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

What Is Love? – continues

My goodness – I’ve been working on this art project since the middle of February, and finally, the end is in sight. I may just have this painting done by the end of this month. I’m going to continue this story where I left off, so please follow this link ( ) if you’d like to read about the history behind this project.

When we last saw this painting, I had just completed the first part of my poem…


The rest of the poem goes like this -

IT IGNIGHTS
EXPANDS
INNERLIGHT

I told how that since the poem refers to ‘ignition’ that I thought it would be funny to create a ‘love bomb’ at the bottom of the painting that will ignite, then expand, to fill the rest of the image until the portrait of my wife is complete. You can see the beginning of the bomb taking shape.


Now, the bomb is complete with a heart shape (that I spontaneously thought of) and its fuse.


As soon as the word ‘IGNIGHT’ was completed, the fuse was lit. I’ve tried to create the illusion of sparks flying off the fuse line.


As each following word in the poem is completed the lit fuse gets closer to the bomb.


Now, the poem is complete, the fuse is completely lit and the bomb is about to explode.

Whew! I’m one tired painting dude!!! It took me three weeks to complete these last four photographs. Since the explosion, that is about to take place, is just that – an explosion, I will be filling in the rest of this canvas rather quickly. I’m thinking that it will take four more frames to finish this peace of art. This next phase is going to be the most exciting for me, cuz I will finally get to see the fruits of my diligent labours!

Jim

What Is Love – Continues

This is an art project that I started in February of this year. I hope to have it finished within the next six weeks – fingers crossed! I wanted to talk about one aspect of this project, that I haven’t mentioned previously, but first, let’s get everyone up to date…


I am ‘sort-of’ creating an animation film of the process used in completing this 24” x 30” canvas. This is the first frame of the animation – thus it is blank except for my construction lines.


This is what the canvas looked like, after eight frames of animation were finished. Between each frame of animation I ‘sprinkle’ the canvas with seemingly random dots of colour, then I take a photo and then I continue to ‘sprinkle’ paint.


These seemingly random dots of colour are actually placed in certain areas of the canvas to spell words.


This photo is the newest one and the first part of my poem has been completed.

Very shortly, the poem will read:

LOVE
IS A WORLD
FULL OF
HAPPINESS
FOR DELIGHT!
IT IGNIGHTS
EXPANDS
INNERLIGHT

Now, some of you may have noticed that I spelled the word ‘ignites’ improperly. The reason for that is simple – I wanted to spell it that way!

Because of the words ‘ignights’ and ‘expands’ I thought that it would be fun to create a ‘love bomb’ at the bottom of the painting that will ignite and then expand to fill the entire canvas until the painting is complete.

The final image will be a portrait of my beautiful wife, Joanne. You can notice that the bits of paint on the left side of the canvas are dark shades of paint while the bits near the middle and to the right of the canvas are lighter shades. This is very clear when you look at the ‘bomb’. The dark shades are Joanne’s hair and the lighter shades are Joanne’s skin.


This is a close-up of the letter 'E' in the word ‘LOVE’. You can notice that the ‘bits’ of paint that I ‘sprinkled’ across the canvas are actually in the shapes of the letters used to spell this word.

When I was designing this painting I had to figure out what all of the thousands of ‘bits’ would be. At first, I was going to make them little boxes (as I’ve done with the border). Then I realized that when the painting was complete that there would be no evidence to show that I had created a poem during the process.


By using the letters to spell each of the words in the poem, I solved this issue. Now, when the painting is complete, the words of the poem will still be a part of the final painting.

I still have a lot of work ahead on me…

Jim

What Is Love – Continued

Since February of this year, I’ve been working on a very special art project. I’ve shared a few stories with you already, but for those first time readers – let’s have a quick recap…


I’ve created an art project that is being completed using animation techniques.


This means that I paint only a little bit of the canvas, then I take a photo before I paint a bit more and take another photo.


As the painting progresses we can see that I am also placing the bits of paint in certain locations on the canvas so that I can write words.


All these words will eventually create the poem entitled ‘What Is Love?’

The photos, above, show just four of the thirty animation frames that have been created. This has taken me nearly three months to get this far. Two weeks ago, I began to run into some problems…

As you can imagine, one challenge that I’m facing is keeping my paints from drying up. When I began this project, I was adding a bit of water to each colour about once every two weeks. Last month I had to add water to the paints every ten days. Two weeks ago, one of my colours did dry up and I realized that I would have to speed up this process…


This photo is just four frames more than the other one (above) and you may be able to notice that I’ve tripled the amount of bits that I’m painting. I also began to fill in the border more rapidly by creating growing lines of colour.

Just four days ago, another colour of paint dried up on me. If I continued at even this accelerated pace, I would surely be losing even more colours so I had to find a solution.

My solution is to try to complete this painting as quickly as possible – no holds barred! This means that the animation film that I was hoping to create is no longer possible. The amount of paint that I now have to apply is so great that any animated rhythm of motion that I was trying to create is no longer possible. But I won’t let that get me down…

The most significant point about this painting is simply the idea behind it. Yes – it’s a cool idea to create an animation film of this painting’s progress. Yes – it’s a cool idea to place the bits of paint onto the canvas to write a poem. Yes – it’s totally cool that the end result is to be a portrait of my beautiful wife. I have successfully brought these ideas to life, so I am happy. The fact that I will have to finish this canvas within the next six weeks, thus losing the rhythms that I wanted to create is just how life goes…

Life is about learning and I’ve learned a lot through this process. It doesn’t bother me that I was unable to fully realize these ideas. Instead I feel great for having brought these ideas to life in the first place. Maybe in the future I will attempt another project like this, but I will prepare for it differently – having learned what to do and what not to do from this project.


This is frame #33


This is frame #34.

If I had no problems with my paints drying up there would have been close to fifteen frames separating these two images, so you can see how much more work I’m putting into each frame. By frame #40 the entire poem will be written and the entire border will be complete… then I can fill in the rest of the canvas to reveal my wife’s portrait.

I imagine I may have other complications arising while I work to complete this project, so I would like all of you to send my a little ‘luck’ for my fruition.

Thanking you all in advance,

Jim

What Is Love – continues…

This is a story that will take many more months to tell. It is the story of a canvas painting that began last month. To learn about the inspiration and ideas behind this animated art project - http://bitsandpeaces08.blogspot.com/2009/03/what-is-love-continues.html.


This is where we left off. We can see the first word ‘LOVE’ is just starting to become recognizable. Over the last two weeks, I’ve been very busy with my new job and I’ve had little time to work on the painting.


But I’ve been able to put in an hour here and an hour there.


Now, the word ‘LOVE’ is complete and I can start to focus on painting the words for the second line in my poem. If you look closely, you may just be able to guess at what these words will be.

Peace out – eh!

Jim

What Is Love – Continues…

A week or so ago, I shared a story and pictures about my newest art project. I’m creating a painting that will eventually be a portrait of my wife, Joanne. The progress of this painting will be very slow because I am only applying small bits of paint at one time. After each ‘phase’ of painting is complete, I take a photo of the whole canvas, before I continue to the next phase. In the end I will have taken many hundreds of photos – each photo sees a few more bits of paint being applied. I will be able to sequence all of these photos to create an animation film of the painting being created.

If this seems difficult in itself, I will have to agree, but I’ve made it even more challenging…

As I’m applying these small bits of paint I am also – very slowly – going to be spelling words that will eventually create a poem – within the painting. This is where I will stop with the telling of my plan (cuz it does get even more complicated) to show you what I mean.

One of the reasons why I’m ‘going over this again’ is because one of my blog readers made a funny comment when I first explained this process. He said that the project sounded very ambitious, but he had no clue what I was talking about! LOL!!!

So, here we go….


First, I start with a blank canvas (except for my construction guidelines).


Then a few bits of paint are added.


Then a few more bits of paint are added.


After the first two weeks – and about 8 photos later – you can see a ‘gathering’ of small bits near the top of the canvas.


After another week has gone by, I managed to take another 7 photos, which brings us to where I am now. The first word in my poem is beginning to take shape – LOVE.

As the next several months go by, I will continue to add more bits of paint in this seemingly random fashion until the whole poem is clear and visible. Then I’ll explain the next phase of this project. For now, I just wanted a chance to explain this process again so that everyone has an understanding of what the heck is goin’ on! LOL!!!

Until again…

Jim

What Is Love – An Animated Painting

A few weeks ago, I shared a story about a poem that I wrote on the side of a building to help raise awareness about community safety - http://bitsandpeaces08.blogspot.com/2009/01/finding-happiness-in-unexpected.html .

While I was writing that story I remembered an idea that was born at the same time as the poem – way back in the spring of 2001.

Every few years I create a peace of art especially for the woman that I love – my wife Joanne. In 2001, I was thinking about painting another portrait of Jo’. What I wanted to do was to create an image made out of hundreds and even thousands of small segments. The painting would be created by painting only a few of these segments at a time. After every 15-20 little segments I would take a photo of the canvas. Throughout the course of completing this painting hundreds of photos would be taken. In the end I would then create an animation film of the painting be created.

Most people that I’ve shared this idea with were amazed that I would spend that much time creating just one painting… but there’s more to this idea – like “How does the poem fit into this picture?”

First – just imagine a blank canvas, then imagine it with 20 random segments painted, and then 20 more and so on. You will understand that the animation film will look like a ‘sprinkling’ of small bits as the painting is being born. Now, imagine that some of these seemingly random placed segments are not so random. Now, remember the poem…

LOVE
IS A WORLD
FULL OF
HAPPINESS
FOR DELIGHT
IT IGNIGHTS
EXPANDS
INNERLIGHT

So… as the 20 random segments are painted in, very slowly these segments will begin to form the words of the poem. Once the poem has been completed, something really neat happens. Because the poem refers to love being ‘ignited’ (Yes – I realize that I’ve changed the spelling to ‘ignight’ for my poem) there will be an explosion. During the explosion of love – the remaining segments on the canvas become filled in – until the words of the poem disappear and the completed portrait of my wife appears.

This all sounds very wild and fancy - I’m sure that you’ll agree that this is indeed a unique idea. I’ve often thought about it – through the years – and now it’s becoming a reality. While I was writing my blog entry – telling the story of how I painted the poem on the side of an old building – my mind began to churn. I thought, “It’s been three years since I’ve painted a portrait of Joanne and this ‘animated/poem’ idea should finally come to life.”

Just last week I bought the canvas and began to prepare it…


It took many hours of measuring and laying out my grid – to create each of the ‘segments’

Then, I had to layout the words of the poem, onto the canvas. The original poem had to be slightly modified to fit onto this canvas. Once it was laid out, I noticed that I had a bit of space at the bottom. So I drew a bomb. I figured that since there was going to be an explosion that I should have a bomb of love to explode. I laughed when I envisioned the final animation film – designing is by far the most enjoyable part of any project.

After that, it’s all work…


These are just a few of the photos that I’ve taken, so far, in preparation for creating the animation film. As you can see, I have far yet to go…

Over the course of the next few months, I’ll share a few more blog entries with you about this project. You’ll have to make me one promise tho’ – you can’t tell my wife… this is a secret project and I want to surprise her with it for our anniversary this summer.

Jim