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

Peaceflowers From Around The World – Story III

Before I get into all that peaceflower stuff, I wanted to share a quick story about a peace of my art that has traveled half way around the world.


I like to give my art away to friendly people – as well as many strangers – and a few months ago I had mailed a print (of the above art) to a Facebook friend from Malaysia. Jenn Chong is a very kind and wonderful person. She is very active in many groups that try to find solutions to many hurtful problems facing many people. I was glad to send her this print to say ‘Thanks!’ for a job(s) well done/doing…


Jenn made a small photoalbum on Facebook to share my art with her friends. I thought that this was pretty neat and her friends have been leaving positive comments.


She took my artwork to this Malaysian landmark for a little visit – LOL!!!

Thanks, Jenn! I’m glad that you are liking the art – and all the other fun things – that I sent to you.

Now… on with the ‘Peaceflowers From Around The World’........

I’m very excited to say that in the last three weeks I have received nineteen peaceflowers from different places around this sexy globe of ours. That averages out to about one peaceflower every day and a quarter. That’s pretty darned impressive and I’m very grateful for all the support that this project has received from you!

Without a lot of words… let’s get to the art –


This artwork was created by a high school friend of mine – I mean… her two kids! Because of Facebook, Reema and I reconnected after the many years since high school. I now know that she also lives in London and I think that she has actually gone to see one of my art exhibits.


Janet Letkeman and I connected through Facebook. While she was drawing her peaceflower for me, her young neighbour came to visit…


… and she wanted to draw a peaceflower, too!!


In 2001-02, while Joanne and I were living in Nelson, British Columbia, I met a guy by the name of Ken. On several occasions I met and chatted with his son, Esha (who was then in high school). Esha is all grown up and he is studying at a university in Japan.


I guess that he has made at least one friend – LOL!


Kathleen and I met through Facebook. She lives in Vancouver, British Columbia and she takes many walks along this part of the beach. That is why she thought that her peaceflower belonged here. I agree, totally!!!!


Mary and I also met through Facebook. I’ve met over eight hundred interesting people on Facebook, in the last year. Most of these types of connections occur because we belong to a certain group. I’m connected to a few ‘peace’, ‘environment’, etc type of groups. I was super delighted to see this peaceflower from Mexico in my ‘inbox’ just last week!

Really and truly, I am being a little bit blown away by all of these artworks being sent to me by people whom I’ve never met (in person) before. I am deeply honoured.


This peace-person-flower (LOL!!!) was sent to me, however, by someone who I do now, very well. Ken and his twin brother, Jim and I have known each other since kindergarten. Ken and Jim are the two whom I’ve kept in best contact with through all the years since high school. We all chat a few times a year and we see each other every two years or so. Just last year, Ken and his wife Laura, had a beautiful baby boy and the celebrated with a wedding ceremony (I wrote a nice blog story last summer, about that event). So… Laura had a few friends over and they were chatting about my art project and since they don’t have sidewalks were they live, they came up with this idea. It took me a few moments to stop laughing when I saw this picture!!!

I’m so glad that everyone is having so much fun with this little ‘global’ art project. Thanks, so much, to everyone – for participating and sharing so many smiles…

If you would like to add your peaceflower to this collection simply email the photos to me at peacefulwarrior333@hotmail.com and let me know your name, city, province/state and country where your art was created.

Jim

PS – This will be my last blog entry for about twelve days, as Jo’ and I (and all the pets) are taking a little time off to enjoy some solitude. My first ‘holiday’ in over two years… I’m very excited!

Overwhelmed With Peace!!!

One of the things that I love about being an elementary school bus driver is…. well… everything – LOL!!! I have a lot of fun with all of these students.

We play twenty question games and trivial pursuit and occasionally the bus will break out into “The Wheels On The Bus Go Round And Round” song. When the song gets to “The horn on the bus goes beep, beep, beep”, I’ll (if we’re not on a major road where I could confuse another driver – Safety always first ya know!) beep my horn along with them and they’ll all laugh ‘til I’m deaf!

Of course, I occasionally give them all one of my peace stik-ers and other times I’ve found fun ways to give out some of my prints. Since it was nearing the end of the school year, I decided that I wanted to give out one print to each student. This time, however, they would have to earn it… I had a ‘peace’ assignment in mind.

I told the busload that they could create a poem about peace or draw a picture of peace. I asked them to print their name and age on the bottom, hand it to me, and I would give them some stik-ers and one print. They had until the end of the school year to do this – I was well aware that they had many other school assignments and rehearsals to keep busy with – which was about seven days.

The next day, the first poem was handed in. The next day, three poems and one drawing fell upon my lap. By the end, I was being swamped with handfuls of pages of poems and artwork. I was amazed with each student’s achievement and I delighted in sharing these arts with many fellow workers and Joanne, in the evenings. Here’s a sampling…

Vanessa, age 13

Peace

War doesn’t bring peace!
Helping people in need gives everyone peace.
Recycling pop cans and other materials causes peace.
Carpooling everyday adds peace.

I’ve talked a little bit – here and there – about how the world’s environment needs help to heal itself from all the pollution we’ve created and that by working together we will make a better future for everyone. It seems that someone was listening. I smile!


Many of the students decorated their sheet of paper with happy designs of rainbows and flowers…


One little girl, whom I’ve known before she was old enough for kindergarten, heard about my “Peaceflowers From Around The World” art project on Facebook and she decided to draw me a peaceflower to add to my growing collection. In the last three days I’ve received photos of peaceflowers from Mexico and British Columbia… sorry – I’m off topic – LOL!!!

More than one student had decided to help me build more designs for my ‘Stik-man’ stik-er collection. This really impressed me. “How incredibly thoughtful and amazing that they would do this for me”, I thought to myself. Here are two designs…


The students often asked me about aspects of my stik-er designs and one time I told them to look at the peace symbol in the stik-er they were asking about, and notice that it is draw with one continuous line, moving this way and that way, to fill the space. Julia must have noticed this and tried to use this technique in her fun design.


One student chatted with me about how they liked the stik-er where Stik was laying on the beach, enjoying the sunset – in the shape of a peace sign. Emily must have enjoyed seeing Stik relaxing – for a change – so she drew him relaxing on a boat in the ocean, enjoying the peaceful sun. I couldn’t believe it when I saw that she had gone to the extreme lengths to write ‘www.bitsandpeaces.com’ all around the border of her design – just like my stik-ers! She had thought of everything.

Julia also wrote a poem for me…

P is for patience
E motion is E
A ll those words
C ompare peace and me
E verybody who loves peace

I love peace, should it be
S cience at least

F abulous peace, could it be
A ll about love
B est, keep a tree
U nique personality
L illies are beautiful
O ptional is free
U nlikely is evil
S urely peace is fabulous!!!!!!

Cassidy, age 10

Peace

Peace sounds like a little dove flying very slow
Or water coming onto the beach
And it comes to your feet
It feels great!
Peace makes me feel like I am walking
In a forest
And I look at a deer and birds and fish
That’s what peace sounds like to me
What does peace sound like to you Mr. Jim?

Hmmmmm…. I had to think about that for a little while and later that night, I was looking up thro’ the disappearing twilight when I heard the answer…

Peace sounds like the stars
As they are winking into the night
Pointing to our way home.

Peace sounds like the Earth
Underneath my feet
My companion wherever I may roam.

I’m going to finish this story with two poems that really lit up my face. I could tell that these artists really had fun with this assignment…


It always amazes me – tho’ it shouldn’t (by now), yet it always will – when I see brilliant creativity unleashed in such a positive way. When I look through the eyes of these students I am able to realize that the strength and imagination needed to reinvent ourselves as a global civilization is already here.

Jim

ps - Happy Canada Day - tomorrow - everyone!!!!

Something New In Old South

Old South is the name of the area in London, where I live. The Wortley Village is included in this area – I’ve described this unique community before (a few entries ago).

One thing that I’ve enjoyed about this part of the city is that many residences flavour their front yards with varieties of flowers, shrubs and trees. Lately, I’ve been a witness to the fact that this has become a growing interest for more and more residences.


This is my neighbour’s yard and they are in the process of putting in a brand new flower garden. Their lawn area is now half of it’s former size.


Maybe, they were inspired by their next door neighbour, who built this garden just last year.

As people are becoming concerned about the state of our global environment, we are beginning to look for solutions to these problems. We are becoming aware of the positive changes that we can accomplish in the places where we live – our homes.

By planting flower gardens, we are creating a more diverse environment that bugs, spiders, birds and toads can thrive in. These gardens only need to be watered during the first phase of planting. After this time they live on the water that is provided during our rains. Since the size of the grassed area is significantly reduced and sometimes totally eliminated, the use of gasoline powered lawnmowers is no longer required.

If one family can stop using 1000 litres of water and 5-10 litres of gasoline per summer season, by increasing the beauty of their home, imagine the combined conservation of these two resources if an entire community followed suit? That seems to be the growing trend and I applaud these efforts…


Another half a block away from where I live, another front lawn has vanished to be replaced with a flower garden. Even the small area between the street and the sidewalk has been reestablished.


Just down the street, another neighbour is preparing a small flower garden.


And another one…


This lawn has been scraped away and soon this fresh soil will be welcoming the planting of another garden.


Daily, Joanne and I go for walks around our neighbourhood and daily we see another flower garden being created.


This garden was planted last year and now it has doubled is size as the plants have grown stronger. I’ve talked about this type of planting before – where spring flowers are planted around the flowers that will bloom in the summer.


The spring flowers will die but their leaves provide shelter to the soil, stopping weeds from overrunning the garden. This allows the summer plants to grow strong until they are large enough to dominate the insistent weeds.

As I enjoy all the varieties of flowers and shrubs in my neighbour’s gardens I am studying things like colour, size, domination, overgrowth, undergrowth, etc. so that I can make my garden better. I hope that others are learning the same things when they view my flower gardens.

Last year I saw quite a few new gardens being planted. This year, I was watching a bit more closely and I recognized quite a large number of new gardens. If this trend continues to escalate then pretty soon lawnmowers will be found only on playing fields and golf courses. Many tonnes of water will be available for other purposes and let’s not forget the noise factors. We won’t have to hear a thousand lawnmowers chug-a-lugin’ – instead we’ll hear the twirps and tweets of so many more birds as they dance through the air celebrating a new kind of freedom.

Jim

P is for Priority

So… here it is, London’s latest fashion statement. I wonder if this fountain has a name. If it needs a name we could call it “Wasteful Willie’s Water Why”.

Our city counsel members are probably glorying in their justifications for this project as they can say that this project stimulated the economy by employing people. I can see that a catering company received employment, supplying sirloin steaks and lobster tails to all the private meetings that must have taken place. One, maybe two of the largest contracting firms in the area can now continue to make payments on their Hummers or Mercedes Benz.

Does a project like this make Londoner’s feel glad or sad? It would be hard to say that the fountain doesn’t look a bit cool – all the spraying water is nice to watch. It makes the viewer long to cool down on a hot day, but soon the viewer must be reminded that the water of the Thames River is so very polluted, that dipping a toe into the river suddenly becomes ‘out of the question’.


In 2004, when Joanne and I had returned to London, I had taken Koly for a walk along the river footpath. I threw a few sticks into the river for Koly to swim after – one of his favourite things to do. When we got home Jo’ greeted us and then looked shockingly at Koly’s fur. It was uncannily silky and smooth. Jo’ and I figured that the river must be so full of detergents to have this kind of effect on Koly’s fur. This was the last time that we’ve allowed him into the river.

It is quite common to NOT see dogs swimming in the river, anymore, as more and more people are recognizing more and more hazards that threaten us, in our immediate environment. I would think that the money used to construct this fountain could have been spent creating projects that would help clean our river of contaminates, so that maybe one day, people could actually jump in for a refreshing dip. Projects of this nature would employ many more people and educate others in our community.



London’s wildlife would benefit from river rejuvenation projects, as well. The Thames River is home to many species of fish, birds, plants and turtles that are unique to only this part of the world. That makes them pretty darn special, in my book. The Spiny Softshell Turtle is one species that has been on the ‘threatened’ list for many years. If our water pollution continues to increase then this turtle could become ‘endangered’ taking it one step closer to becoming extinct. The future of this species will assuredly be defined within my lifetime.

This fountain represents prosperity and celebration. I feel that it has been placed in the wrong time period. I can’t quite figure out what we should be celebrating, considering that only the city’s elite enjoy the cold comforts of insecure prosperity.

Jim

Peaceflowers From Around The World

A little over a week ago, I wrote a blog about my latest art endeavours… creating peaceflowers of chalk, drawn throughout the city’s sidewalks…


I thought that this would be a fun way to share a simple image intended to make people smile and think of peace. Since this graffiti art is made of chalk, it will wash away with the rain, so it’s quite a harmless venture of expression.

While I was writing that blog, it occurred to me that I could create a photoalbum on my Facebook pages and invite other people to join in my adventure – even you, my blog readers. So I did. Since most of my Facebook friends are people that I’ve never met, from many countries around the world, I thought that it would be really cool to have these peaceflowers drawn in different locations around the world. How many people can I get to join in my first ever global ‘art attack’!!! LOL!

It’s almost been two weeks and here are the art creations that have been sent to me so far…


Three countries have participated – Canada (Cambridge and Barrie), China (an entire class of students) and the USA (Florida and Georgia) – creating a total of eleven peaceflowers! I am so very impressed!!! Many other people have told me that they will be sending me their peaceflowers, very soon, so I’ll have some more art to share with you in the near future.

You can see that this idea is simple to do and its lots of fun. If you would like to contribute to this global effort, just send your photos (tell me your name and where you drew the art – city, province/state and country) to: peacefulwarrior333@hotmail.com.

Let’s have some fun and unite as a global community!!!

Jim