Toronto+Vancouver City of Labyrinths Project

Yeeeeaaahhhh….

This was kinda weird.

I really did not want to have my picture taken like this, yet I didn’t feel I had any choice.

You might be able to tell that by the look on my face.

Reflecting on it,

This was the perhaps the first time I had a Vancouver experience here in my hometown of Toronto.

In Vancouver I kept silently wondering to myself “What Planet Am I On?” as I had one positive experience after another after another with Vancouver Police Officers.

Vancouver Bicycle Cops would stop and thank me for making Chalk Labyrinths all around VanCity, one even wanted to simply shake my hand, that was at the TaiwanFest on Granville.

Other times, Vancouver Police would LOAN ME TRAFFIC PYLONS and even move them into place and direct traffic around my Labyrinths while in progress and then once completed.

Again, that permanent question “What Planet Am I On?” persisted in me as every time that happened, I had to, almost as a necessary “Must”, contrast my Labyrinth Making encounters between Toronto’s Cops and Vancouver’s.

On this Pedestrian Sunday,

I again asked myself, “What Planet Am I On?” but this time, it was IN Toronto, NOT Vancouver.

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Me Re-Painting the Square Labyrinth, with the Heart in Middle, I first painted onto Augusta Avenue during the May 2023 Pedestrian Sunday in Kensington Market.

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Me smiling with a Little One while Re-Painting & Expanding my Heart Labyrinth on Augusta Avenue during Pedestrian Sunday in Kensington Market…

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Norm Di Pasquale paused by my repainting of the Heart Labyrinth in front of Courage My Love on Kensington Avenue in Kensington Market to say Hi and catch up on things.

Things like, “Ontario Place For All!“, …Austria Place for Some.

 
That’s me in the background sporting my Red Octagon Labyrinth TEE refreshing the right side of the Heart Labyrinth.

“Every month in the Spring,

Summer,

Someone paints a Labyrinth in Grange Park.

Everybody loves it.

Every month,

The City of Toronto wastes resources to wipe it out.

Shame.”

— Massih Moayedi — مسیح مویدی

On Father’s Day,

Sunday June 18 2023…

I RE-Painted the Grange Park Labyrinth.

Again.

Here are a couple of captures from the evening of which were just tweeted…

Canary Yellow colour of the Grange Park Labyrinth looking good through the snow.

As is Hanzo (半藏),

The good boy who’s sitting in the centre . . .

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While [re]painting the Grange Park Labyrinth to remedy its absence from Grange Park over the winter,

I recognized Photojunkie Rannie Turingan as he began his & Cody’s spiralling walk towards the Heart in the Centre.

We hadn’t seen one another in person since before the Pandemic, since before I was living in Vancouver.

Rannie & Cody were officially the first Labyrinth Walkers of the renewed Grange Park Labyrinth.

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“A pleasure to see HïMY SYeD at work on his Labyrinth today at St. Andrew’s Playground.

HïMY has added some much needed ❤️ to the park;

Saw many children enjoying his Labyrinth.

“Urban Acupuncture” as he calls it!”

– Norm Di Pasquale

I had previously outlined a Temporary-Permanent Labyrinth in Red paint and this is still pretty much what it looked like when I arrived Today, the last Sunday Afternoon in July, to properly repaint over the outline using yellow.

The above two photographs, also taken by Norm, were captured on Sunday May 8 2022.

My earlier Labyrinth outline painted in red was okay, it did the job.

By re-painting the Labyrinth using Yellow, and this time properly painting it, not just as an outline, it’s a much better fit with the yellow colours found around the different parts of the playground.

It’s now looks like it was always supposed to be there.

And for first time visitors to St. Andrew’s Playground,

It’s likely they’d feel this Labyrinth was always a part of the Park.

That’s how Norm felt.

He said the park was incomplete until my Labyrinth was added to it.

All the while I was repainting the Labyrinth in Yellow,

Children were hovering around asking their parents if they could walk, which really means running, around the freshly painted and rapidly drying Yellow Labyrinth.

After I answered the first few parents who asked that, “Yes, it’s dry,”, kids quickly began walking and running around and playing in their new Labyrinth.

I was so caught up in conversation with Norm, I forgot to snap photographs of any of the kids playing in it.

But they and their parents were having fun, and that’s what’s in my mind’s eye and memory on this Labyrinth Making afternoon.

Norm confirmed he’s seen people walking the Labyrinth all the time, and that was when it was only outlined in red.

Arrow beside the Heart at The Start points to where you begin your journey into the freshly (Re)Painted St. Andrew’s Playground Labyrinth.

The “Heart” ❤️ of the Labyrinth inside St. Andrew’s Playground in Downtown Toronto.

“…A New Labyrinth,

Mere days after The City powerwashed the previous one off.

Apparently they’re graffiti?

Removing Labyrinths is a dumb thing to spend taxpayer money on.

But thank you @LabyrinthsDOTca

For replacing it so quickly!!”

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Now that Toronto has lost its Grange Park “❤️” Heart Labyrinth, it is time for a new Grange Park Labyrinth…

I wanted to get to (re)painting this earlier, but I waited until Eid Al-Adha, which was yesterday, Saturday, was observed so I wouldn’t be distracted with Religious matters on my mind while I would be Labyrinth Making.

Eid Al-Adha is properly observed for four days, taking us to Tuesday July 12 2022 until sunset, but Saturday was the Eid Prayer day, and today my mind is now freely focused towards making this.

This time,

Rather than free-hand outlining a new Labyrinth Design in chalk, I invested a good number of hours this afternoon carefully measuring, calculating, re-calculating, twice in chalk, before painting it.

I chalked the design one and a half times.

The first time I used yellow chalk and measured widths of 24 inches for each Labyrinth Lane, but the centre was somehow not centred despite my careful calculations.

I stopped and began using my metal tape measure to confirm the actual lengths of the footpath, and for the the first time realized the paver bricks do not line up into what I assumed was a true square canvas space.

Reminded me of how many round Wading Pools in Toronto I assumed were round when they were in reality a kind of slight oval shape.

I was relieved at this discovery.

A minor mystery solved.

Now that I had my Centre of the Labyrinth indeed in the correct Centre location, I had to decide whether to keep the Seven Lane Labyrinth design or start all over using a different chalk colour so as not to confuse myself, for a different Nine Lane Labyrinth design.

Started over using blue chalk for Nine Lanes.

I also carefully measured each Labyrinth Lane width at 18 inches.

And that somehow was exactly enough space, with a Labyrinth centre measured to 36 inches in diameter, to fit comfortably.

It felt as if this was finally the Labyrinth Design that belongs here.

While that feeling was from my heart, my head agreed now that the true centre of the Labyrinth was finally confirmed.

Sunlight through the leaves made it difficult to properly photograph the light and dark tones while I was chalking out the design.

So I didn’t even bother to take more photographs.

I focused on completing the chalk outline.

With afternoon now approaching evening, decision fatigue had kicked in, and I began making mistakes.

I switched to green chalk then red coloured chalk to correct my mistakes made using the blue chalk.

Having done that, I walked the outline perhaps a dozen times, in and out, to make sure I still felt happy with this hopefully Permanent Grange Park Labyrinth design, InshAllah.

Yep, it was almost as good as I could hope, so time to paint !

Chalk twice, paint once.

That’s inaccurate as I usually add more than one coat of paint per Labyrinth Line, but for today, it’s paint once.

As people saw me stop painting the Labyrinth,

A number of them began to walk it . . .

After a short while watching people exploring, experiencing my freshly (re)painted Labyrinth,

I took a break away from Grange Park to visit a number of my other Downtown Toronto Labyrinths to see how much they had faded, and how many of them also needed repainting.

A few.

I returned a little while later right at the moment this little Muslim Girl in her hijab who had been doing laps counter-clockwise around the Grange Park Footpath all afternoon, approached and scootered past my new (re)painted Labyrinth.

The previous Labyrinth in Grange Park was a “❤️” shaped Heart Labyrinth.

The current, and hopefully permanent, Grange Park Labyrinth is Nine Lane Circular design with a “❤️” inviting you to enter it, walk the path, and arrive in the centre, where you will find another “❤️”.

I haven’t made an Eid Labyrinth since before the Pandemic began, and again yesterday on Eid Al-Adha Prayer Day, I still didn’t.

Yet, with the little Muslim Girl in her blue hijab, scootering counter-clockwise all around Grange Park while I was making today’s Labyrinth, it kept reminding me of the Pilgrims in Makkah, the Hajjis, performing Tawaaf around the Holy Kaaba.

Maybe this new Grange Park Labyrinth was technically an Eid Labyrinth after all..?

Eid Al-Adha Mubarak Everybody !

Quite Grateful to see these images and time lapse video.

It shows how ugly it is right now,

because of how much the colours haves faded off my Labyrinth painted on the surface of the wading pool in Christie Pits Park in Toronto.

This suddenly bumps UP which of my Labyrinths will be re-painted first during my semi-regular Labyrinth Maintenance Rounds …

Christie Pits Park will soon gets it Labyrinth back,

Beautiful as ever, and with a slight redesign expansion to 12 Lanes !

As soon as I can find paint roller, enough blue paint, and time.

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The yellow colour of the concentric circles are already beginning to fade.

Do I repaint the fading Labyrinth arcs now or wait until Spring 2021 ?

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#autumnvibes🍁 #parklife #toronto

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My Labyrinth in the Wading Pool in Christie Pits Park will no longer be filled with water this season.

This past weekend,

The Water Pump was shut off officially for this year.

The Wading Pool Labyrinth is now a full time Labyrinth until next Summer.

I usually visit it before and after Wading Pool Season to see what needs to be repainted.

This year,

I visited it once in late July and painted the broken arcs that had white caulking cement pasted over them.

Hopefully I will visit it once more before winter proper arrives to repaint whatever needs refreshing.

The Larger Idea is to paint over my decade-plus old existing Labyrinth design.

I could then paint an entirely NEW Labyrinth Design.

Maybe.

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Cheese Kiddie Pool Days #Kiddiepool #torontoparksandrec

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Baby Sage Crystal Blue Eyes Like The Sea ☀️ #summersdone

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My Little Toddler #TwoYearsold #terribletwos #mybabygirlforever #minimodel

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