The Smile

The Smile

12" x 12"

Needle-point

Autumn 2002

Nelson, British Columbia

Jim Kogelheide

In 2001-02 I was living in Nelson, British Columbia working on my Canada: Glorious To Be art project.  While living in this beautiful town I worked as the front desk host and night security guard at the New Grand Hotel.  Carol was one of my co-workers and she loves stickers... especially happy face stickers.

I spent my time at this hotel, creating original artworks for many of the staff.  Since Carol loves happy faces I decided to create this artwork for her.  The interesting thing about this needle-point artwork is that it was created using one continuous line that divides the space into all the shapes that were then filled in with the colours that created the final image.  Yes - I did get very confused on many occasions while working on this!

Years later, I wrote a song with the lyrics 'These dreams of mine, they are stitched in time...' and then I became inspired to create a music video using just these lyrics to showcase this artwork.

I wanted the video to show how this art was created... using a single continuous line to break down the spaces... but all I had to use was the final image.  Using a computer program, I spent many days working backwards, erasing one small bit of the image at a time to create the 100s of images that were used to create the video.

I wanted to have a bit more fun with this video and so, when it begins, you will notice on the wall behind me that there is a poster page with nothing on it.  At the end of the video, we zoom back out from the artwork into the room where I am playing my guitar and you will notice that this same poster page is now filled with 'The Smile' artwork!  I wonder how many viewers noticed this before I drew their attention to this fun fact?!!

To view 'A Stitch In Time' music video

Signed copies of 'The Smile' are for sale