and the two of them have been my best friends since our youth. Many people tell me how lucky I am to have such a strong relationship for so long and they are right!

Jim had just bought a small piece of property in Northern Ontario – not as far north as Temagami and not as far east as Algonquin Park – and we decided to go for a visit during the holiday weekend. Most of the property extended high up into the forested hills that surrounded a small, flat grassy area at the base of the hill. It was perfect for this party of four and a dog.


The sky was overcast with a light drizzle coming down, so we put up our tents immediately upon our arrival.


As with any camping trip, the next most important thing to do was to get a fire started. Jim and I decided to go for a short walk down the sideroad to gather some more fallen branches that were easy pickin’ along the ditches. A small commotion of birds flew past and attracted our attention. We both looked up. A bit stunned, Jim and I looked at each other in amazement and then back up to the sky.

Never before had either of us ever seen a rainbow directly overhead. I would have thought that it was impossible, but there it was – or I should say - there they were. Not only did we see one, but there was another, bigger one in the sky as well. There’s more – there was a third rainbow in the sky, too. This third rainbow was upside-down and backwards to the other two with it’s end almost touching the end of the first rainbow.

Jim and I discussed how this could be a reality. We talked for several minutes with our necks bent backwards gazing at this wonder, trying to figure out how this phenomena could exist. Joanne and Audrey were a bit disappointed that they hadn’t noticed these rainbows, but more were about to appear.


The other rainbows that we saw, this afternoon, were the ‘normal’ ones that we were used to seeing throughout our lives. Although this photo is not very clear – the colours that we saw were very intense and bright. This rainbow also had a second ring of colour and the contrasts of the colours of the sky between these two rings was very interesting. If you look closely at the above photo you will notice that the rainbow makes contact with the Earth in front of the hills in the distance. After all of these occurrences we all concluded that this was a very special place for our camping trip.


Soon after, Jim and I had to find more wood for our fire. It would be dark within the next hour and we didn’t want to have to walk through the tall wet grass searching for wood after the sun had set. We found several half-rotted logs from trees that had fallen down many years before. Jim and I had to prop up the logs and jump up and down on them to break them into smaller lengths. Everyone who sees this photo says that it looks like Jim and I are dancing a jig.

One of the things that I am famous for, on any camping trip, are the dinners that I like to prepare. While everyone relaxed by the fire, I made myself very busy getting everything ready. My specialty is potatoes. I place a sheet of tinfoil on the table and drizzle it lightly with vegetable oil. Then I begin to layer the thinly sliced potato rounds onto the foil. I mix in onion and I think we had asparagus on this trip, too. Each layer gets a sprinkling of salt and pepper and another thin drizzle of oil. I usually build this up to three layers. I cover it all with more foil and it’s ready for the fire. My potatoes do not get cooked above the flames, but below. I used a shovel to dig a small hole into one side of the fire pit and I place the foiled potatoes into a wire cage before they go into the hole. Hot coals are placed on top the potatoes and 40 minutes later they are done.


Jim had brought a cooking rack that fit perfectly over the fire and soon we had mushrooms, zucchini slices, green pepper and chicken wings to add to our feast.


As the stars began to appear, we settled around the fire, telling stories and catching up on old times.


The next day, we decided to stop in the nearby town before continuing on to a lake that Jim wanted to take us to. It was Canada Day and there were lots of things going on. We all had a laugh when we saw this giant banana greeting customers at the local grocery store.


Unfortunately, this is the only photo with Audrey in it, since she was the one taking most of the photos this weekend.


Jim and Audrey were the first one’s to take the canoe out for a relaxing paddle along the shore.

While they were on the lake, Joanne and I took turns relaxing in a hammock.


I had a bit of fun playing around with this photo of Jim in his canoe.


Jim and Audrey had canoed to the place where a small river was feeding into the lake. Much of this area was filled with fields of lilly pads and other aquatic plants.


Then, it was Jim’s turn to have a little afternoon snooze.


Joanne and I had our turn in the canoe, though we didn’t go to far away from shore cuz Koly decided to swim along beside us and we didn’t want him getting too tired.

We filled the rest our stay with more beer drinking, frisbee throwing, swimming and yummy food cooked over a warm fire.

Thanks Jim and Audrey for being such good friends and for sharing wonderful weekends with Joanne and me.

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Well, that story made me forget about the snow for a few minutes… I hope it did the same for you.

Jim