The Faintest Sound
9” x 14”
Acrylic Paint on Board
London, Ontario
March, 2010
Jim Kogelheide
Until
a few years ago, when my parents moved to London to be closer to their
grandson, I used to always look forward to my visits to The Hills of Mulmur,
where I spent my childhood and teenage years growing up. I loved disappearing into a spring forest, to
sit quietly and listen to the flowers growing up through the snow packed leaves
that fell the previous year. Splashing
and sometimes slipping into the cold, clear rivers and small lakes that wind
there way through the hills and valleys is a great way to cool off during the
heat of the summer. However, my
favourite time to visit is the autumn, when the warm winds blow through the
trees echoing the sound of my heartbeat.
Several
years ago, my wife and I were at my parents’ house to enjoy a glorious
Thanksgiving weekend. One afternoon, I
wanted to go for a ‘walk-about’ and my sister, my wife and our dog joined me. Four hours later we returned – quite tired
and ready for a meal. As the sun was
dipping down to meet with the horizon, I got my guitar out and started to pick
away at a new melody that I had been working on. I started to think about our adventure that
afternoon and soon lyrics began spilling over my tongue.
Half an hour later I had completed the song
that I entitled ‘Under A Big Blue Sky’.
Under A Big Blue Sky
It was a beautiful day and
the sun was shining down
We were walking through the
fields under a big blue sky.
Crawling under fences and jumping
over trees
And the leaves came crashing
under a big blue sky.
Under a big blue sky I heard
the faintest sound.
A voice was whispering,
“Change is coming ‘round.”
Ya know the big blue sky
really puts a smile on my face
And it makes me want to sing
for the human race…
It was a beautiful day and
the sun was shining down
We were walking through the
fields under a big blue sky.
Crawling under fences and
jumping over trees
And the leaves came crashing
under a big blue sky.
Under a big blue sky I heard
the faintest sound.
A voice was whispering, “Who
once was lost is found.”
Ya know the big blue sky
really diamonds my soul
And its voice is heard in
the spirit of Rock’N’Roll
This song was written in October of 2009. I didn’t realize it at that time, but just five months later a few of these lyrics would inspire the title of a new painting.
In
the year 2010, all of my close friends and I were celebrating our 40th
birthdays. Several close friends
journeyed to London to celebrate my birthday and throughout this year, I made
several journeys to attend my friends’ birthday parties.
I
spent a lot of my youth hanging out with my friend Dave. His parents have a large piece of land way
out in the country and it was a great place for many of us to hang out and have
a bit of teenage fun. David moved to the
city but he was going to be having his birthday party at his parents’
house. Guests were expected to bring
their tents for a huge camp out, BBQ and bon fire – it was mid-August… perfect
for camping!!
As
I was thinking of a gift for Dave, I suddenly realized that I had yet to give
him one of my original paintings. I give
most of my artwork away, to charities and fundraising events and many of my
close friends have received my art as gifts, throughout the years… but not
Dave. It was time to correct this
situation, so I began to think of ideas for an original painting for him.
I remembered a painting that another life-long friend
from our childhood had asked me to paint for him that I had entitled ‘Murmur Mermer’ and I thought that I’d re-explore that image. I figured that since Dave no longer lives in
The Hills of Mulmur that my painting would allow him to always have a
connection to our shared youth.
So
– I zoomed in on a smaller section of ‘Murmur Mermer’ and then enlarged that to
create the layout for this new painting.
I’ve always enjoyed the texture of my square paint strokes and so I used
the same painting techniques for this artwork.
Several years later, I used the melody from the above mentioned song to complete a video entitled 'Peace-Fire: Thoughts For The New Millennium'.
Jim Kogelheide
2015
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